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