Put some fiber in your diet

Another week-end, another brioche exercise ! I love getting up on Sunday morning with the buttery smells of a warm brioche. With some cherry jam and a hot chocolate. It's as if the time stops while I savor my breakfast and read the Sunday newspaper. Today was no exception.
Flashback to Saturday. I was so looking forward to my Sunday breakfast, I rushed through the kitchen, whipping up that brioche dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (and let me reiterate, it is a wonderful recipe ! Easy, fast, highly reproducible. A must-keep). It was to be a 10 minute affair until, gasp, I ran out of flour ! One cup missing. First it was the honey, I compensated with some regular sugar. But the flour ? Grumble, grumble, grumble...Oh wait I have whole wheat flour. Bam ! The last cup with whole wheat. Now I can have my fiber and eat it too :)
As it turned out, the brioche tasted just the same. Except it had little specks of whole wheat. It makes me wonder how much flour I can substitute for whole wheat to make my breakfast experience a bit healthier. There is always next week-end !

The Brioche Wars, Part 2

Pass on the jam !

And so I went on, mounting my faithful destrier Google on a crusade for a good brioche recipe...

Oh I found many. It seems everyone and their mother have one to share with you. That's the good news, I did not have to travel far. But which one do I choose? Trying them all is nearly impossible, I needed a strategy, a method to weed them out to the One.

After reading a few, I noticed a common theme: lots of kneading. While fun at first, kneading can become a chore and is not appropriate for everyone. That became my first (and only) selection tool. The remaining recipes fell into two categories:

- bread machine, for easy kneading and rising

- no kneading

My first attempt used a bread machine and its own brioche recipe. I wasn't thrilled with the result. I was yearning for something different. The no-kneading recipe got me really curious. Would it be possible to cut out the kneading part and still come up with a fluffly brioche ? Brioche pans in hand I accepted the challenge, raided the fridge for butter and warmed up the oven.

I settled for a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, a busy site full of recipes and matching pictures. Head out to Brioche Dough for ingredients and directions. Though amounts are to make 4 loaves, they claim the dough can be kept in the fridge up to 5 days, and the remainder can be frozen for later use. Imagine making the dough on Saturday, then waking up early on Sunday and wake up your honey, or your family, with wafts of freshly baked brioches in just 30 minutes. Could it be any better?

Well, it can. Simply put, all you have to do is beat the eggs, add all the other liquids (including melted butter and dissolved yeast), then incorporate the flour by portions while stirring with a wooden spoon. Leave the dough rising in a warm spot for 2 hours then chill it in the fridge for an hour. I used it right after an hour in the fridge and overnight, I saw no difference. Once in the oven the dough more than doubled in size in both cases. Make sure to brush the top with an egg glaze (1 egg+ 1 tps sugar) for a brown coloration.

Best consummed right out of the oven, the brioche is still soft and chewy after a day. But I doubt it'll last longer than that :)

Below are some pictures. I used up all the dough over the week-end, ending with a braided brioche.

Happy baking !!!

Gearing up for the Brioche Wars

I decided I did not have the right tools to mount my second assault. Not that it wouldn't change the outcome much, but having shiny new brioche pans does boost the confidence a bit, and they look so neat in the oven. So my first stop was at a local kitchen specialty store I recently discovered.
If you are not from San Diego, don't fret, they have an active online presence at http://great-news.com/. Name of the store is "Great News!", a good omen. Once inside, my shopping cart suddenly started piling up with all kind of things I always wanted but never dared to buy. I am now the proud owner of a madeleine pan, and I almost got a set of individual tartlet pans. Some silicon cake molds looked really cool, but I resisted. The back of the store offers cooking classes with a full kitchen. I am not sure whether the kitchen is for the instructor, a la Martha, or students can use it as well. I signed up for their Newsletter, I'll take a peek at their class schedule, maybe something will pick my interest.
With my new brioche pans in hand I did another brioche try. Got a nice shape. I added some wheat gluten too to up the chewiness. But I had the darnest time making the dough rise. I turned quite chilly suddenly in San Diego. I ended up putting the dough on top of the dryer while doing laundry ! It helped a bit but not enough.
My next step is hunting down some tricks to make the crust so light and brown. Mine turns too hard for my taste. Stay tuned.

"Brioche" is hard !

That's my goal ! Fluffly and buttery, with a light brown coat that spells "Eat me !"

My first try. Yep, room for improvements !!!!

Technically, it was my second attempt. My first was what started this brioche race I am embarking on. You see, I have this idealized version of a brioche from my youth. Soft, buttery, shaped like a mushroom, and a perfect brown. A baker's brioche ! I set out to make one the other day, using my bread machine. Yes, I was being lazy...I left the kneading to the machine...What a disappointment ! The recipe came right from the bread machine book. Bahhhhh ! Too dense and hard. No brioche, just another yeasty bread...

So that is the backdrop to the little experiment I did tonight, aka my first "real" try at brioch-ing. This time I used a recipe from a french book (what was I thinking the first time????) and my bare hands for the hard work. That piece of art right above is 100% me, sweat and all.

And I like it ! OK, it lacks in shape and color. But the smell while it was baking was divine ! You know, that hot buttery yeasty smell that lingers in bakeries? I was salivating. As soon as it was cool enough to manipulate safely (oww, oww, hot), I tried a piece. Soft and buttery ? Check. Slight yeast taste ? Check. Another piece ? Double check. The dog gave two paws up and opened his mouth for more.

So I have to work on my presentation skills. First stop will be at the store for a brioche pan. But for now, I know what I will be having tomorrow for breakfast...:)

Cream Puffs made easy

Pistachio Cream Puffs

Light, fluffy, and easy to bite into, cream puffs are ideal treats for kids. They burst in your mouth with an array of flavors as large as the collection of ready-made puddings commercially available.
Adults will enjoy them equally. With ice cream filling and a chocolate sauce, puffs become "Profiterolles", a dessert fare found in trendy restaurants and an immediate winner in social gatherings.
But puffs can easily be turned into appetizers with surprise fillings, such as flavored ground meat, grilled vegetables, or a cheese mix (goat cheese, mmmmm). And they can be as small or big as you dare make them !
I love cream puffs for their versatility. And their simplicity ! The recipe I am sharing below took about 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes of baking time, during which you can prepare the pudding filling. In the picture, I used Kroger's pistachio pudding. I made about 25 bite-sized puffs with the given ingredients. Make it a family affair and have the kids place the filling !

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 60g butter (about 1/8 pound)
• pinch of salt
• 5 oz flour
• 4 eggs
• vanilla flavor

Directions:

1. Place water, salt, sugar, and butter in a pot and bring to a boil. When the content starts rising, like milk, take the pot off the heat and add the flour. Quickly stir to absorb the liquid. Place on low heat to dry up the batter, it shouldn't stick to the pot anymore.
2. Off the heat, add the eggs one by one, by blending each in the batter. The batter should be smooth in the end. You can add flavoring at this point, here I used vanilla.
3. Let the batter cool off a bit. In the meantime, grease a cooking pan and sprinkle some flour on top.
4. Use two teaspoons to place the batter on the cooking pan, one to measure the batter (1 teaspoon makes a bite-size puff, use a tablespoon for bigger puffs) and one to help placing it on the pan. Leave enough space between the batter blobs. Then you can lightly brush a dilute mix of egg yolk and water to give the puff a golden look.
5. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes. The puffs will rise and brown lightly. Let them cool down before filling them up.

If you are feeling fancy, you can top each puff with caramel. Prepare your caramel (water and sugar), then dip the top of the cream puff in the hot caramel, it will cool and crystallize quickly while you are holding the puff upside down.

It's a fun recipe, try it out !

Having some chocolate fun !

Pierre's Marble Cake

Sometimes I just like to take the mixing bowl out, some eggs, sugar and flour and start mixing something up with no specific idea in mind. I call it "spontaneous baking" :) With the basic elements on the kitchen counter, I let my eyes wander around the kitchen, from the fridge to the fruit bowl and the pantry, looking for something to stimulate my imagination. This simple (and sometimes random) experimentation is what discovered some interesting pairing, like mixing coconut and almond flours to regular flour for texture.
Today was slightly different. I started by taking out my baking tools, as well as the eggs and butter out of the fridge, with images of chocolate cakes in mind. Unfortunately, I did not have enough chocolate on hand ! Not being one for running out the door to the neighborhood grocery store, I had to compromise with a marble cake.
I like making marble cakes, for one simple reason: mixing the batter with the chocolate batter. Depending on how you do the mixing, you can get wonderful designs. And you won't know until you cut the cake. Like opening a Christmas present :)
The picture is of the cake I made today. Notice how perfectly round the chocolate portion turned out ! The chocolate batter was poured right along the center, then the last portion was distributed on top for a crusty chocolate top. Poured differently, the chocolate batter can yield other designs, it's a fun experiment to do with kids.
Here is my recipe. Have fun with it !

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 oz melted butter
• 1.5 cup flour
• baking power
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 4 oz Ghiradelli chocolate (60% cocoa)
• 1/8 cup Grand Marnier liquor (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 380F.
2. Mix the eggs and the sugar until homogeneous, then add the butter.
3. Mix in the flour and the baking powder.
4. Mix in the milk, with the liquor if desired.
5. Pour half the batter into a greased pan.
6. To the other half in the bowl, add the melted chocolate and mix it until it's completely blended.
7. Now the fun part is pouring the chocolate batter on top of the regular batter in the pan.
8. Bake at 380F for an hour.

Just writing this post gave me a few ideas to try when mixing the two batters together :)
Enjoy and experiment !

For the fig lovers...

Fig and Almond Cake

I can't believe Summer is almost over ! Same mantra every year. And here I am trying to catch up on Summer activities I should have done weeks ago, like going to the beach, biking along the river, or kayaking in the Bay (still on to-do list). On top of that, I started a new job last week, and, boy, was I tired by the end of the week !!! Needless to say, my kitchen turned into a ghost town, snacking on leftovers, takeouts, and 3-minutes sandwiches. That reminds me I should write a post just on my 3-minutes sandwiches (mental note).
Labor Day week-end came around none too soon for me to catch my breath. And take a look at the backyard. Several years ago we planted a small fig tree in the back. I love figs. Provence is fig country. Century-old, tall and gnarly fig trees with long branches full of sweet dark purple bombs waiting to explode in your mouth. "Drops of Gold" are the sweetest kind, with a sweet juicy yellow inside. Anyway, the tree has grown exponentially and been offering loads of fruits two Summers in a row, this one included. Birds, dog and myself have been delightfully enjoying its offerings.
With Summer's end comes the fig grand finale. They are all ripening at once, my fridge is full ! But when life hands you figs, you make.....a fig cake !!! Isn't everything better with sugar and butter ? (grin)
So here is the recipe I used to make a light cake with fig bits and almonds, and with a taste of honey.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz sweet cream butter
• 3 oz sugar
• 5 tbs liquid honey
• 2 egg + 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 9 oz flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 6 ripe figs, cut in small pieces
• baking powder
• 1 teaspoon almond flavor
• almond slices for decoration

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 370F.
2. Soften the butter (I use the microwave for 15 sec) and mix in with sugar, egg yolks and honey.
3. Add the half and half and the 2 eggs, mix well.
4. Mix in the flour, almond flour, and baking powder.
5. Add almond flavor and the ripe figs, mix well.
6. Pour into a greased pan. In retrospect I recommend lining with baking paper, it will be much easier to remove from the pan.
7. Sprinkle almond slices on top for decoration.
8. Bake at 370F for 1h.
   

If you don't want to use honey, simply use more sugar instead, like 1/2 cup.
Surprisingly, the cake did not raise as much as I thought it would, though it was light and moist. Maybe because I split the cake batter into two small pans, instead of using a medium pan.
It was still very good, especially still warm, with a scoop of pistachio ice cream...Yummmmm !!!!