Brioche!

So… we’re not going to give the exact recipe here… this was an Alton Brown recipe… and it was kind of a pain…. I’d like to say that the results made it all worth it… but… sadly, that’s not the case…

So… why the update? Well.. They can’t all be winners.

This recipe starts off like any other baked good… first some liquid… in this case milk…

Then eggs, 1lb flour, an 2 packs of yeast.

The eggs, yeast, milk and 1/2 of the flour go into the mixer bowl… where they get mixed for a little bit.. then covered with saran wrap and left alone for an hour.

After an hour… it’s time to get ridiculous… you take 2 sticks of cold,hard butter.. and beat them into a flat shape…

You beat the 2 sticks into a rectangle… then fold it in thirds.. and beat it flat again… and then fold it in thirds… and beat it flat again… then, cut it into small chunks…

Now, you add the rest of the flour, some salt and some sugar into the starter that’s been sitting for an hour…

You can change over to the bread hook now, as this is when the dough will start to form…

but then.. its time to put the beater blade back on… and start adding the butter…

This is why you get the best mixer… you’re taking dough, and mixing in cold butter… with the largest attachment you can find… for some reason, the butter needs to be mixed in while it’s cold / unmelted / not soft … it’s a pain… even with a mixer, you have to constantly stop and clean the beater… you can do it by hand… in theory… but you can’t get the dough or the butter warm… so… you have to freeze your hands using liquid nitrogen.

After you have the 2 sticks of butter mixed into the dough…turn the dough into a ball.. cover it, and put it in the fridge overnight.

Then.. you pull it out of the fridge the next day and divide the dough into 16 equally sized pieces….

After you’ve got it into 16 equal pieces… you’ll roll each piece into a ball quickly (so as to not get it warm) and put 8 pieces in each of 2 9x5 greased pans…

Then… cover the pans with saran wrap and put them in a warm place to rise for THREE HOURS … yeah… so.. let’s do a little recap… we’ve spent 1/2 hour making the “sponge” … then, 1 hour of waiting… then adding ingredients and making the rest of the dough for about 1/2 hour… then.. let it sit overnight… so… you’ve got about 10-12 hours into it so far… then.. you cut it and roll it for a half hour… then rise for 3 hours… then bake at 375 for 40 minutes… then cool for 10 minutes…. that’s 16 hours, 20 minutes into this bread. …

After the time in the oven… it looks like so:

It’s … … .. .. .. … .. ok. Really… It’s not great… which is why I’m not sharing the recipe… it’s heavy. It’s dense. It’s sweet… but not brioche sweet…it’s tasty with some jelly… but dry and crumbly on it’s own…

I dunno… in retrospect… I could have done a lot of other cool things in 16 hours… this isn’t horrible… but I’ll be looking for a better recipe… once I find one, I’ll let you know.