Wednesday, July 13, 2011

#133 Baking Brioche Bread and Rolls Barefoot

Did you know that until the 15th century bread was used in Europe as a platter to serve food and then it would be thrown to the dogs? Bread baking was industrialized in the 19th and early 20th century.
It was during this era that sliced bread was born in 1912 when Otto Frederick Rohwedder worked on a machine that sliced the bread automatically and Viola! it became a big hit.

The 20th century saw an increase in bread production with white grain being consumed by the rich. Eventually the trend to make whole grain bread grew and today bread making also incorporates the use of chemical additives(L-cysteine and Sodium metabisulfite) to reduce the time for fermentation. The availablility of quick rising yeast in supermarkets made it much easier for home cooks to bake nutritional domestic bread right in their kitchen. With the appearance of the innovative appliance -the "bread machine" which will even do the kneading for you the choices of bread are wide-- from baguettes, ciabatta, matzah, focaccia, honey wheat, multi-grain, sourdough, tortilla, chapathis, rotis, parathas, naans to pumpernickels, appams, bagels to arepas, pitas, injeras, challahs to Brioches.  Well, there is no excuse for anyone not to make homemade bread!! I prefer the artisan breads baked at the local bakery as compared to retail store bread for the crusty taste! 
I love to bake fresh bread when warm weather makes an appearance. The aroma permeates through the nooks and corners of my home.....so I put those two favorite things together and baked a slightly different bread this time brioche- a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa ....

 Mmmm what a wonderful smell!!
It's my bread baking.....I wish you could smell it right through your computer screen:)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
1 package yeast
3 Tablespoons sugar
6 large eggs at room temperature
4 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 1/2 tspn Kosher salt
11/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 egg beaten for egg wash

Directions:
Combine the water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of an kitchen aid mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix with spoon until dissolved and let stand fir 5-10 mins until it blooms.
Add the eggs and beat on medium speed for 1 min until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed add 2 cups of the flour and the salt and mix for 5 mins. With the mixer still on low add 2 1/4 more cups of flour and mix for another 5 mins.
Scrape the dough into a large buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.


The next day. allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Meanwhile grease a loaf pan and set aside.


Place the dough in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the softened butter in small chunks and mix for 2 mins. adding additional flour as needed to make a round ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and divide into two portions. Roll out the first half into small rounds as big as oranges.  Now seperate the second half and braid like you braid your hair holding togther three strands of dough placing the braid into a medium loaf pan.
Butter a cookie sheet and keep aside. Roll the smaller balls into strands and make a small knot and place on the cookie sheet until all the balls of dough are used up. Make sure to keep them at least 2 inches apart.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the rolls have risen to double the size brush the top of each with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes until the tops spring back and it sounds slightly hollow when tapped. Turn the rolls out onto a wire rack to cool.
I served the brioche with Nutella and homemade Strawberry butter. The leftover bread is excellent for burgers.

When the dough in the loaf pan has also doubled in size, brush the top with the rest of the egg wash and place in the middle of the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes at the same temperature depending on the oven and the size of your loaf pan.

To go with the moist Broiche I made some fresh Strawberry butter with 3-4 fresh strawberries cut up and 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 Tblpns softened butter.  Whip this up really well and smear over a slice of this awesome bread...... or just nibble away with knobs of nutella!!

16 comments:

  1. wow ts amazing Malli...i can smell it from here anyway...love it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous looking brioche! Living in Brioche-land, a.k.a France, you'd have thought that it's something I eat more of, or at least would have tried to make myself at least once, but I never even bought a whole one from a bakery before! I must give it a try! I'll skip the nutella though - filthy stuff. Some home-made strawberry jam would be awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The brioche looks so nicely baked... the glaze on top the crust .. perfect! I would love to make some bread pudding with that :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm crazy town dreaming off a piece of this glorious bread smeared with some nutella.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The brioche rolls look amazing! Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting post. The bread and rolls both look fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Malli, I love your brioche! It looks soft and light!
    A very interesting post... I have heard that the bread which served as a plate was first given to ... the poor and then to the dogs.
    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This looks wonderful. I'm definitely going to give it a try. I really found the hisory notes interesting too. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Malli - look at the colour and rise on that bread - gorgeous! (I'll pretend I didn't see the Nutella - ha-ha! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a splendid brioche! So smooth and tempting. Well done.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is the brioche I've always dreamt would come out of my oven! :) Unfortunately it never did, nor any similar to it. I should definitely try your recipe if this is the result you get ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a lovely brioche. You've done a great job explaining how it should be made and I found your entire post very interesting. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

    ReplyDelete
  13. The just saw the Barefoot Contessa episode where she made this bread the other day. Looks so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you all for your kind words!
    I thought that Ina Garten's recipe included too many eggs next time I will cut down the number of eggs to 4 or 5!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. that sliced open loaf is to die for, and with Strawberry butter..even better. Lovely job baking.

    ReplyDelete

It’s always a pleasure to get feedback from all our readers. Please leave your name or contact info. Thanks for stopping by!

Print Friendly

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF