After mastering bread baking, the next challenge was was to learn ho to make brioche. I had the advantage of my grandmother staying with us for a couple of weeks and watched her bake it several times. I baked a very pale brioche for Easter all by myself... and after some consultation realizing what went wrong, I made another attempt today, using a ceramic loaf dish.
1. Mix a heaped teaspoon of dry active yeast with a teaspoon of sugar and a bit of lukewarm water/milk. Allow it to come "alive", which means the liquid starts to get bubbly. Sort of like the picture above.
2. Melt 60g of butter a couple of teaspoons of sugar in a mug of milk and a teaspoon of salt
3. Add 500g of plain flour and the milky-buttery mix to the yeast.
4. mix with a spoon. It should be thick but still mixable with a spoon (you can add more flour or milk if needed)
5. Kneed with a mixer for several minutes until the dough seperates from the bowl and looks sort of like the picture above.
6. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place, eg. near a radiator. Or heat the oven to 50 degrees celsius and turn it off before putting the bowl in. the dough should rise to 2x its size.
7. Braid...I planned to braid the dough, but it became clear early on that it wasn't going to happen... Instead I used an oily spoon to spoon the dough into the mold lined with baking paper. This makes the texture lighter.
8. Finally brush the top with egg yolk.
9. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for at least 30 minutes or until nice and brown on top.
I can't wait for us to get back from school so the kids can try it for their snack!
