Unexpected Surprise...and a Lovely Easter Brioche

This Easter I thought of making a nice brioche to serve for breakfast. After searching for recipes in various books, I was set on making the lemon brioche from my Kitchen Aid book. However, Saturday morning I was looking through last year’s Easter issue of Good Food and saw another interesting recipe. The thing was, I didn’t have a nice brioche tin like the one in the magazine. I know, I’m picky. The lemon brioche was in the form of rolls so that wasn’t a problem, but if I was going to make this one, I needed that tin!

We had a hectic morning ahead. There was lots of shopping to be done before the stores would close until next Tuesday, so I settled for the lemon brioche and forgot about the one that used the tin. On our drive to pick up some 00 flour (yes, we have to go out of our way to do that) , Hans pointed out a cooking store we’d driven past before and asked if I wanted to have a look. As if! Now, I’m not joking when I tell you that MY brioche tin was the second thing I saw when I walked in! He took it from my hands, brought it to the counter and asked to have it gift-wrapped. I was thrilled! Even the gift wrapping was awesome! Between the ribbon, the shop keeper added a complimentary mini-beater hanging from a key chain. Very cute! Yes, I know I keep going on about what a fantastic husband I have, but how can I not?!

Anyhow, the brioche was delicious! I did notice though that it didn’t rise as much as I thought, so I put it in a barely warm oven to push it a little more and the result was excellent. Here’s the recipe:

250g plain flour

100g butter cut into small pieces

2 rounded tbsps caster sugar

1 sachet (7g) fast action yeast

3 eggs

beaten egg yolk to glaze

2-3 sugar cubes lightly crushed

1. Tip the flour into a food processor fitted with a plastic kneading blade and add the butter. Process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and a good pinch of salt and add the yeast.
2. Add the eggs and mix to a soft dough then knead in the machine for 2 mins. Butter and flour a brioche mould. Sprinkle a layer of flour on a work surface and tip dough onto it.
3. With floured hands, knead very briefly to form a ball, the drop the dough into the tin, smooth side up. Cover with cling film and a towel and leave to rise until doubled in size, about two hours in a warm place.
4. Heat oven to 200C/ fan 180C/gas 6. Brush the top with egg yolk and sprinkle with crushed sugar. Bake 20-25 mins, until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Tip into a wire rack and leave to cool. Serve with butter and apricot jam. Yum!

NOTE: I did all of this in my KA mixer. I also noticed that the dough was a bit wet so I gradually added a bit more flour until it looked right. Like I said, it didn’t rise so well, so I gave it a boost in 50C oven.