Delicious

Brioche, my love

So I've been trying out some bread recipes lately.  My very-first-ever attempt (Mark Bittman's Sandwich Bread) came out pretty dense due to the whole wheat pastry flour I used (don't use pastry flour to make bread).  My second attempt (Jim Lahey via Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread) was closer to a win although the fact that it was 'rising' on a day that we had our windows replaced (making the apartment cold and drafty) was not in my favor - and it came out a little flat.  However, since the dough was resting for almost 24 hours it came out tasting like sour dough - which was a happy accident.  And the crust was delightfully crusty.

My most recent experiment was brioche.  Brioche, I like.  My recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman's, as published in How to Cook Everything - a few changes noted below.  So easy and so delicious.

1 3/4 c white flour
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour (fresh grind, if possible) (Bittman uses all white)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 c maple syrup (Bittman uses sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted cold butter cut into chunks, plus more for greasing the bowl and pans
3 eggs plus 2 yolks (Bittman uses one less yolk - I misread the recipe)
1/2 c milk plus 2 tbs
1/3 cup water plus more if necessary

1. Combine the flour, salt and yeast in the container of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process for 5 seconds. Add the cold butter, eggs (saving 1 yolk for later) and maple syrup and process for 10 seconds.  With the machine running, pour (don't drizzle) 1/2 cup milk and 1/3 cup water through the feed tube.  Process for about 30 seconds, then remove the cover.  The dough should be very sticky, almost like batter.  If it is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at a time and process for 5 or 10 seconds after each addition.  If it is too wet, which is almost impossible (per Bittman), add another tablespoon or two of flour and process briefly.  My processed dough had decent sized chunks of butter here and there and this was just fine.
2. Grease a large bowl with softened butter and scrape the dough into it.  Cover in plastic wrap.  I made my dough at night, so at this point I put the covered bowl of dough into the fridge.  12 hours later, I took it out and let it set on the counter for about 2 hours.  Then, using some flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and surfaces, make two loaves.  I wrapped up one loaf and froze it for later.  I put the other loaf on a greased cookie sheet, covered it and let it set on the counter to rise again for about 1.5 hours (Bittman says 2 hours but I was out of time).
3. Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Mix the remaining egg yolk and 2 tablespoons milk and brush the loaf or loaves (if you are not freezing one) with this mixture.  Bake the brioche for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

What put my brioche eating experience over the top was adding a spoonful of sheep's milk yogurt and a drizzle of dark maple syrup on top.  Incredible.  M quickly fashioned a shorthand request for more bites of this heavenly concoction, "go-durt!" (as in yogurt).