Bistro Salad with Brioche Croutons

3 cups mixed baby greens, like frisée
1/4 cup vinaigrette
salt and pepper, to taste
4 soft-poached eggs
3 slices thick bacon, cut in 1/2 inch sections and cooked
12 Brioche Croutons, recipe follows

In a large bowl, toss the baby greens with the vinaigrette. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. To assemble the salad, divide the salad greens between two salad bowls. Lay two of the soft poached eggs on the greens in each bowl. Sprinkle half the bacon pieces on each of the bowl. Top with the Brioche Croutons and serve.

Brioche Croutons

Makes 1 cup
3 one-inch slices brioche
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the crusts from the brioche slices and then cut them into cubes that are about 1/2 inch square. Put the brioche cubes on a baking sheet. Reserve the crusts for another use if you like.

Combine the melted butter with the olive oil. Drizzle the butter mixture over the brioche cubes, tossing them lightly to make sure they are well-coated.

Put the cubes in the oven and let them brown for 15 minutes. Halfway through, using a spatula to turn them over. After 15 minutes, the croutons should be a golden brown and fragrant with a toasty buttery smell.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool and store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Note:
Make more of these than you think you will need; you will eat a bunch of them before they ever hit the salad.

Brioche French Toast with Spiced Pear and Sour Cherry Sauce

If Mom has a sweet tooth, make her this Brioche French Toast with Spiced Pear and Sour Cherry Sauce. Pair this with a cup of Italian roast coffee spiked with more of that cognac.

Brioche French Toast
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 one-inch-thick slices of brioche loaf (or challah)
2 tablespoons butter, divided use
Spiced Pear and Sour Cherry Sauce (recipe follows)
Orange Mascarpone Cream (recipe follows)

In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, milk, brown sugar and vanilla. Whisk to combine well. Dip a slice of the brioche in the egg mixture, turning to let it soak into both sides.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put a baking sheet on the middle rack.

Add a tablespoon of butter to a cast iron or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. When the skillet is hot, add a slice of soaked brioche to the pan. Let it brown for two to three minutes and then turn to brown the other side. Be careful not to let the bread get too dark. When the first piece is browned on both sides, put it on the baking sheet to keep it warm and to make sure it is cooked throughout. Repeat the process with the remaining slices of brioche, adding the second tablespoon of butter before cooking the last two slices.

When they’re all done, slather each slice with some Orange Mascarpone Cream. Top each slice with an equal amount of the Spiced Pear and Sour Cherry Sauce.

Makes 4 servings

Spiced Pear and Sour Cherry Sauce

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and cut in chunks
3 tablespoons chopped pecans
2 tablespoons dried sour cherries
juice of from one orange
zest for 1/4 orange
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cognac, like Navan

Add the butter and sugar to a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the pears, pecans, cherries, orange juice and zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, stirring to combine. When the mixture really starts to bubble, reduce the heat to a simmer, add the cognac and let it simmer for 7 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn. Take off the heat and transfer to a small serving dish.

Makes 1-1/4 cups

Orange Mascarpone Cream

3 tablespoons mascarpone
6 tablespoons whipped cream
1 tablespoon cognac
1/4 teaspoon orange zest

Add mascarpone, whipped cream, cognac and orange zest to a small bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Makes 1/2 cup

Smoked Salmon Benedict with Brioche Toast

Smoked Salmon Benedict on Brioche Toast

The trick is to make the hollandaise in advance, then poach the eggs and toast the bread for a quick 30 seconds so everything is still warm.

2 eggs
2 slices brioche, sliced 1-inch thick
1 tablespoon butter, softened
4 pieces smoked salmon, at room temperature
4 tablespoons Meyer Lemon Hollandaise Sauce, divided use (recipe follows)
1 chive, minced

Preheat the oven to broil at 400 degrees. Butter one side of each slice of brioche and place the slices buttered side up on a baking sheet.

Poach eggs in a shallow water and vinegar bath or cook in a skillet sunny side up, so the yolks are still runny. Once the eggs are done, turn off the heat.

Put the brioche in the oven and let it toast for 20 to 30 seconds until it’s golden brown. Watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn.

To assemble, put a slice of toast on a plate, toasted side up. Cover the bread as much as possible, with two pieces of smoked salmon. Top with one of the cooked eggs. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the hollandaise sauce. Garnish with the minced chives.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Makes 2 servings

Related Videos: How to Poach an Egg
Discussion: Best Hollandaise Recipes

Meyer Lemon Hollandaise Sauce

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into thirds at room temperature
3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
zest from 1/2 Meyer lemon
dash salt
dash white pepper

Place eggs and 1/3 of the butter in the top of a double boiler. Cook, stirring rapidly, over boiling water until the butter melts. (Water in the bottom of the double boiler should not touch the top pan.)Add 1/3 more of the butter and continue stirring rapidly. As butter melts and the mixture thickens, add the remaining butter stirring constantly. When butter is melted, remove pan from water, stir rapidly for 2 more minutes. Stir in lemon juice, 1 teaspoon at a time; stir in the lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Heat again over boiling water, stirring constantly, for 2 or 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove at once from heat. If the sauce curdles, Immediately beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons boiling water.
Makes about 1 cup
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

There are a few things that, once tasted, instantly compel one to try and reproduce. Brioche is one of those things. For me, it has an association with the blue, white and red bags with the plastic tie that you get in supermarkets, from where I suspect I had my first taste of brioche. Inside, a golden, glazed and gleaming loaf, from which you peel off the crimped greaseproof paper to reveal a delightfully soft, pillow-like substance. Of course, those things are probably full of E numbers and preservatives, but I would say that little compares with one’s first imagining of biting into a slice of brioche slathered with a thick layer of nutella (I’m sure that this is a complete travesty, but we won’t let that stop us). Moister than panettone, but more cake-like than bread, brioche is the Lucy of culinary development, a crucial link in the evolution from the unleavened bread of days of yore to today’s dubious Thomas the Tank Engine confections. The key, of course, is in the addition of butter, eggs and milk to the dough, which give the brioche its golden, velvet-like texture.

Now, I say “instantly compelling”, but in truth, the urge has been compelling for years. It wasn’t until this past summer, when my parents brought back a French baking book from across the Channel, that I made my first attempt. And here, just for you, I reproduce the recipe:

Pain brioché:

500g flour (I’ve tried both strong bread flour and all-purpose flour – both yield good results)

50g caster sugar

15g instant dry yeast

220g milk (lukewarm)

2 eggs + 2 egg yolks

125g butter

10g salt

Place the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and create a well in the centre. Dissolve the yeast in the milk and pour into the well. Add the 2 whole eggs and knead for 15 minutes. Add 100g of butter and knead for a further 5 minutes. Once you’ve achieved a smooth dough, cover with a cloth and let rise for 2 hours.

Divide the dough into 3 balls of equal weight. Shape into loaves and place into buttered loaf tins. Leave to rise for another 2 hours.

Brush the top of the loaves with the egg yolks, whisked with 2 tablespoons of water, and bake in an oven, preheated to 210 Celsius, for 30 minutes. Remove from tins and leave to cool on a rack.

The addition of eggs makes this quite a stiff dough, so kneading it is quite a workout. It’s also quite sticky, so you’ll have to knead it in a bowl unless you want to be scraping dough off your counter afterwards. You can also halve the recipe to make one larger loaf.

Or you could ignore all of the above and do what I do, which is to dump everything in the breadmaker and put it on the dough setting for 2 hours, put the whole thing into a loaf tin and bake it to make one, ridiculously-sized loaf of nasty skank brioche [EN: the term "nasty skank" is not a reflection of the quality of the end product, which is excellent, but a cultural reference to that sassy, yet ultimately mediocre, box office hit "Mean Girls"]. Eat with jam or marmalade, or with the aforementioned unhealthy slathering of nutella. Makes excellent toast the next morning (and for a few days thereafter).

Soups are good

This recipe has been everywhere recently! It is from the new Thomas Keller cookbook and every review of the book mentions it. When he was on Martha, he made it. I love that suddenly leeks seem to be very popular – next to squash, they are my new favorite ingredient!

This, as to be expected, is a little complicated. I actually toasted the brioche bread cubes (more like over toasted them). I highly recommend buying already made ones, as it would greatly simplify things. The flavor of the pudding is initially a bit disappointing (it is delicious – this is a Thomas Keller recipe- but after the time involved, I had unrealistic expectations), but it just gets better and better as the flavors really meld together. After two days in the fridge, the leeks taste even more leak-y if that is possible. In short, a great leftovers recipe!

Adapted from Ad Hoc at Home/Thomas Keller

Serves 12

2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned and rinsed
Salt, pepper
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
12 cups 1-inch-cubed crustless brioche or Pullman loaf (I did not use crustless. It tasted just fine)
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 eggs
3 cups whole milk
3 cups heavy cream
Pinch of nutmeg
1 cup shredded Comté or Emmenthaler cheese

Place a medium pan over medium-high heat, drain excess water from leeks, and add to pan. Season with salt, and sauté until leeks begin to soften, about 5 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in butter. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are very soft, about 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While leeks are cooking, spread bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake until dry and pale gold, about 20 minutes, turning pan about halfway through. Transfer to a large bowl. (Or just buy them – much much much easier!) Leave the oven on.

Add leeks, chives and thyme to the bowl of bread and toss well, but gently. In another large bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, then whisk in milk, cream, salt, pepper to taste and the pinch of nutmeg.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup shredded cheese in bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Spread 1/2 of bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup cheese. Spread remaining bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup cheese. Pour in enough milk mixture to cover bread, and gently press on bread so milk soaks in. Let rest 15 minutes, to let the bread absorb all that dairy goodness.

Add remaining milk mixture, letting some bread cubes protrude. Sprinkle with salt and remaining cheese. Bake until pudding is set and top is brown and bubbling, about 1 1/2 hours.

Mes premières brioches ! Héhéhé. Elles ont de sales têtes… mais elles étaient tout de même bonnes, je vous rassure ! Je mettrai prochainement les recettes se rapportant aux images (tant qu’à faire !) dans une sous-rubrique attenant à celle-ci. Enfin… la tresse est à base de pommes. Je n’ai pas encore trouvé le moyen de ne pas en mettre partout, et je crains de ne pas y arriver avant plusieurs tentatives ! (En fait je viens de voir que les ingrédients valent pour deux tresses et non pour une. Peut-être est-ce pour ça que ça ne monte pas…) Les petites brioches sont fourrées aux abricots qui ont été préalablement cuits, d’où la coulée sur le plat.

Valà, valà, recette à venir donc !

Notes :
* Pommes  : ★★★★★★★★★★
* Abricots : ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Difficulté : ★★★☆☆

Oh my, my. This morning I braved a prodigious line at La Brea Bakery and managed to secure the very last loaf of brioche. I had George behind the counter (he is the BEST) slice half of it, and leave the remaining half intact so as not to dry out. Tonight we’ll be having sliced brioche with a pot of foie gras that my parents brought down from Bouchon Napa Valley. The rest of the brioche will be hosting turkey/stuffing sandwiches on Friday. That is, if little Sabine (my parents’ new puppy) doesn’t make off with the brioche first…

My family has been loving Dorie’s recipe for brioche that was printed in Bon Appetit last month.  The recipe is easy to follow and though time-consuming, leaves lots of time for dancing – be sure to have your iPod handy while preparing the dough. 

This morning, I got started on my prep a little later than I should have.  I also forgot to put the dough in the fridge after the first punching.  Let’s just say that I wasn’t playing my “A Game” today.  Here’s how it went down:

• Kings of Leon and I prepared the dough perfectly and set aside to rise ~  Between mixings, I whipped 1/2 cup of butter with a tbsp heavy cream and 3 tbsp organic honey and popped it back into the fridge
• 90 minutes later, worked dough, allowing it to fold over onto itself
• OOPS ~ should have put into fridge – didn’t
• 60-ish minutes later realized my mistake.  Worked dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, put in fridge
• OOPS ~ forgot
• 2 hours later (not 16 hours later) pulled dough from fridge

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

• Cut dough into 12 pieces and placed each in muffin pan
• 60 minutes later – into the oven …

If you think they look good from the outside, you should have seen the inside.  I would love to show you the angel-feather-perfection-cottoncandy-wonderfulness, but they were gone in a hot minute. 

I knew the recipe was great, but not great enough to withstand mistake after mistake and still turn out absolutely luscious bread.  

Dorie Greenspan ~ you are truly divine! 

Readers ~ if you aren’t making this, you are truly insane!

BRIOCHE BUBBLETOP RECIPE

Cookbooks by Dorie Greenspan

The Sandwich Clubbers have the “sandwich off!” As historic events go, this is MASSIVE – the first ever Sandwich Club Sandwich-Off! Essentially “Come dine with me”, but with sandwiches, and none of the annoying idiots usually thrown in as TV fodder. It was decided to test the abilities of The Sandwich Club members by gathering on a Friday evening in Cardiff to see who could come up with the best sandwich.  Six Clubbers were given a maximum spend of £10 and two days preparation to research and come up with a sandwich to be presented, scored and consumed by the fellow clubbers.

A few rules applied:

1.  A £10 budget for ingredients, receipts to be retained as proof (this excluded butter which came supplied if required)

2. The ingredients had to be assembled on the night

3. Elements that could not be easily put together on the night could be pre-prepared, such as cooking meats

The sandwiches were then voted for on taste, presentation, ingredients and originality.

Here are the results from 6 to 1:

6. Pastrami, Apple Salami, Lettuce and Piccalilli (and a healthy spreading of English mustard) on wholemeal bread

5. Mascarpone, Banana and Chocolate on the inside. Grilled white bread on the outside

4. Smoked Salmon, avocado and chilli on rye

3. Chicken curry, lettuce, tomato and raita on granary baguette

2. Parma Ham, Fig and Goats cheese on Donker bread

1. Wensleydale & Cranberry, Pecan and Maple Syrup filled-grilled-Brioche

Congratulations to the winner and a big thank to the host and everyone who took part. There are already plans for “Sandwich Off #2” and from the high benchmark set by #1 we are very much looking forward to the next Sandwich Off.

]]> http://ruduss.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/my-typecast-bioche-bread-and-butter-pudding/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:32:41 +0000 ruduss http://ruduss.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/my-typecast-bioche-bread-and-butter-pudding/

    As this is always a hit with whomever I make it for, I call it typecast because that’s all they bloody want. There’s been a few occasions where people have not accepted my offer to make something different such as a cheesecake. They only want the b&b pudding.
    My recipe has been adapted from Delia’s, BBC food website and I think I picked up some hints from watching Come Dine With Me. Usually I pick up not what to do, so this was an exception. For people watching what they eat, then you won’t find much nutritional value in this recipe…

Ingredients:
200g raisons soaked in 200ml cognac
9 yolks
374g brown sugar
4 whole eggs
800ml whole milk heated. There is no point with half fat milk – you’re only kidding yourself
1 vanilla pod (or vanilla essence if you can’t be arsed faffing around with the pod)
8 slices estimate, or enough brioche to fit into your baking dish
butter
apricot jam

• Pour 40ml cognac into a glass and sip whilst making this recipe.
• Bring the raisons in the cognac to the boil, then drain off the cognac and put to one side. Trying not to drink that also.
• Mix the egg yolks and sugar by beating gently over a bain-marie.
• Add the whole eggs, milk and vanilla to the egg mix.
• Slice and toast the brioche. Butter each slice, and put a generous amount of apricot jam on each.
• Layer the brioche slices in a baking dish, and sprinkle the raisons over.
• Keep layering the brioche until you can fit no more, then pour the egg mix over.
• If you havne’t drunk the left over cognac that had been drained from the raisons, then pour that on top too if you wish.
• Try to submerge all the slices of brioche so they all soak up the egg mix.
• Place in an oven for 35-40 mins on 160 C.
• Don’t bother about saving calories at this stage by serving with berries. Serve with clotted cream or ice cream.

One must wonder if the Chef at u café (1436 Lexington Avenue, Bet E. 93rd E. 94th St, New York, NY 10128 – In Manattan’s Upper East Side – Telephone: 212.427.8223) was a painter of delightful still life canvasses in a former gilgul. The attention to shape, the attention to color, the attention to detail, make the particular presentation unforgettable. Udi Ben Ari’s eye for color will remind you of some Caravaggio paintings, his shapes will bring to mind Breugel the Elder.

While the owner and his parents are Israelis, this dairy and fish restaurant features far more than mere Israeli fare. Udi graduated from culinary school in Rhode Island and that training shows through. Not only is the look of the food guaranteed to make your mouth water, the unique combination of flavors in each dish bespeaks of an all too rare understanding of the subtle nuances of taste each ingredient brings to the total culinary experience.

On my fist visit to u café I ordered a Fritatta which, as you see below, was full of color and invitingly appetizing…

The next time I went I ordered a Salmon Burger…

Notice how the shape of the pepper, on top of the bread, fits in perfectly with the sauce at the bottom of the photo. Notice how well the cherry tomato’s color goes with the color of the pepper while it directs your attention to the fresh salad? Which 16th century painter’s eye was responsible for this dish’ perfect composition?

I can hear those of you who know me saying, “But CS, you never eat fish!” It’s true I haven’t – even as a child – touched fish.  Having seen another diner at the cafe at a table next to mine order the Salmon Burger, having smelled the non-fish aroma I thought I’d take a bold step and – with trepidation in my heart – I too ordered it. I shouldn’t have worried; it’s taste, it’s texture did not say fish! The perfect proportion of condiments made the burger taste very meat-like.

I finished by having a coffee and a slice of Tricolor Cake. A true feast for the eye of any chocolate lover and his palate.

Once you taste their food you soon understand why they won this year’s Kosherfest’s competition for the best sandwich!

The winning sandwich above is made with tarragon egg salad over smoked salmon with black caviar over brioche. Having eaten the  very same one I photographed I must fully agree with the Kosherfest judges that it is the best sandwich in New  York!

All in all both my visits there were delightful experiences that proved you can eat art!

CS

EVENT

This Saturday night, November the 14th, there will be a cantorial kumzits at u café, I plan to be there. Come over and say hello!

—-)xoxOxox(—-

[Our upcoming website, the supremegourmet.com will feature a longer more in depth review of this restaurant and our experience there]

In my childhood home, back in the 1970s, a meal of spaghetti Bolognese was considered exotic.  This rare treat was due, in part, to post-war migration, and afforded the vast land of Australia some much needed diversity in culture!

I schooled with many first generation Australians – myself included - whose families heralded from a variety of European countries.  This first generation Australian was an ever ready participant to visit a friend’s home, to enjoy an afternoon snack (and embrace an array of new flavours along the way).

Since those days as a child, the gastronomic palate of Australia has bulged well beyond the last belt hole.  Cuisine from virtually every corner of the world is available.  From every continent, from every country, it seems a global aroma permeates all the major cities.

I suppose it is no surprise that the introduction of new tastes is common across all corners of the world.  In the 18th century, a variation of the baba au rhum was introduced into France (by way of Alsace-Lorraine), from Poland.  It is believed to be a descendent of the Kugelhopf.

This dessert, traditionally shaped like a Champagne cork, is a rich, yeast bread, baked in a cylindrical mould.  It is liberally (emphasis on liberally) soaked in a sweet rum syrup.  The more modern version includes dried fruit, but this recipe, by Julia Child, omits the fruit and showcases the simplicity of the original dessert.  The classic baba, as recommended by Julia, is finished simply with a few additional drops of rum, a brush of apricot preserve and a carefully topped glacéed cherry.  I opted for the extra rum and apricot but not the cherry.  Personal preference.

There are variations of this dessert with cream or fruit.  Each would serve as a lovely complement to the sweet rum laden bread.  This would be an ideal dessert to finish off a rich, hearty meal.  The rum syrup instantly cleanses the palate, and the hint of sweetness, from the rich bread and sugar syrup, provides a clear note to signal the end of the meal.

{ Babas au Rhum } from Julia Child et al and Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Note: I baked the bread in a larger than recommended mould.  Typically the cylindrical baba mould holds about 100ml of fluid, and is roughly 5cm or 2 inches in diameter and depth – much narrower and smaller than the mould I used.

{ Pâte à baba et babas }

* Ingredients *
60g butter
10g dry active yeast
45ml tepid water
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups flour

* Directions *
Melt the butter and let cool.  Blend the yeast and water in the bowl with whisk and stand until yeast has dissolved completely.  Beat in the sugar, salt and eggs.  Mix the flour and the cool melted butter into the yeast with a wooden spoon.

Knead the dough by lifting it, slapping it, and pulling it vigorously against the sides of the bowl for about 5 minutes.  Alternatively, put into a mixer with a dough hook and mix until it starts to detach itself from the bowl.  Form into a ball and cut a cross deep on top.  Sprinkle with a little flour.  Cove the bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

Butter the inside of your moulds.  Lightly break off about a tablespoon of dough, enough to fill a third of a cup, and press lightly into the bottom of the cup.  Place the cups, uncovered, again in a warm place and allow to rise 1 to 2 hours, or until the dough is over the rim of the cups.

As soon as the dough has risen the second time, bake in the upper third of a preheated 180C/375F oven for about 15 minutes.

{ Sugar syrup }

Both the babas and the rum syrup should be lukewarm but not hot before this operation begins.  If the babas are cold, warm slightly.

* Ingredients *
2 cups of water
1 cup sugar
½ cup dark rum (preferably Jamaican)

* Directions *
Bring the water and sugar to a boil.  Remove from the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  When the sugar syrup has cooled to lukewarm, stir in the rum.  Arrange the babas in a dish, with their puffed tops up.  Prick tops in several places, pour the syrup over them and let stand for ½ hour basting frequently.  They should imbibe enough syrup so they are moist and spongy but still hold their shape.  Drain on rack for ½ hour.

After the babas have drained, sprinkle the top of each with a few drops of rum. Pain them with some apricot glaze/preserve, and place a cherry on top of each.

Makes 12 babas

Roulez tambours, résonnez musettes : voici  enfin la fameuse recette de brioche courgettes-chocolat qu’une collègue, Régine que je remercie en passant, m’a enfin transmise! Bien que la saison des courgettes ne batte plus son plein, on en trouve encore dans les rayons. Il en faut d’ailleurs une quantité très raisonnable pour cette brioche : 150- 200g ce qui représente une grosse courgette.

La brioche en elle-même, cuite en machine à pain, est excellente bien que la plupart de mes pépites de chocolat aient fondu (manque évident de maîtrise et de patience de ma part, la MAP se trouvant au sous-sol).  Vous savez ce qu’il vous reste à faire pour demain matin .

Brioche courgettes-chocolat / Zucchini and chocolate brioche :

Ingrédients :

- 500g de farine

- 100g de pépites de chocolat

- 150g de courgettes rapées

- 50g de cacao en poudre

- 1 oeuf

- 60g de beurre

- 200ml de lait

- 1 sachet de levure deshydratée

- 60d de sucre

- 1cc de sel

Préparation :

Dans un saladier, mélanger le beurre fondu, le cacao, le sucre, le sel, l’oeuf, le lait, les courgettes rapées et enfin la levure. Transvaser la pâte dans cuve et ajouter la farine. Sélectionner le programme adéquat. Rajouter les pépites de chocolat au bip .

Déguster le dimanche matin au petit déjeuner .

In English here

Encore une fois , je n’ai pas beaucoup de mérite … A part le fait de me ballader beaucoup dans vos cuisines , d’avoir souvent des coups de coeur et de parfois sauter le pas , et de les réaliser tel que !

Brioche nature

Cette recette , je l’ai trouvé là ! ( Ce blog porte bien son nom , B comme Bon , mais aussi comme Beau , j’aime beaucoup ! )

Et une fois n’est pas coutume , je vous laisse aller voir la recette originale , j’ai fait tout pareil , comme il faut , et c’était parfait ! Alors pourquoi , je viendrai rajouter mon grain de sel !

 Pour accompagner mes confiotes , j’ai trouvé ces p’tites choses bien à mon goût !

Ma seule petite contribution , je les ai compté WW soit la recette pour 10 brioches , 5 points la brioche …

Full recipe available at www.bonappetit.com

I love Dorie Greenspan’s blog and Tuesday’s with Dorie, so I was thoroughly excited to see her version of brioche in the October 2009 publication of “bon appétit”.  I couldn’t wait to make my favorite bread with one of my favorite foodies.

I was a little worried when I started because I have never used the mixer to make brioche, just good, old-fashioned elbow grease and the thought of running my mixer for half an hour really made me wonder if I was up to the task. 

I mixed until the “shaggy lumps” formed:

I added the eggs and mixed some more:

I added my butter one tablespoon at a time … 12 times:

I whipped it until it pulled away and climbed up the paddle:

It rose and I punched … I refrigerated and it rose … I punched and it rose some more and I punched some more until all was peaceful and sleepy inside the fridge.  When it was time to wake up, I punched and pinched and pinched and rolled until my muffin pan was full and then into the hot oven.

Oh. My. Goodness.  Never – never in all the years I have been trying to perfect my recipe have I tasted anything as delicate and light and perfect as these brioche bubbletops.  The smell was as intoxicating as the beautiful crusty rolls were delicious. 

There is no other recipe for me … EVER.  I am converted and dangerously happy and forever your student, Dorie Greenspan.  Thank you for sharing your recipes and your wit.  Today, I’m off to whip up a tart using this dough as the crust.

***  Word to the wise - make a least two preparations of this recipe.  If you don’t, once the first is complete, you will be completely disappointed that you need at least eighteen hours to enjoy it again.

~ Get Dorie’s cookbooks on Amazon.com

And brioche! I got it in my head to bake the brioche for this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection, Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce.

I’ve made brioche before, both the one from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking…From My Home to Yours and from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. This time I decided to try the brioche recipe from Elisabeth Prueitt’s Tartine. As Tartine recipes tend to go, it was a fussy recipe requiring a pre-ferment, both freezer & refrigerator time, and washing lots of dishes. And as Tartine recipes tend to go, it was the best recipe I’ve made. The crumb was unbelievable and the bread was gorgeous. I made the full recipe which yielded 2 loaves and 12 petite brioche sans tête (didn’t feel like adding the têtes).

In the introduction to the recipe Elisabeth Prueitt suggests using slices of brioche for tartines, French open-faced sandwiches. I thought that was a swell idea and made one using leftover toppings from my pizza party. It’s a 4-Cheese tartine with sun-dried tomatoes and red onions.  Most of the brioche is residing in my freezer for French toast emergencies.

I only made a 1/4 of the Sweet Melissa recipe because I’m not a fan of bread pudding. I made 1/2 of the raspberry sauce because it will be great on ice cream. Thank you to Candace of Candy Girl for hosting this week. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book–Melissa Murphy’s The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

After a long hiatus, I’ve remembered to submit this to Yeastspotting!

Sedan jag var på det fantastiska caféet Petite France senast har jag närt en närmast sjuklig längtan efter briocher. Och efter att jag fått en massa söta små bakformar av min mor fanns det liksom inga ursäkter kvar. De blev kanske inte precis sådär franskt perfekta som jag hade önskat, men väldigt goda och lite charmigt sneda. Receptet är ett skoningslöst mishmash av olika brödrecept och goda råd:

25 g jäst (ett halvt paket)
2 dl vatten
1/2 tsk salt
12-13 dl vetemjöl
4 ägg
1/2 dl socker
1 1/2 dl flytande smör

Rör ut jästen i ljummet vatten och tillsätt salt. Arbeta in lite av mjölet (cirka 4 dl). Degen ska vara alldeles för kladdig och inte gå att arbeta med händerna. Jäs under duk i 30 minuter. Blanda ägg, socker och smör och rör ner i den jästa degen. Arbeta in resten av mjölet och baka ut degen på mjölat bakbord. Smörj små briochformar (det går lika bra med engångsbullformar i aluminium). Rulla små bollar av degen och lägg en i varje form. Rulla också lite mindre bollar och tryck ned i en liten grop i bröden. Låt jäsa igen under duk i 30 minuter. Pensla med uppvispat ägg och grädda i 10 minuter på 225 grader. Vänta tills de svalnat och ta sedan försiktigt loss dem från formarna. Servera med smör och marmelad, eller något helt annat, till i stort sett vad som helst.

…as Schroeder would say in my favorite, most offensive Charlie Brown Christmas parody the world has ever seen (via youtube). Bad taste? Yes. Funny…yes please. But alas, I am off topic. I do want you to check this out though…a certain gentleman of the blogging variety has recently displayed his craftsmanship on none other than…yes – a killer sandwich. And the bread that binds it. If the sandwich wasn’t enough to drool over, the brioche is equally superior, made from sCRRratch. Like with the raw ingredients.

The photos are great, the construction sequence images are dreamy.  And the cheese is boss.  Anyhow, this is a MUST SEE.  This is art, my friend.  For the love of Pete (or peat, if you’re into moss), GO NOW!!!

This was meant to be the first class (before the gateaux) but then it was full in August, so they put me in for the October one. Here are the pics from my very very hard work in trying to learn and produce yummy french pastries this weekend. Note that all pastries seen below have been made from scratch, hopefully.. will never have to buy frozen ones again!

1. Croissant – Plain, Apricot/Pear/Strawberry Danish, Raisin Scroll (also known as Escargot.. cos it looks like a snail) and Almond Croissant.

2. Brioche – Parisienne and with raspberries/sour cherries/chocolate

3. Puff Pastry – usages: Sausage roll (whoops, no picture, we ate it all for lunch), twists (cheese/cinnamon sugar), Vanilla slice

4. Savoury – Quiches (making the dough too)

5. Afternoon Chocolate Tea Cake (glazed with ganache and flaked almonds)

I have finally had a successful attempt at baking a bit of bread! Randomly deciding to have another go at it the other day, I found that the only recipe I had on hand was the Brioche in my copy of the French Laundry Cookbook, and so that’s what I made. Above is a photo of all the ingredients required, with the exception of the yeast, which I didn’t realize had been excluded from the photo until deep into the rising process. It’s OK, though, as it was just your run of the mill yeast. In the past, I have tried and failed to make a decent loaf of bread approximately once a year, for the past five years, and have previously been so dismayed by the results that it would take the ensuing year for me to build up the courage to try again. However, that epoch has now passed. As can be seen below, it is basically perfect– the crumb, the crust–what more can I ask for? This is the bread that the Croque Madame is intended to go on, but in the past instead of just biting the bullet and making my own, I would spend hours trying to find a decent loaf at some bakery or another (a surprisingly difficult item to find.) Nevermore!







Well on Sunday, I had to come up with something to do while the bread was rising, so Gabrielle and I decided to venture on over to Mississippi Ave. (Portland, OR). We were delighted to happen upon the new food cart village, the Mississippi Marketplace that has sprung up over there. I had heard about it peripherally because a lot of folks were stoked about Jesse Sandoval’s cart Nueva Mexico being there, but I didn’t really give it much thought beyond that. However, the digs are pretty sweet. There’s a huge canopy tent down the center with tons of tables for adults and children, and the whole lot is out-fitted with some pretty incredible looking carts. I ordered the Carne Adovada Sopapilla from Nueva Mexico, because the suspense was killing me, and I just had to get it over with. Naw! The real reason was that last winter I tried to use ’sopa’ as a word for a kind of sandwich in a game of Scattagories and was denied by a one Christy Linden who stated, if I remember correctly, that it was soup! Honestly, I didn’t know what a sopa(pilla) was either, but now I have to say that it could pass for a type of sandwich in a game of Scattagories. It’s basically a piece of fried, lightly sweetened dough that’s filled with things. It might depend on what your definition of bread is. I hear someone around here has a cheeseburger on on a glazed VoodooDoughnut, so where does that argument end? Anyway, it was a pretty good plate, all and all, but what really made it for me was the pinto beans. Those were killer. What happened was that now I’m going to have to chill out on all these canned beans and get off my duff and make some fresh beans from scratch. Simply incomparable.



Gabrielle visited the cart named Ruby Dragon. They served up a pretty awesome never-ending cup of maté, and the special that day was very tasty—ginger quinoa blueberry gluten-free pancakes with a side of yammies. However, I have to say that if circumstances dictate that your costumer will have to wait upwards of 30 minutes (1 of 3 costumers at the time), and then only receive a single pancake (for $8), thus rejecting almost everyone’s idea of the term ‘pancakes’, then in my opinion a bit of a strategic overhaul is in order. Gabrielle thinks that what happened was that they had run out of her first choice, and then she decided on the special as her second choice, and that they didn’t want to admit that they had run out of her second choice also, and therefore scrambled to make more, instead of simply admitting that they were out of the pancakes as well. My take is that if you are out of something, at least as a food cart, then that is a good thing. It means that people are buying your food in numbers greater than you expected them to, which is a totally awesome scenario for a couple of reasons, but one that stands out in these circumstances is that you will be able to exuberantly tell costumers that arrive after you have sold out that they were so popular that you SOLD OUT of them! Anyway, it was really good, but took way too long to arrive, and we were expecting at least two. That, and excellent maté.







Next we meandered down Mississippi weaving in and out of specialty shops, reading menus here and there, wandering through the ReBuilding Center (which helped us realize that we know nothing about houses, among other things) with our ultimate destination being The Meadow. Ahhh, where to begin with this one. Gabrielle is still mulling it over. We learned many things about salt on Sunday at The Meadow, a salt specialty shop, but specifically we discovered that the universal acceptance of kosher salt (an agent of dessication) as Salt was equivalent to the universal acceptance of, say, “infanticide”. When asked if that might be a bit of a stretch, Mark Bitterman, owner, Selmelier, and crusader for overexageration replied with a “hmmm. . . I don’t think so.” Later on we learned from a second source, a one General Patrick Ripton, that “people who use kosher salt are indeed not like Hitler, but in fact are Hitler.” I’d like to remind everyone that we’re talking about salt here, or rather, Salt and Sodium Chloride. Where does that leave us? From now on, every time I blanch vegetables or boil pasta will I have to face the consequences of essentially being a baby killer? That’s a lot of guilt, and I’m so desperate that I actually bought some of the fancy salt.



When we got back home the brioche was bursting over the rim of the bread pan, begging to be baked, and so I obliged its need. For the next 35 minutes I drank a cup of coffee, and did a lot of nail biting. You’d think I’d reinvented the zipper or something, I was so ecstatic to pull such an awesome loaf from the oven. To celebrate, I made this Grilled Ham & Cheddar Sandwich on it:







1 This isn’t actually the first full slice from the loaf it’s the 3rd. With the first full slice I tried something that had intrigued me when I saw it on the daily board at Addy’s Sandwich Bar: Chocolate, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil. While the bread was still warm, I broke off 3 pieces of a Chocolove Toffee & Almonds 33% Milk Chocolate bar (a brand of bar which comes packaged with a love poem), laid them out width-wise along the bottom of the slice, drizzled them in Olive Oil, and sprinkled a bit of the fancy salt, namely the Fleur de Sel de Guérande from my Finishing Salts starter kit from the Meadow, folded it in half, and ate, polishing the half-sammy off in three bites, one for each chocolate square. The experience was sweet, and savory with just the right amount of textural crunch from the toffee bits and salt. Addy prepares hers on a small baguette from Little t bakery, which I suspect is probably a better bread match for the combination, being that baguettes are much chewier and crustier than a brioche could ever hope to be, the chewiness and crustiness of which I can’t help but think would lend a textural component that would be unparelled in this paricular combination of ingredients.



2 The cheese used here is Black Diamond White Cheddar, the sharpest that was for sale at Pastaworks. It was good, but not any different than Tillamook, really, which I think I’ll stick with in the future because it has a better price point, and is a bit more local than Canada.



3 The onion slices are from a Purple Torpedo, which I could not help but try because of it’s fantastic shape. Surely, these must be a cross between a shallot, and a red onion, because indeed it resembled a shallot multiplied by a factor of 4 or 5, and sported a coat somewhere in between the purple skin of the red onion, and the bronze skin of a shallot. The flavor profile leaned more towards that of a shallot, however, being quite strong, and pungent. Recommended for those who truly love a powerful onion.



4 A good smoked ham is hard to find. I can’t even count on three fingers the times that I have eaten truly unforgettable ham, and here I’ve been able to purchase some of the best caliber from the butcher at Pastaworks, just across the street from me, and I hadn’t even realized it. In the past I have bought Boar’s Head, which is fine, I guess, but nothing special. It’s your basic deli meats. The difference is that the ham pictured above is extrordinary, and it is less expensive. It’s sourced from Voget Meats in Hubbard, OR, a mere 30 minutes outside of Portland. I’m tempted to make a trip down there on my next day off work, but I’d be hard pressed to eat a 16 lb smoked ham on my own. But still, I am indeed tempted.



5 I try not to buy too many products sourced from other countries (with the exception of salt, haha), but in the case of this avocado, I was hoodwinked. The sign said it was of Californian variety, but later on as I peeled off the ‘Purity’ tag I read there in tiny font that the source was instead Chile. I’m don’t feel as much guilt about this misstep as I do about my decidedly suspect support of infanticide, but there is a pang, meaning that I think about it, but then let it fall from concioussness, and try to do better next time. I did a search in order to try and find the correct term for the outer layer of the avocado, be it the skin, or peel, or what have you, and came upon this page, hosted at avocadosource.com, “dedicated to the dissemination of avocado knowledge” (this being the type of statement which always kills me, because it never ceases to amaze that there is always someone to disseminate any information that you could ever dream of.) In the article they refer to the avocado as a berry, which surprised me a great deal, and that the scientific term for the outer layer is the exocarp, but the skin or rind are acceptable for layman’s terms. What struck me most in the article (from the 1940’s) was that there was a participant by the name of Haas A.R.C., and what I thought was, well, Haas, that is the leading seller of avocado’s right? The Haas Avocado. But right now, I’m having trouble coming to terms with the idea that a ‘Haas’ Avocado doesn’t exist, and that I am just one of many, many people who have fallen for the common misspelling, as the ‘Hass’ Avocado wikipage, and website are leading me to believe. There is an incongruity here that I need to solve, and only close observation at the grocery stores will be able to solve this for me. In any case, I web searched the ‘Haas’ avocado, a search I made because the study lists 5 varieties of avocados that were included in the research, and in my mind, I can only think of one variety by name (the Haas), and the first hit was the Hass site, a company whose flippant motto (for any one who cares about seasonality, or at least the grossly absurd idea of a winter tomato) , or slogan, is “Always in Season.” Is it? Are they. . . always in season? They can’t possibly be, and if they are, at what cost? The avocado season is spring. That means that in the Northern hemisphere they fruit and ripen sometime around April, give or take a few months. I just learned that myself, so we’re together here, unless of course you are a seasonality wonk. For the normal, everyday grocery shopper, the idea of seasonality doesn’t exist. If it’s in the store, it means that it’s growing somewhere, and that’s the end of the thought process–it’s available, so lets eat it. Which brings us around to the fact that the avocado I bought was shipped here from Chile, a distance of 5,500 miles by sea, where it is Spring now, so that I, and many others in this hemisphere, could eat one in the fall. Is all that matters is that it is in season somewhere?



6 More cheese, with a sprinkling of fancy salt.



7 I butter the bread before it goes in the pan. I did the same with the first slice, too. I used to heat the pan up and butter it just before I laid the sandwich into it, but those days are gone. It always led to inconsistent toasting, and to rebutter the pan in between the flip was always a pain to me. Once I discovered the joys of spreadable butter, that antiquated technique fell from the repertoire.



8 The consistent result of pre-buttering is pretty evident in this photo



9 Sometimes I have trouble deciding what I’d like to go with my sandwiches. In this case, I went with a handful of Kettle Chips, and fresh black radish chips paired with a sprinkling of Turkish Black Pyramid salt. I think that in reality it should be one, or the other. Choosing both is a product of my inability, at times, to make simple, sound decisions, instead opting to bounce between one option and the next until they become so blurred and indistinct that the only course is to choose either all or nothing. So I’m left considering all my choices in an interminable debate with inconsequential results. Gabrielle thinks that this carries over into a lot of my blog posts, her prime example being the one concerning our cat, Rigel. In other words, she called me long-winded. So in response, I decided to footnote this post so that I could further articulate some of the things that were on my mind without them impinging on the general trajectory of the post-prime. I think that there are readers who read footnotes, and readers who don’t, which is surely an important distinction in readers, and an important decision that those individual readers have made for themselves. I had a roommate who read Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and skipped all the fancy parts, and loved it, where as I found the book an unreadable bore, and I’m a fan of footnotes. One of the reasons that I’m doing this, I think, is that I just read The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, and it renewed my admiration for the footnote. I had been living under a false assumption (perhaps the second that I’ve recognized this week!) that David Foster Wallace revolutionized the use of footnotes, but how untrue. While he certainly didn’t invent the footnote, it would seem that Baker is reponsible for elevating them to a higher status as a literary devise. DFW simply took it and went fucking crazy with the idea.