I reckon waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee, baked bread and freshly cut grass have got to be the best. Oh yes, and the smell of bacon frying. However, saying that, on the way home last night on my walk, I had a gust of prawns grilling on the barbie… what a lovely smell to walk home to… sometimes I smell people’s roasts wafting out onto the streets… I live on one of the best streets I think… Every morning as I walk to the train station… I smell fresh bread coming out of the oven… there happens to be a commercial bread and pastry bakehouse nearby…

Anyway… back to my recipe… I’ve always wanted to make fresh brioche… and now that I have (or the Boy) has… I’m onto bigger and better brioche recipes for the future…

The look of my brioche kind of resembles muffins… only because I didn’t have a brioche pan and used the muffin tray instead to bake them… Next time, I’m going to leave them in ball shapes and let them free form on the baking tray!

If you’ve never baked any type of bread before, don’t worry… it’s super easy and you can’t go wrong…

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons of dried yeast (about 7 grams or a packet of Tandaco’s Dry Yeast)
1/4 cup of warm milk
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 cups of strong plain flour
1/4 teaspoons of salt
3 eggs lightly whisked
125 grams of soft butter (cut into 1 inch pieces)

*Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Method:
Combine the yeast, milk and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar in a small bowl and set aside until it becomes frothy.

Combine the flour, salt and remaining sugar in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the yeast mixture and beaten eggs into the centre and mix well.

Place on a floured surface and knead until it achieves a smooth feel.

Add 2-3 pieces of the butter to the dough and knead until well incorporated. This is the critical point of kneading. You have to make sure that the butter is well and truly mixed into the dough.

Once that’s done, set aside and transfer to a large bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and keep in a cool, area.

Note: The warmer the environment the faster the dough will expand and double. It was a very humid day in Melbourne when we did this, and it doubled in less than 30 minutes!

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius. If you have a brioche pan (we didn’t and I used a muffin tray), grease it.

Using your hands/fists, knead the dough for a while until it feels smooth. Roll the dough into a small ball and place onto the tray.

Set aside to let it rise a little.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes (again, depending on how warm the weather is, it may cook faster).

To test when a brioche is ready, you could use the skewer test or tap the bottom of the roll (as it should sound hollow if cooked throughly).

Serve warm with butter, jam, or like how I had it… with Nutella!

I couldn’t resist and sneaked in a tiny little bite!

Now why do you think I would be making bread? Stay tuned for my International Hot Dog party post coming up 11.00am sharp Eastern Standard Time… 🙂