Brioche

I've been baking breads almost every other week since beginning of this year. As I mentioned in my earlier post, bread to me is the ultimate food! I can literally live on bread and water. I don't like regular white or whole wheat bread. That's not bread to me! I like the crusty rolls, sweet buns and French baguette. Even though these breads are sold so cheap at the stores, nothing can beat the happiness and joy that comes with the aroma of freshly baked bread in the kitchen. And that bread tastes simply best. Fresh out of the oven bread is heavenly! Slather some butter on the top, see it melting away and then enjoy that buttery goodness!


I've made French rolls, baguette, walnut banana bread, olive and rosemary focaccia and bread sticks. But this is close to my heart. Brioche. This is such a wonderful bread, loaded with butter, eggs and for me, sugar! I can have 3 meals out of brioche, no problem. Eat with butter, jam, fresh fruit or just like that, paired with a cup of hot n steamy coffee, and you are floating in the heaven!

French Rolls

I had the first taste of brioche in Paris during our Europe trip 8 years ago. Since then, I've been searching for good brioche here. I would love to have a BRIOCHE DAY every week! Never to run out of it! It was on my mind to make this bread at least once. Since we were having it with coffee, I put a tad more sugar in it. I don't happen to have fancy brioche moulds so I used my trusty old muffin pan and 4 little tart moulds that I found! Fancy moulds or not, the end result was so amazing and satisfactory, I believe I will make this over and over and over again. I am so happy I did this that I am going to mark this day on my calendar!

Focaccia

Making Brioche is time consuming. Still there is so much pleasure associated to a homemade brioche. I felt the happiness flowing through my veins when I saw the dough rising, the balls puffing up, the aroma of brioche being baked filling the kitchen, finally, the bite into that puffy cloud of sweet, airy bread which was so inviting, I couldn't help popping those bites into my mouth! I hope that you enjoy a piece of the simplest pleasure with the simplest brioche.

Baguette

Brioche
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs

How to:
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, lemon peel and salt. in a saucepan, heat butter and milk to 120-130 F. add to dry ingredients and beat until moistened.

Add four eggs and beat, add one cup flour and beat until smooth. stir in the remaining flour but do not knead. spoon dough into a greased bowl and cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Punch dough down, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Divide the dough into 14 equally sized balls and place 12 of them into greased muffin cups. Make 12 smaller balls from 2 remaining balls, make an indentation in each larger dough ball and place a small ball into the indentation. cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Beat the last egg and brush over rolls. bake at 375 F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.