Butter-rific (and the recipe)

Mmmm...breakfast was good this morning! Since that great recipe made 2 loaves of Brioche, we got to keep one ourselves. We thought about making Brioche French Toast this morning, but decided we should try the bread a little more naturally prepared to really get a feel for the flavor and texture of it.

I sliced us some hearty 3/4 inch pieces, lightly toasted them, and then put a dollop of my homemade raspberry jam on top. The taste was just like a croissant in loaf form! Wow, so good. What did you think mom? How did you prepare yours?

Some of you asked for the recipe, so here goes.

Golden Brioche Loaves, page 48
"Baking From My Home to Yours"
Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

2 packets active dry yeast
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup j-w-t-t-t whole milk
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, room temp. but still firm

Glaze:

1 large egg
1 TB water

Directions:

Put yeast, water, and milk in mixing bowl and dissolve the yeast. Add flour, salt and fit mixer with dough hook. Cover with a towel to keep flour from blowing out. Turn mixer on low to dampen the flour, then remove towel and increase speed to medium-low for a minute or two. It should look dry and shaggy.

Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Set mixer to low and add eggs, then the sugar. Increase speed to medium for about 3 minutes until the dough forms a ball.

Reduce speed to low, add butter in 2 TB size chunks beating until each is almost incorporated before adding the next. The dough is very soft like a batter. Increase speed to medium-high and beat about 10 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides.

Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temp. until doubled in size (about an hour). Deflate dough by lifting up the edges and letting it slap down in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Slap it down every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Then let it chill overnight.

The next day, butter and flour 2 loaf pans.

Pull dough out of fridge and divide into 2 equal pieces. Cut each of those pieces into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a little log about 3 1/2 inches long. Place 4 logs in each pan. Cover with wax paper and let rise until they almost fill the pan (mine didn't fill the pan, but they did expand until they touched. Dorie says 1-2 hours, but I let mine go 4 hours and they still didn't fill the pan.).

Preheat your oven to 400. Set the pans on a sheet pan. Beat the egg with the water and glaze the loaves using a pastry brush. Bake for 30-35 minutes until deeply golden. They will rise some more.

Let cool 15 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a rack to cool for another hour. Mmmm...