Thursday, November 13, 2014

Baking Friday - Bread # 11

Thanksgiving Day Parade watching breakfast bread perhaps?
Think buttery rich French brioche dough filled with apples and cinnamon and cream cheese, finished off with a drizzle of caramel glaze.  Cozy and warm enough for watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade while your turkey roasts but fancy enough to perhaps impress a fussy mother-in-law.

As one taste tester put it, "this was the perfect breakfast."  I'd never made this before, but this is a keeper.  I will do this again!

And while it may look hard, it really isn't.  If you have a food processor and a rolling pin, you got this!  I promise.
It is all based on the brioche recipe that Helen Fletcher shared in her New Pastry Cook Book from over 25 years ago.  I will share her original recipe for the dough below as well as the changes I made in part because I was low on bread flour.  Scandal!

If you Google brioche dough, you will find recipes that involve long beating times of a rich egg yeast dough and then mixing in multiple tablespoons of butter until fully incorporated.  Helen's recipe can be put together in under 25 minutes, and that includes 15 - 20 minutes of a sponge rising time when you are off doing something else!  Her recipe is a real time saver, but in true Helen form, you get all of the goodness of brioche without any loss to the classic brioche flakiness and richness.  Helen is simply genius that way!

I didn't save any of this for G, but I plan to make it for our Thanksgiving Day breakfast.  We like to snuggle on the couch and watch the parades, and this is a perfect bread to snack on over coffee and hot tea!  I may very well bake it this weekend, freeze it and then reheat it on Thanksgiving morning and add the glaze at that point.  Talk about easy!

Ready for the recipe and pics?  Here we go!

Sponge
1 teaspoon active yeast (yes, only 1 teaspoon - trust me, it's enough!)
2 tablespoons warm water (warm enough for a baby's bath but no hotter)
Pinch of sugar
3 tablespoons of bread flour (from the flour measured below)

Combine all 3 in a small bowl.
Then let it rise for about 15 - 20 minutes.  Helen suggests wrapping it in a plastic bag tied shut to increase the moisture and warmth and help the yeast to grow.  At the end of this time, the sponge should be...well...spongy!
If you go longer than 20 min, that's fine.  I got involved in watching a DVD on World War II with G called "Band of Brothers" so mine rose quite a bit longer.  This is actually our second time through this DVD set.  The story line is that good, and I just love the theme music!  The soundtrack is on my wish list for my secret Santa this year!

But back to brioche!

Dough
2 - 1/2 cups bread flour (see note below)
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter (1-1/2 sticks) cut in about 6 - 7 chunks
3 eggs room temperature
1/4 cup cream or half-n-half

Note: I didn't realize that I was running low on bread flour, so I used these quantities, and it worked just fine!  The white whole wheat has enough structure to mimic bread flour, but I wanted to use a bit of all-purpose, too, so that it wouldn't be too "wheaty" if you know what I mean.
1-1/4 cups bread flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

I measured these on a sheet of waxed paper.
And mixed them together fully before removing 3 tablespoons for the sponge.
I put the remainder of the flour in my food processor with the sugar and salt and mixed for a few seconds.  Then I laid the butter in a circle on top.
I mixed in the butter until fully incorporated and indistinguishable.
Finally I added the eggs, the sponge and the cream.
As Helen instructs, mix all of these together, processing for about 25 seconds until the ball that forms at first breaks back down into a creamy batter.  Don't stop the processor during this process or the motor may stall out.
The batter will be sticky, but it is pretty easy to handle using a plastic scraper.  I placed it in an ungreased glass bowl with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the dough and then covered the whole with a towel.
I let it rise at room temperature for about 2-1/2 to 3 hours until puffy.
At that point, I stirred it down, replaced the plastic wrap and then covered with foil before setting it in the fridge overnight.  I could have let it set in the fridge up to 3 days before shaping, too.

When I was ready to shape, I put together the filling parts.  First was the cream cheese mixture.

Filling
4 oz. softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
Dash of vanilla and orange extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix these together until smooth.
3/4 cup grated apple (about 2 peeled apples)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Toss these together.
Finally mix together about 1/2 cup of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.  That gives us these 3 parts for filling the braid.  Promising!
Now I turned my attention to the dough.  I shaped it into a log, and then cut that into 3 pieces.
I chilled 2 of the pieces and then rolled 1 into a rectangle about 22" x 6".
I spread about 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture on the dough, and about 1/6 of the cinnamon sugar, 1/3 of the grated apple and then another 1/6 of the cinnamon sugar.
I rolled this into a log on the long side, sealed it and then rolled it to about 24" long before chilling this and repeating these steps with each of the other 2 pieces of dough.

Once I had the 3 logs, I laid them side by side, ready to braid on a parchment covered cookie sheet.
I formed a braid...
...and then wrapped it around an upside down ramekin to form a circle.  I love ramekins!
You can see that I didn't form beautiful ends.  Do a better job of keeping your braid better intertwined on the ends than me!  I covered it loosing with a towel and let it rise 2 - 2-1/2 hours until puffy.  It is better to let it under rise than over rise.

When ready to put in a preheated 350 degree oven, I brushed with beaten egg and sprinkled with white sparkling sugar.

This baked for 50 - 55 minutes until golden brown.  By the way, the house smelled WONDERFUL while this baked!
Lastly I put together a caramel glaze to drizzle on the top and put in the ramekin for adding as each taster desires!

Caramel Glaze
1/4 cup caramel bits
1/2 cup cream
Dash of vanilla
Dash of salt (more if you want more of a salted caramel result!)
2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar

Half melt the caramel bits in the microwave on low.  Then heat the cream until fairly warm.  Pour over the caramel bits and let sit for 1 - 2 minutes (similar procedure to making chocolate ganache.)  Mix the caramel bits and cream until smooth and fully melted.  Add the vanilla, salt and powdered sugar until desired glazing consistency is reached.  Drizzle some over the braid and then pour the remaining glaze in the warm ramekin that has been turned upright.
I found it easiest to slide the entire parchment on my serving platter and then trim the edgse, and we were ready to serve!  Breakfast anyone?

I hope you'll try this sometime!

Next week is Pie Night!!!  So I will share lots of pie next week!!  Hope you come back!

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