It's cold and dreay outside, and sprinkling most of the day. GREAT DAY TO BAKE! Yippee!
Plus it's time for HBin5 to make the first bread! Tomorrow I have to post my pictures of Pumpkin Pie Brioche. Funny thing is I couldn't remember ever having a brioche and certainly have never seen a Pumpkin Pie Brioche. Sheesh. Here we go again, making something I have never had a taste of.
First I had to go to the store to get the ingredients...had no pumpkin, and had run out of white whole wheat flour by King Arthur. So off I went. I was also hoping to find an example of brioche! LOL. Forget that idea in York! At least it was not at the Giant grocery store I went to. Even though I had skimmed the recipe for the ingredients I would need I hadn't read up on brioche so was just at a loss.
By the way, let me give you an idea of the lay of the land here in York, figuratively speaking. I love to make deli rye bread for my husband. That of course means I need rye flour right? Do you think I can find rye flour here in York? Think again! Occassionally one of the stores might have a small bag of it, certainly that store will not be Walmart. But I can tell you what I will find...a one gallon bucket of lard! Argh!
So I guess I should consider myself lucky that I can find KA white whole wheat flour, eh? And I do. But I still grouse. I can travel 25 minutes to Mechanicsburg and hit Wegman's and find rye flour there, and I think I can even find it in their bulk section if I remember correctly. Wegman's is an upper class grocery store, and one I love to go in to. Their breads are fabulous, but frankly my breads are just as good these days. What they do have that I don't make are pastries to die for. I mean you gain 5 pounds just standing there looking at them and drooling down your chin! They have a lot of high end items like duck confit, duck proscuitto (both of which I have made). One of the things I love is their kosher style deli where they even roast kosher chickens! Why do they have to be 25 minutes away! WAH!
Or I can travel 25 minutes in another direction and have it milled at Sonnewald's health food store, which I have done. When I buy it at Sonnewald's though I have to put it in the freezer. But it's really nice having it freshly milled! They also carry a good supply of semolina flour, another item difficult to come by here in York.
Anyhow, back to the Pumpkin Pie Brioche. I thought about buying some "fresh spices", nutmeg, allspice, and ginger for the recipe...but hate to spend $4 and $5 for a tiny little jar of McCormicks. I'll order it from Penzeys over the holidays, thank you very much (http://penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html). I also looked for fresh pumpkin puree but no such luck. They have it at the Eastern York Market, but I wasn't able to get there either on Friday, the only day of the week they are open. Work gets in the way again! LOL.
OK. So I come back with the groceries and jump right in to the recipe. You can find it on page 284 of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. All in HBin5 group have agreed to NOT publish the recipes online. Instead we will bake the breads, post pics, and stories about how it went but y'all have to buy the book or go to http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. They have a chocolate brioche that sounds fabulous, and a beef wellington wrapped in brioche dough as well! OH YUM!
I got the dough all together and it is really almost soupy, it is so loose! I worried about that but had followed the recipe to the letter (for once!). Then I sat down at the computer to read up on brioche. OH MY! We are in a for a real treat! I hadn't paid much attention while pouring the ingredients in but it did register in my brain that with 4 eggs it was going to be very challah like. I used oil instead of butter, but think I will have to try the regular brioche with the butter next time! I could taste the buttery richness and feel that velvetty softness just reading about it! LOL. I think I have had brioche, but this is definitely the first time making it!
When looking up the history of Brioche I found the following at La Gourmandise:
The history of the "Brioche"
The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, and this bread is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe. It is argued that brioche is probably of a Roman origin, since a very similar sort of sweet holiday bread is made in Romania ("sărălie"). The cooking method and tradition of using it during big holidays resembles the culture surrounding the brioche so much that it is difficult to doubt same origin of both foods. It is often served as a pastry or as the basis of a dessert, with many local variations in added ingredients, fillings and toppings. It is also used with savory preparations, particularly with foie gras, and is used in some meat dishes. http://www.lagourmandise.net/history.htm
Stand by for the next post! The dough is in the frig now and I will bake it up about 6 or 7 pm tonight.
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