So…Brioche!

The Brioche I made for my Christmas morning “sweet” was another recipe from the “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day” book. I started making the high moisture/no knead breads over a year ago and have been using the formula to make a variation on Portuguese Broa, a Rye and a light whole wheat dough. I use those doughs to make mini boules, English muffins, Naan-type flatbread and pizza crust. I have not purchased bread since I started using this technique.

As Christmas approached…and I had eaten all of the Pecan sweet rolls that my mother sent home with me…I was deciding what to make for my Christmas morning sweet roll… I looked through the “Artisan Bread…” pastry section and didn’t get further than the Almond Bostock Brioche. I had Almond Paste that was fast approaching its expiration date so win-win!

The Brioche dough, like all of the high moisture/no knead doughs is a “dump everything in the bowl, give it a stir and let it sit for a bit” procedure… easy-peasy :)!

Above is the after “give it a stir” photo…

Oh…the complicated step…cover it loosely with wrap…

I put it on this little side table as there is a heater just underneath so it is a warm spot.

Meantime, I get on with my life for 3-4 hours.

Then…scoop the dough into a crock of some sort that can go in the frig. It needs to be NOT air tight. I use a ceramic crock with lid. The brioche dough is a bit different than the “flour/salt/yeast/water” doughs as it has eggs, honey and butter in it and as such, needs to be used within 5 days versus the other doughs that can go 7-10 days. I make a half recipe of all of the doughs and so far manage to use them up in the recommended time frame.

Continuing with the brioche…

To make the almond bostock rolls, I made an almond filling of almond paste, egg, flour and almond extract in my mini-prep food processor (recipe from the cookbook). The photo below shows the finished filling and the last bit of brioche dough that went into this morning’s batch of almond bostock:

The rollup…roll the dough into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Spread the filling within a 1/2 inch of the edge of the rectangle.

After rolling the dough around the filling, the resulting “log” goes in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to make it easier to slice into pieces for rolls.

Sliced log…into a pan thoroughly greased with butter and then sugar sprinkled…add a “crumb topping” of almonds, turbinado sugar and orange zest…

And you end up with gorgeous rolls that taste like bear claws with a bit of orange flavor. They are divine!!

In the background you can see a plain brioche with poppy seeds – cut open.

The plain brioche is a sweet bread with a wonderfully light custardy crumb and a crisp crust – YUM with butter and jam and a cup of strong coffee!

For the chocolate brioche – same procedure as for the almond bostock, except that a chocolate ganache (chocolate and cream) filling was used instead of the almond filling.

Seriously easy and the result is less flaky than a croissant but much flakier than a normal bread dough…a pastry that I enjoyed very much and will enjoy now and again and again!

I love rye…in bread, distilled…I love rye.

Today, the rye “on the table” is bread.

I continue making the high moisture bread dough for my daily bread. Whether it is Portuguese Broa, whole wheat, oatmeal or rye, I make a mix which is 3 parts flour/grain, 1 3/4 parts water, 1 part (packet) yeast and a bit of sea salt in a bowl to sit overnight. The following morning, I spoon the yeasty stuff into a not airtight container and put it in the frig.

As needed, I scoop out dough for a small to medium boule, a french shaped loaf, english muffins, flatbread or pizza crust.

This week, the dough was rye. King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend combined with Montana Wheat’s Natural White high protein “hard wheat” flour.

The result: Perfect Rye!

**My exact rye mix: 114 grams King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend, 258 grams MT Wheat Natural White or any high quality, i.e. not grocery store, high protein flour. Yes, I’ve found flour quality to make a huge difference in both taste and texture of baked goods.

The other component is measuring by weight and not volume – a kitchen scale is less than $20. Converting to weight measure has made a difference in consistency of results for baked goods. All flour does not weigh or measure the same. Additionally, a cup of flour can measure differently on different days, To establish a weight base for converting recipes from volume to weight, sift flour into a 1 cup measure, leveling with a knife and weigh a sifted cup. Example with the rye blend as above: MT Wheat Natural White is 129 grams to equal a cup, the Perfect Rye Blend is 114 grams. For comparison, King Arthur White Whole Wheat is 110 grams to equal a recipe cup. There are even greater differences if you use other flours such as buckwheat, millet, coconut or almond, i.e. gluten free flours. If you don’t want to take the time or make the mess, there are charts online as well.