Ok, so it has been quite a while since my brioche rant and my promise of getting my Julia Child brioche recipe posted! I finally uploaded the photos onto my computer and instead of doing my essay which is due in two days, I will post this blog :) Yay for procrastination!
It was quite a while since i made the brioche, but i must say, i was EXTREMELY happy with the result. The smell of buttery bread lingered in the house for several days!
I got this recipe from the book 'Baking with Julia' by Julia Child. Again, i could hear Meryl's Streep's Julia voice when i opened up this book to look at the recipe. This recipe is ALOT more time consuming than the other one posted, and has a lot more steps but it is definitely worth it. It is really fluffy and light, but crusty on the outside!
Ingredients: The Sponge:
1/3 warm whole milk (none of this skim milk business!)
2 and 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 large egg
2 x 1 cup unbleached plain flour.
Combine the milk and yeast together and mix well. Once the yeast has disolved, combine the egg and 1 cup of flour. Do not use electric mixer, but use a spatular, or whisk to mix. Once that is done, cover the mixture with the remaining 1 cup of flour so that it is covered.
Leave the bowl uncovered and rest it for around 40 minutes. Somewhere that is preferably warm. Because i made this in winter, i took my bowl upstairs to my room where i had the heater on! Don't worry if the flour starts to crack, this means that the yeast is doing its job!
Now it is time to make the dough!
Ingredients
The Dough:
The Sponge mixture
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs (slightly beaten)
1 and 1/2 cups of unbleached plain flour
180 grams butter
Get the 'Sponge' mixture that you have just created and add the sugar, salt, eggs and 1 cup of flour. Use your electric mixer - with the dough hooks and mix at a low speed. Slowly start mixing in the 1/2 cup of extra flour in. Beat for about 20 minutes. At the end, your dough should be slapping the sides of your bowl and lifting from the sides. If not, just add a litle bit of more flour. The more you mix, the better!
Now, get the butter, and bash it up a little bit. Thats right, just mash it up with a fork, or rolling pin so that it is soft but still a little cold. Now start adding tablespoons of the butter into the dough graudally. The mixture will probably start coming apart. Do not worry! just keep mixing untill it starts slapping the sides again and wrapping around the dough hooks. If it is alittle too wet and is not pulling from the sides of the bowl, add a little bit more flour!
Now move your dough to a large buttered bowl and cover tightly with wrap. Let it rise at room temperature for 2 and 1/2 hours so that it is double its sized. Best to get the biggest bowl possible for this step!
As you can see here, my bowl was evidently not big enough!
After the 2 and half hours, deflate the dough, but using your fingers and lifting the bottom section of the dough and letting it fall back into the bowl. lift and release! Once the air seems to have been deflated, loosly cover up the bowl and stick it in the fridge overnight or for at least 5 hours.
Preheat the oven to 18o degrees .
Once it has been chilled, divide the dough into thirds and roll them up in a ball, and place them in the loaf tin! Over with buttered plastic wrap and rest for another 2 hours.
Brush some eggwash on top and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes, or untill the loaf is golden brown .
Now enjoy your delicious bread! Make french toast, or just warm with jam !
It was my boyfriends birthday just yesterday, and i decided that i would take him on a picnic by the lake. I had a whole menu set out. Cold Chorizo and Balsamic Onion pasta, lemon meringue cupcakes, passionfruit melting moments, potato salad, sandwhiches and drumsticks. I just felt like I was missing some fruit. I found this great and SIMPLE recipe from the Tartelette blog and used different fruit because I didn't have any at home! This recipe makes 3 servings, in fancy glass cups!
