Patience is a virtue...

Baking is sometimes a funny little thing. One small wrong move and you can completely destroy what you were making. Not enough yeast in your bread - uh oh! A little too much salt - yikes! The old adage goes "if cooking is an art then baking is a science" and you know what... it really is not that far off. In cooking you will often see things like "salt and pepper to taste" written in a recipe but when have you ever seen a cake recipe saying "flour to your desired thickness"?


Over the years as my baking skills improved I found myself trying more "professional" recipes and I started to notice one thing that they all had in common. Things were measured out by weight. <flashback to high school chemistry class with beakers and scales!> The more traditional a recipe was the more I noticed that the flour, the butter, the sugar, EVERYTHING was weighed in grams or ounces. It made me stop and think about how this can really change the outcome of what you are making. If you've ever played around with a digital scale you know that even a teaspoon can change the weight and I'm sure that no one pours a cup of sugar the same way twice (well, maybe Martha Stewart but who else has time to be that anal retentive?!)


Sure, there are a few baking recipes out there that you can play around with I mean who doesn't like a few extra chocolate chips floating around in that sea of cookie dough? For the most part baking recipes are tried and true and a slight variation will lead to slightly different results. If you have the patience to measure everything out accurately and add your ingredients at just the right time the possibilities to what you can create are endless.


If you are feeling up to the challenge :) making brioche is a process that will certainly put your patience to the test but in the end you will be rewarded with quite a treat. Brioche is a rich and tender bread that has a very high egg and butter content. If you play your cards right it is the type of bread you can serve at your next dinner party to leave your guests wondering just where you learned how to cook so well.

Brioche (please note that this dough will take two days to prepare)


The perfect size loaf for a dinner gathering can be made in a 1.5lb loaf pan. If you don't have multiple loaf pans at home go and grab the disposable kind you see at the supermarket (and you can reuse them!)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of Dry Yeast
1/4 cup of tepid water (think baby bottle warm)
2 ounces of sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt
16 ounces of flour
5 large eggs
8 ounces of soft unsalted butter, divided into teaspoons (It is best to cut your butter while still cold and allow it to come to room temperature on a plate) 
Directions:
Put the two ounces of water into a small bowl, add yeast and a pinch of the sugar, mix and set aside to proof for 5 minutes.


In a stand mixer, on low speed with a dough hook attachment, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add yeast mixture. Slowly add eggs two at a time allowing eggs to become incorporated before adding more. You dough will begin to come together but will still look very rough. Once all eggs have been added place your mixer on medium speed and let it run for 7-8 minutes. Every few minutes stop the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl (while a stand mixer is great for a lot of things, it does not do well with scraping the sides of the bowl and you want to make sure that you have all of the flour in the dough).


At this point your dough should have come together nicely and start to resemble a bread dough. With the mixer still on medium add butter two teaspoons at a time. Allow the butter to be incorporated before adding more and stop every four additions to scrape down the sides of the bowl. This process should take around 8-9 minutes. Once all of the butter has been added allow the dough to mix for an additional two minutes. You should notice that your dough has now become very silky and shiny looking and will also be sticky.


Place the dough into a clean bowl (do not grease) and cover with a dry cloth (or plastic wrap). Let it rise in the room until it has doubled in size. The length of time it will take depends on the temperature of your room. A good way to tell when it is done rising is to poke your finger in the dough - if it springs right back at you it is not done, if it takes a second to come back you are good to go! When it is done rising dust your counter with flour and fully deflate the dough. Make sure to take your time pressing out all of the air bubbles. Place dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Place dough in the refrigerator for at least eight hours and up to 24 hours.

After the dough has risen again in the refrigerator take it out and fully deflate making sure to press out all the air bubbles.


Grease the inside of each loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. Weigh out 7 ounce portions of the dough; each loaf pan will be filled with 7 ounces. Once you have your portions work with one loaf pan at a time. Take your portion of dough and divide into four equal size sections (or as equal as you can get them). Roll each quarter portion into a small ball and then shape with your hands into a log. Place each log at the bottom of the loaf pan. (For a different look you can. also divide the 7 ounce portion into 8 little balls and place them in the bottom of each pan)

The dough balls and logs sitting in each pan!

Once you have repeated this process for all of your pans, cover them and leave them in the room to rise a third time. This should take 1-1.5 hours. Once your dough has risen brush an egg wash over the top and slice little slits along each section to give air a place to escape.

Amazing what an hour and half can do!

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow bread to cool for at least 5-10 minutes before trying to slice it.

Don't be afraid of a golden BROWN crust - it adds a delicious texture to your bread

This bread is great served warm with dinner or toasted with your favorite jam. For the extremely adventurous who want to reward themselves with a true indulgence for having such great patience trying using this bread to make french toast and garnish with fresh berries! Enjoy!!