Wonderful buttery brioche! The recipe in The Baking Bible is more as a base for further goodies (the
Caramel Buns,
Monkey Dunkey Bread, and the Sugar Rose Brioche) but there are instructions for baking it as a loaf by itself, and Marie scheduled it as a separate recipe for the Bake-Along. I dug out my little brioche tins to make brioche à tête, then couldn't stop myself from doing half the recipe as Monkey Dunkey bread.
I used my stand mixer for the mixing and kneading to not strain the food processor. The process starts with a starter, which is covered with the remaining dry ingredients as it works. I left mine for 24 hours in the fridge before mixing the dough itself, including a stick of softened butter. The completed dough got another 24 hours in the fridge to firm up and gain flavor (and to suit my schedule). Making the first folds of the dough before it began the second rest in the fridge was a bit tough--the dough remained a bit sticky, and I didn't want to add more flour than necessary.
When I started The dough still was a bit sticky and difficult to work. If left out for a few minutes, it would also get buttery in my warm kitchen. This made the shaping of my brioche a tete somewhat challenging--I'm not very good at it at the best of times, and the hurry to keep each dough blob from getting stickier didn't help. I might have had a somewhat better success rate on the "tête" this time--on previous attempts I had a good number of the heads fall over or completely to the side of the main bun. All of mine stayed connected this time, but my haste and lack of care did show in getting the dough for the main bun evenly in the base of the pan, then getting the tête blob well shaped and properly inserted in the center of the main bun. The tête were mostly not round balls, and a couple did sink to one side.
There were no problems with the taste, though. The texture was significantly lighter than my default ideas of brioche, even though the bread was (of course) very rich. The crumb was very even. Excellent bread.
i like you sweet little brioche! i thought about doing a variation on the caramel buns with part of the dough, but then i got lazy. that monkey dunky bread was amazing.
ReplyDeleteAdorable! I love these little brioche pans! Great idea to do half into the Monkey Dunky bread.
ReplyDeleteWell for all your difficulty, your brioche is just adorable. Love them. The texture is perfect. I too loved the recipe.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are wonderful! I really do need to try that traditional shape. I always make it in a loaf. Love this recipe, I make it all the time. I am always tempted to make two loaves, but it doesn't keep fresh long enough to eat it, and I am very stingy with it because it is so delicious that I hate to give it away... (I am pouting because you made my mouth water with those photos of the Monkey Dunkey bread and now I really WANT IT!!)
ReplyDeleteI adore your tiny broiche..so cute!!
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