Baking a brioche on a stormy afternoon. A slow living approach.
We had a stormy day last week. The weather was gloomy and it was really windy. I decided to bake a Brioche. Bread making is such a great activity to slow down, and brioche are such a decadent treat.
Making brioche was really hard for me the first couple of times, and I wish I watched videos on how to make it.
Brioche makes wonderful food for any celebrations of the pagan year! You can adapt the recipe to your need and add the flavours and herbs. They are perfect for you feasts are they are the embodiment of the little luxuries, the little extra we enjoy on a celebration day! At the end, I give you some ideas to adapt the recipe to each of the sabbats!
Proving time in the fridge: a whole night
Cooking time: 25 to 30 min
A standing mixer with a hook or a hand mixer with hooks. If you don’t have any of those, you can mix by hand but it is going to get really messy and it is much longer.
125g butter at room temperature
3+1 eggs at room temperature
Activate the yeast by mixing 2 tsp of dry yeast with 4tbsp of luke warm milk and a tbsp of sugar. Mix well and let it rest for at least 15min. The yeast is activated when there is a fluffy foam on the top of the milk.
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt and butter together until crumbly.
In a small bowl beat 3 eggs with a tbsp of Cointreau or Rhum.
Add the beaten eggs and the yeast to the crumbly dough.
Start mixing with the robot for at least 5 min. The dough is ready when it is smooth, silky and sticky (don’t worry about that)
Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rest in a warm place. Near a radiator is really good or in the oven at minimal heat (no more than 30°C / 86°F). Let it rise for about 1h30 or when the volume has doubled. If there is a wind draft, the dough will never rise.
Once the first rising is done, punch the dough to remove the gaz accumulated. At this point the dough is really sticky and that’s normal, don’t be tempted to add more flour. Cover the bowl again and let it rest a full night in the fridge. The dough will rise a bit again.
Pre heat the oven at 180°C/350°F
Sprinkle flour on your worktop and start rolling the dough in a large cylinder. Cut it in 3 equal parts.
Roll each part in a long sausage, then braid them together.
Beat one egg and spread it on the braided brioche with a brush. It will make the crust gold and shiny
Bake 25 to 30min at 180°C/350°F
This dough has a lot of butter that make is very sticky. That’s why the nigh in the fridge is very important. It makes the dough hard enough to be manipulated. Try to work quickly so the dough stays cold.
If you don’t have room temperature butter, shred the butter with a cheese grater it will do just fine.
No alcohol? No problem! Try to perfume the brioche with vanilla or orange zest!
Sabbaths celebrations ideas:
Mabon - 20th-22nd September - Add some sliced apples to the dough before the first proving time
Samhain - 31st October - Add a tsp of pumpkin spices to the flour.
Yule - 20th-22nd December - Add orange zest and orange juice to the mix instead of the Cointreau
Imbolc - 1st February - Don’t change the recipe it is perfect for this celebration day!
Ostara - 20th-22nd March - CHOCOLATE! Add chocolate chips to the batter before mixing everything together
Beltane - 1st May - Use 30g of honey instead of sugar
Litha - 20th-22nd June - Again, you can use honey and also add oranges. Maybe brush a bit of orange marmalade when it is straight out of the oven
Lughnasadh - 31st July - Add Strawberries / Raspberries / Blueberries to the mix before the first proving time
