Brioche

Lloyd and I like brioche. Well, actually, it would be fair to say, I love it. I've never once seen it to buy up here so that means we never have it. In Glasgow we used to have it with home made chicken liver pate.

A couple of days ago we were watching Dean Brettschneider's baking programme and he made some Pain aux raisin. I reckoned I should turn my hand to giving brioche a go. So I used Paul Hollywood's recipe cos he is the bread god as far as I'm concerned. 

It's not difficult - just follow the steps.

Ingredients

- 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

- 7g salt

- 50g caster sugar

- 10g instant yeast

- 140ml warm full-fat milk

- 5 medium eggs

- 250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

Method

1. Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for a further 6 – 8 minutes, until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough. Add the softened butter and continue to mix for a further 4 – 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough will be very soft.

2. Tip the dough into a plastic bowl, ( I only had a china one) cover and chill overnight or for at least 7 hours, until it is firmed up and you are able to shape it.

3. Grease a 25cm round deep cake tin.

4. Take your brioche dough from the fridge. Tip it onto a lightly floured surface and fold it on itself a few times to knock out the air. Divide it into 9 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth ball by placing it into a cage formed by your hand and the table and moving your hand around in a circular motion, rotating the ball rapidly. Put the 8 balls of dough around the outside of the tin and the final one in the middle.

5. Cover with the clean plastic bag and leave to prove for 2 – 3 hours, or until the dough has risen to just above the rim of the tin.

6. Heat your oven to 190°C.

7. When your brioche is proved, bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Bear in mind that the sugar and butter in the dough will make it take on colour before it is actually fully baked. Remove the brioche from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.  *I found that the top of mine was going to go too brown for my taste, but the loaf wasn't properly cooked, so I put some tinfoil over the top to stop it from browning too much*

My biggest problem was where to prove the loaf. It's the middle of winter here, we don't have central heating and today the house is freezing After about 2 hours nothing much had happened. Then I had a brainwave - prove the bread in the greenhouse! Man, that worked a treat. 

While it was baking the house smelled amazing. 

voila!

So tonight we are having home made chicken liver pate, on brioche for perhaps the first time since we moved to New Zealand.