Happy First French Friday of 2012! This recipe is the perfect French recipe to begin the new year. I have always wanted to taste brioche, but never seem to find it at the stores or bakeries around here and have never made it before. Although it takes some planning ahead because you need to give the dough an overnight rest, it doesn't really take that much time to make and couldn't be easier to put together.
The only time during the process of making this bread that I had a question, was when the dough was in the stand mixer and I wasn't sure if it had gotten to the point if it was pulling away from the sides and crawling up the dough hook as Dorie describes in the book. She said the time would take about 10 minutes or so, but mine it kind of looked like it was during that after 15 minutes of mixing, so I decided to stop and hoped that it would turn out okay. I slapped it into a bowl, wrapped it in plastic and put it into the refrigerator to chill. I made this on Monday night, so having to slap the dough down every 30 minutes for 2 hours, was a little pain because I was getting tired by this time, but I certainly didn't want to skip this step.
The next day after work, I pulled the bowl out of the refrigerator and pinched some off to roll into little balls to put into the muffin pan. After letting the dough rise an hour by the window, I put the pan into the oven and 15 minutes later I had these beautiful bubble-top brioches! After letting them cool a few minutes, we tasted them and honestly we weren't that impressed because although they smelled wonderful, they didn't have a lot of flavor, but after cooling down completely and eating a few more, they started growing on us and we ended up devouring them. I even took a few to work the following morning in a zip-lock bag, and pulled it out during a meeting to have something to munch on. As soon as I unzipped the baggie the wonderful smell of yeast-risen bread filled the room. Several people glanced over, but didn't say anything as I broke off a bubble and popped it into my mouth. It was the perfect mid-morning snack - not sweet, but a light eggy taste and so pillowy soft.
I had enough dough to make several muffin pans of bubble-top brioche rolls, and one small loaf. We had freshly baked bread all week, but by far our favorite was the bubble-top loaf that we toasted lightly and ate with a smear of butter. It can't get much better than that!
Visit French Fridays with Dorie to see what the rest of the group thought of this week's recipe.
Mmmm...that looks so good toasted! It might have been a little mean to taunt co-workers with yummy bread smells the first week of January... I wonder how many diets were sidetracked!
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd made a loaf! It looks easier to work with for making french toast, etc. I couldn't figure out how she wanted us to lay the logs in the pan, though. Glad that these little beauties grew on you!
ReplyDeleteYours look great. I shall try making a loaf out of it the next time I make this again :)
ReplyDeleteOk, now you totally made me hungry to try the leftovers! Both your rolls and loaf are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYour rolls looks great. I'm sure your fellow coworkers were impressed and wanted one of them to. They tasted great.
ReplyDeleteThe loaves would be great for so many things.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that everyone at work was envious of your homemade rolls :-)
Both your loaf and rolls look very good! I think I forgot to do the slapping down part, I can't for the life of me remember that step! Have a nice weekend;-)
ReplyDeleteI so agree that these are better the next day. I would have loved to see their faces in the meeting when you opened the bag! I only made 4 little rolls, just for me, as I was still on leave this week. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteThe rolls look SO good! Ok, I'm convinced I need to try this!
ReplyDeleteI love that you had to grow to devour these rolls. Yours look great!
ReplyDeleteThose look wonderful! I love your description of opening these up and eating them during a meeting! I willbe baking these tonight and I can't wait.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely grateful for my stand mixer when it came to this recipe. I had it running for such a long time that it started crawling around the kitchen counter. It was almost creepy!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't get much better than homemade bread, does it?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Elaine. I didn't get why the slapping step was called slapping. I deflated my dough every 30 minutes, but it was more like pulling at the edges and it deflated on itself, no violence required. I agree this is a great mid-morning snack -- not too sweet, and I love the fine crumb of the brioche. I'm glad you enjoyed these, I did too. I'm going to try the loaf next time.
ReplyDeleteI like the picture of the bread melting on the roll--I can almost smell and taste it.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you made the loaf - I really wanted to see how it looks. We liked this, too, and were surprised how easy it was to make - and such a lovely texture!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend!
Elaine, Your brioche look absolutely gorgeous! Love the little loaf...I would love to have a toasted piece right now. I really enjoyed this recipe. I have never made a brioche before and enjoyed learning a new technique for baking bread. Great photos! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThose look great! I love brioche, but don't make it very often—I'd eat it all myself in a very short period of time. =)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a loaf...wouldn't this make marvelous French toast! Your brioche with the butter melting over it is making my mouth water...boy do I love bread! Have a great weekend, Elaine!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like everyone is very successful in making brioches. Yours looks great. I don't think I can stop at eating one.
ReplyDeleteLove those little loaves, so adorable. Tricia and I both
ReplyDeleteenjoyed this recipe and will certainly be repeating soon.
That slice of bread with the melted butter is making my mouth drool right now.
I like the loaves - I wish I had done a couple loaves myself so I could make more sandwiches. I thought this was a really great recipe and one of my favorite FFWD to date!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bread! I've made brioche once or twice but have to say it's not my favorite. (Hard to imagine that, right?) But I love the loaf! I know it would taste the same, but somehow I think it could turn things around for me. :)
ReplyDeleteThose looks so beautiful, Elaine! I haven't made mine yet, as I'm waiting until I have a chance to go out and make them for my parents. The loaf is especially lovely.
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