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Wednesday 12 November 2008

Buttery Brioche Bread- Baked With Passion For A Worthy Cause!!!

Unadulterated decadence!!

Tuesday evening I started on my preparation for making buttery brioche because no matter what; I had to bake bread!! Even though its cold here and the proving of bread takes forever to achieve, I needed to do this come rain or shine, nothing was going to distract me from my ultimate goal!! I planned to make enough dough for one brioche à tête and little brioche rolls with a chocolate centre.

This is my first time of baking this light and airy beautiful French bread but certainly not my first taste of this delectable bread. My initial experience of brioche was many years ago when I stayed in France having tasted it freshly baked and served at breakfast with a large café au lait, sheer divineness! I can’t understand why it has taken me such a long time to bake this wonderful bread, could it have been the fear of mastering the art of this superb bread - yes!!!


Little Brioche Rolls with a Chocolate Centre


My reasons behind my desperation to bake bread are, Deeba at Passionate About Baking blog, which is a beautiful blog with mouth-watering recipes and superb photography of food, tagged me. I am very touched and also delighted to be considered for this tag for such a worthwhile cause.


Breadline Africa is a registered charity in South Africa that is seeking to put an end to poverty in South Africa and further afield in Africa. Their aim is to break the cycle of poverty and help communities to achieve long term self-sustainability. Breadline Africa was founded in 1993 by social workers and communities in South Africa with minded colleagues in Europe, (who were well placed to source out donations). They are geared to help fund small ground level projects in Africa which are most likely to succeed with financial help.


On Blog Action Day Breadline Africa launched their Worldwide Blogger Bake-Off campaign. The aim is to raise $1 million in funds for a project to convert shipping containers into locations for food production and distribution in Africa. It is hoped that these sustainable community kitchens will not only provide food such as bread and soup to those in need, but also opportunities for skills development within poor communities.



BAKE BREAD – GIVE DOUGH – FEED AFRICA!


Bloggers can download the Blogger Bake off widget and tag five other bloggers to do the same.

I am tagging (I hope you don’t mind ladies) five lovely ‘dear’ bloggers to bake bread.

Sylvie @ A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit
Gloria @ Canela Kitchen's Recipes
Uma @ Essence of Andhra
Rosa @ Rosa's Yummy Yums
Maria @ Two Peas and Their Pod

Close up of Brioche à Tête


Brioche à Tête


Brioche à Tête & Little Brioche Rolls with a Chocolate Centre

You will need to start this recipe the night before the dough is needed.

Makes 1 loaf and 9 rolls

Ingredients
400g (14 oz) strong white bread flour
50ml (2 fl oz) milk
2½ level tsp easy-blend dried yeast
4 large eggs + 3 egg yolks
50g (2 oz) caster sugar
1 level tsp salt
250g (9 oz) unsalted butter, softened
Lindit 70% cocoa solids chocolate (9 squares) for the chocolate centred rolls
Beaten egg for glazing
You will need a large brioche mould 20cm (8in), a baking sheet, both greased well with butter.

Method

The evening before, heat the milk in a pan until boiling point, then pour into a jug and leave aside to cool (100 -110 degrees temperature). Top up with warm water to bring the measures to 50ml (2 fl oz). Now stir in the yeast and weigh the flour and take out 2 tablespoons and add to the yeast mixture, stir well and leave aside covered over for about 30 minutes until the yeast is frothy and activated.

Now the yeast is activated, beat the eggs and yolks, sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl. Pour in the yeast add the remaining flour and mix together until it forms a rough dough. Cover the bowl as it is without needing, to rest.

*Note* have a warm bowl of soapy water at the ready before the next stage to wash your hands; this is the fun part!

Place the dough out of the bowl onto the work surface, without any flour, and have a scraper handy. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix it into the dough with your hands. Start to work the butter into the dough by stretching the dough side to side, backwards and forwards, and rubbing into the dough with your hands. It is very sticky the dough at this point, use your scraper to bring the dough altogether again if it spreads too much and sticking to the work surface. Once all the butter is worked into the dough and it feels elastic and very soft, scrape it back into the bowl. Cover the top of the bowl with cling film and leave overnight in the fridge to chill.

Next day, butter well a brioche tin and baking sheet. Divide the dough into half firstly, (keep the dough you are not working with in the fridge covered). With the first half of dough on a lightly floured surface, divide into nine pieces and flatten out slightly placing a square of chocolate in the middle of the dough. Roll up into a ball shape and place on the prepared baking sheet. Do the same to the remaining eight pieces of dough. Cover over with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place to double in size. Once doubled in size egg wash each ball of dough and place into the preheated oven 200°C/fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6 and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Place on a wire rack to cool slightly and eat warm with the chocolate in the centre still melted oozing.

For the brioche à tête, with the second piece of dough, shape three-quarters of the dough on a floured work surface into a ball shape and place into the prepared brioche tin. With a floured finger make a hole in the centre all the way down. Take the remaining dough and roll into a pear shape and fit the narrow end of the ball into the hole in the centre. Cover over with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place to double in size. Once doubled in size egg wash trying not to let any of the egg wash go down the sides of the tin. Place into the preheated oven 220°C/200°C/425°F/Gas mark 7 for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180°C/160°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown all over, then remove from the oven and tin and cool on a wire rack. If the top is becoming too brown before the brioche is fully baked through, cover the top over with some foil to prevent burning.

Eat and enjoy the fluffiness of this gorgeous buttery slightly sweet brioche bread, while it takes you to another level of unadulterated decadence!!


Coming up soon on Rosie Bakes A ‘Peace’ of Cake – a few awards and a MeMe. I haven’t forgotten my ‘dear’ friends those of you who have kindly bestowed me with these treasures :-D Rosie x

35 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

What wonderful little brioches! Delightful! A great cause too!

Thanks for tagging me! I'll see if I have time to participate (I'm running at the moment)...

Cheers,

Rosa

Finla said...

Rosie yu have baked a wonderful bread for a wonderful course.
Brioche looks superb .
Here too it is cold. SO when i make bread, now that the heating system is on, i keep my bread for proofing in the heating room ( the room were the central heating systme is )

Maria said...

Great bread for a great cause. I better get baking:)

Gloria Baker said...

Beauty bread Rosie, I hope participate in this lovely cause, but I have a question I can any bread??? or I have to do some special bread???? I will come later to see what you tell I have to go out now!!! xxxxxGloria

Uma said...

Brioche looks so great Rosie! Wonderful gesture for a worthy cause!

Thanks for tagging me dear! But I have a small doubt, can we bake any kind of bread or only brioche? Please clarify!

And I have to tell you, I am still a novice when it comes to baking so let me see!

Sweet Treats by Dani said...

a great treat for a great cause. good on ya :)

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Ive never made brioches before - they look fantastic

Abitofafoodie said...

Your brioche look superb. I love this buttery bread. I'm a hopeless bread-baker so I really do look on with admiration!!

The Blonde Duck said...

I'm glad you're back! The bread looks lovely!

Cakelaw said...

These are gorgeous Rosie - love that golden crust with the chocolate centre.

Gloria Baker said...

Is Ok Rosie today I will see what may bake!!! I tell you!! xxxxGloria

Maria♥ said...

I love brioche and what could be better than chocolate brioche!!

Rosie yours looks great!

Maria
x

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

Ooooh, very dinky, Rosie! They look great - very professional. Can I place an order?

Sylvie said...

What a great blogging event. I'll definitely get this done this weekend, as I have some friends coming over for dinner on Saturday and I'm sure I'll need some bread for it. x

Recipeswap said...

Looks delicious and what a good cause.

Rosie said...

Thank you all my 'dear' friends for your lovely comments and as always SO lovely to *see* you :)

Rosa please don't worry if you're not able to participate - I understand :)

Uma & Gloria, you can bake any type of bread you wish :) Many thanks for getting back to me and sorry I wasn’t quite clear about what to bake.

Great news Sylvie & Gloria I can’t wait to view your bakes.

*Giggle* A.F.F.O.S anytime sweetie :)


Best wishes Rosie x

Emily Rose said...

What a great cause! I am also so impressed with your brioche à tête it is so pretty! I love brioche so much!

Anitha said...

Hey Rosie, The brioche looks great. The texture feels so spongy & ultimate combination with chocolate.

Such an effort for a great cause. Keep it up.

Anitha

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

The addition of the chocolate takes this brioche to new levels. Baking it for this event brings our awareness to a new level as well.

Anonymous said...

What a great cause to bake for!

The bread looks fantastic! I bet it would taste good with nutella too!

J.L. Danger said...

Good for you! Those sure look good.

David Hall said...

Ooh! Pain au chocolate, one of the world's best breads! Fab stuff Rosie.

Cheers
David x

Silvia - Magnolia Wedding Planner said...

Rosie not only you are one of the most talented cook I've ever "met" :-P but you have also a enormous and gold heart!
Thanks so much for the infos and for the recipe! Can you send me some tons of those delicious brioches pleeeeaasseee? :-D kiss
Silvia

test it comm said...

Those brioche rolls with chocolate filling look so good! I have been wanting to try making brioche for a while now.

Maggie said...

Lovely, lovely brioche. One of my very favourite sweet breads. They all look wonderful. M x

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

PS I had tagged you for this excellent cause as well but I see you have already been baking up a storm...excellent:D

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I thnik you must have read my mind. I was thinking of chocolate and then I see your flaky brioche with chocolate peeping out of it. :)

Unknown said...

that looks great..am going to try it..

Rosie said...

Thank you Gloria and Sylvie for being such good sports and for partaking in the baking bread event :) Val if my poorly back will take it I will try and bake some more bread for this cause and your tag to me :)

Many thanks for everyone’s lovely comments it such a pleasure to come back and read such kind words from fellow bloggers :)

Best wishes Rosie x

Deeba PAB said...

Thanks a ton for taking up the challenge Rosie...& making this wonderful wonderful brioche. Choc just takes it to a higher level...looks absolutely delectable! Thank you dear friend!

Anonymous said...

Hi Rosie,
What an amazing recipe. THANKS so much for getting involved in the Blogger Bake Off for Breadline Africa.
We've had a tremendous response and so many yummy recipes that we don't know what to do with ourselves ... except eat!
Please don't forget to post your recipe on our website www.bloggerbakeoff.com - you can get people to vote for you and win prizes (and by the looks of all your comments this shouldn't be too hard :-)).
We have a wonderful project lined up which is a bakery in Africa that will gives others who are less fortunate, a chance to do exactly what you are doing - and also make a living at the same time! Just one of these bakeries can make up between 150-170 loaves per day and benefit an entire community. Because this project is so dear to our bloggers hearts, we decided that the person who raises the most money towards it will get to name it. So, somewhere in Africa you can have you're own bakery.
Keep up a delicious work and do pop by the website soon.
Cheers,
Tamsin - Breadline Africa

Rosie said...

Hi Deeba it's been such a pleasure to bake bread for such a worthy cause as this :) Thank you for tagging me sweetie.


Hi Tamsin, thank you for calling by and yes I will visit and upload my recipe to your site very soon :) It's been a pleasure to get the word out to the world on such a good cause.

Best wishes Rosie x

Anonymous said...

Great! I'll keep an eye out for your recipe.
If you have any questions let me know (emails to baker@bloggerbakeoff.com come through to me).
Right! - now I'm going to look through some of your recipes and try not to drool! :-)
Best,
Tamsin

Ivy said...

Sorry I missed this post of yours. Your brioche bread sounds wonderful. Thanks a lot even for being willing to bake again for this cause but you have done your share of baking and I appreciate it.

Rosie said...

Hi Ivy, please don't be sorry I am honoured to be tagged to bake bread again. It will be a pleasure to knead and kncok back some dough :)

Hugs Rosie x