**Adventures In Baking** The Thing About Brioche

 I woke up the night before last with a sudden anxiety attack. I haven't been able to calm down since. Today, I tried to soothe myself by baking. My anxiety abated only to be replaced with extreme frustration. The good thing is, I was finally able to laugh. But I didn't know what I was laughing about. (Does laughing about nothing make sense? I don't know.) Since I felt like I might be losing a little bit of my mind, I decided to try some baking therapy.

My goal was to make my first brioche loaves. The general plan was to make one plain - maybe with some sesame seeds on top - and the other with a lemony cream cheese swirl throughout. That sounded a little bit ambitious - plus, every recipe I found calls for a lot of eggs. I decided to just start with plain brioche.

The recipe I found via a YouTube video was simple enough. And I had all the tools and ingredients needed. 

Six eggs, people. SIX!

Leave it to me to screw up a simple recipe.

First issue:

The video cook obviously has a really nice stand mixer - or at least one with a really good motor. I have a very decent 4-quart Hamilton Beach with a 300-watt motor. It's a nice little mixer, no doubt about it. I have never had trouble doing any of the cakes and basic bread dough that I am familiar with. However, brioche is not your "basic" dough and I am not familiar with it.

Brioche is a very wet and sticky dough that requires a LOT of kneading. The video cook warned about that, saying not to attempt using anything but a stand mixer (and one day I'm going to look into how brioche was made before people had good mixers). Her directions are to knead at "low" speed for anywhere from 10 up to as long as 20 minutes, depending. Let's focus on the words "low" and "depending".

On my mixer, the bread hook is to be used on "low" - meaning Speed 1. That made sense to me so that is what I used. And used and used and used. For almost an hour. My dough never did pass the "window pane" test. Since my mixer was starting to feel very warm, I decided to be happy with the dough pulling easily away from the sides of the bowl. For another 10 minutes (past the hour mark), I ran the mixer at speeds somewhere between 2.5 and 3 - which is the speed I should have been using from the start (or not). By the time the dough was easily pulling away from the sides, my poor mixer was straining like the little engine that couldn't.

Now, I guess "depending" means depending on whether or not you have a mixer with a motor stronger than 300 watts. I'm not sure how strong a motor has to be to properly work this kind of dough. 

Just a little less wet & sticky than
cake batter!

For the first proof - the "warm proof" - my still-sticky dough went into an oiled bowl for an hour. Because I always keep my apartment on the cool side, I put the dough in the oven at what some people call the "light-on point". My oven doesn't have an actual light so I just turned the knob until I heard the first little click. That means my oven is on and will warm slightly but not (hopefully) get hot enough to damage the yeast.

Second issue:

When I checked the proofing at 30 minutes, I thought that my yeast must have gone bad.

An hour into the proofing, my dough looked as if it had only risen the very slightest amount. Was that right? I don't know because this is my first brioche. I went and scanned the internet, got overwhelmed, then I called my brother. I'm kind of irritated that my brother knew that brioche doesn't rise like "regular" dough. I have no idea what that means but at this point, I am not messing around anymore with this damned dough.

I punched down the dough (which did not seem necessary), and put it into the fridge for the second rise - the long, "cold-proof".

Can I just say that I do not understand cold-proofing dough? The only time I've ever put any dough in the fridge is when I want to slow down the proofing. So at this point, I am frustrated and very confused on top of which I feel really stupid. The only reason I kept going is that I'd had to use 6 eggs and eggs are extremely expensive right now. People, my head hurt so badly and I felt like an idiot. I just knew that I was screwing up this recipe. And I'd used my last 6 eggs.

Anyway.

When it was time to take the dough out of the fridge I realized something. I keep my fridge cold. Very cold. I went to pull the dough out of the bowl to shape 12 pieces and realized how freaking cold it was. I was pretty sure that I'd almost frozen it. But, once my fingers warmed it during shaping, it was still slightly sticky!

Boy, boy, boy...

At this point, I'm too far in to quit. I go ahead and shape the dough and layer it in the loaf pans to proof them for two and a half hours. I set a timer for 30 minutes so I can check on the proofing.

After thirty minutes, I realize that my kitchen may be too cool for the dough to proof. I didn't want to turn up my heat or run the oven so I was trying to think of a different (and more cost-effective) way to generate some warmth. First thought: heat some water in the Ninja to add to hot tap water. I could set the pans over the sinkful of warm water. That sounded like a lot of hassle and I was worn out from this whole ordeal. 

Now, here is where I have to pat myself on the back. As dumb as I often feel these days, I have flashes of real ingenuity. This is what I came up with.

Those are my loaf pans sitting on a heating pad ( set to Low) and under a damp kitchen towel. Genius, I tell you.

So after two and half hours -

Gawl-lee!

- my loaves had risen wonderfully. Well, at least, better than I'd expected them to rise...

Man! I was so happy. I was thinking that, even if my brioche doesn't turn out awesome this first time, I am learning so much about the dough.

I added some toasted  white sesame seeds

Now here is something about brioche and timing: decide how late you want to be up dealing with the dough. I should have started the process much earlier (or later) in the day. Or just late enough that I could fridge-proof the dough overnight. As it turned out, I didn't want the dough to be in the fridge for too long so I kept going and wasn't able to get the bread into the oven until after eleven. But I have insomnia anyway so...

Well, how did the bread come out? Not bad at all, my friends!

At this point, my apartment smells amazing and some of my anxiety has gone away. I am so proud of this bread that I could cry. The only thing is I am not supposed to eat anything until in the morning because I am doing IF. But... I might have to cheat and have just a taste of the bread before I seal it up for freezing. I will be back to finish this post once I've had my first taste.

NEXT DAY...

... I did have a taste because I was so excited for one of my neighbors to try it. It's nothing like the super-soft and buttery brioche I buy from Aldi but it wasn't awful. It was more bread-like than I thought it should be. My neighbor (who is more honest and unfiltered than a 5-year-old) said that it had a "beautiful" taste but was a little bit dry. As they say on the GBBO, I'll take that. 

I am ashamed to admit that I showed off some pictures to friends and family on Facebook. I decided that I would save my beautiful-tasting "but a little bit dry" brioche to better use as the base for bread pudding.

Yay! I did it. I made brioche and I didn't totally screw it up. I will try to make a lemon cream cheese-filled version next time. I still owe my little brother a birthday treat anyway.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: Since I first wrote this post, I did attempt the filled version. It did not go well because my poor mixer died during the kneading process. One minute, it was chugging right along and the next minute it began to sound like it had developed emphysema. The bread hook was barely turning. I tried to finish kneading by hand (impossible to do, by the way) and just ended up going through the rest of the process with the dough as it was. Result? It smelled great but it was barely proofed. I couldn't really work with the dough during the shaping process and... after baking, half the dough was a melted mess of ick.

When my niece called me, I told her that I'd changed my Christmas gift wish. Hopefully, I get a replacement (but stronger) mixer this year...

**REVIEW** Hamilton Beach 2 Lb Digital Bread Maker

 As mentioned in a prior post, here is my review of the breadmaker that I got for Christmas.

The machine, the bread pan and
2 kneading paddles

You can see the controls beside the LED
and 12 usage options along the 
top left side

I chose this one after looking at a bunch of others because:

• The features, especially being programmable and being able to make a variety of items.
• The price was reasonable & I didn't want or need the fanciest, priciest machine from my family.
• Things mentioned in less-than-glowing reviews didn't really put me off.
• It looked easy to clean.

Now that I have the machine and have used it, I'm really pleased with my choice. I can add these to the positives:

• Incredibly easy to use. I was sweating and stressing but as soon as I started, it was a snap.
• Even though it's quite large and my kitchen is small, I have found a counter for leaving it out on and a space for storing it away. And, believe, me, my kitchen is almost too small to cuss a cat in.
• It's very quiet. I have one annoying and noisy neighbor who I always complain about. I didn't want a machine that made me look bad. I can use this thing at night and it wouldn't wake anyone in the apartment.

There are some things I wish were better, but they don't ruin my experience. These include:

• The LED display doesn't show where in the breadmaking cycle the machine is at. I have to pay attention to the alerting beeps if I want to add seeds/nuts or remove the prepared dough for baking in the oven. (I sometimes want a loaf made in the cast iron or fixed into a particular shape.) I also like to remove the bread after the last kneading so that I can remove the paddle. That way, I don't end up with that hold at the bottom of my finished bread.
• Since my recipes include a lot of seed/nuts and mixed flours, I do have to open the machine sometimes. I do this to see if I need to scrape down the ingredients. For my thinner doughs, I have not had to do this.
• Hamilton Beach does not have one of the silicone-scraper kneading paddles. As a matter or fact, there are no accessories for this machine as far as I know.

Not much to complain about there. Also, the beeping is fairly loud so I can listen for when to add things or remove the paddle.

As I said, this is a pretty quiet machine. Here is what it sounds like (and you can see that I am standing right above it filming):

Basically, I can run this machine in the kitchen and just barely hear it from the bedroom about 12 feet away with the door open. Tiny apartment living can be challenging so this is a Plus.

Here is one of my first loaves of bread because I ate the 2nd loaf without getting photos!

Whole wheat & white flour; turmeric, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, 
and flax (seed and ground).

My play on an Ezekiel Bread type of loaf. With a twist!

I got the basic recipe online. and added the turmeric.

 Now that I have gotten comfortable, I will be modifying all recipes with nuts, ancient grain flours, and as much healthy stuff as I can think of. I don't want to live by bread alone, but I want to enjoy every piece of bread I eat.

I have not even thought about how to use all of the functions yet but here are the choices:

Glad the option is there but I 
won't be using the gluten-free...

The Basic cycle is what I used to make my first loaves of bread. I plan to try doing a Brioche-style loaf soon though. But the thing I am most excited about is that Jam setting. 

I first thought that the Jam setting is the one I would never use (I mean, after the Gluten-free option), but I have watched videos showing how easy it is to make jam in these things. Of all the methods I watched, the easiest recipe was this one:

• Fruit (fresh or frozen but I am going to use unsweetened canned pineapple)
• Sugar (anywhere from 1 to 4 cups. Apparently, sugar thickens the outcome if you aren't using pectin)
• Lemon juice. 

I have seen some recipe videos where people acted pectin to thicken the jam. Since I plan to make very small batches, and I don't want a lot of sugar, I will use either no pectin or a sugar-free version. Also, I am cutting way back on sugar - which is why I'll use pectin at all. This lady here had the most no-nonsense recipe for beginners, in my opinion.

One of the best marmalades I ever had was one I found back home in Anchorage. It was a pineapple-orange marmalade that I've never found yet in Iowa stores. 

Oh, and this machine makes both jam and jelly...

Thanks to Spruce Eats, I understand the differences between jam, jelly, and marmalade:

The more you know...

So that's is all about this amazing bread machine.

The price has been swinging all over the place for the past year. I started looking at this one about 6 months ago when the price seemed to hover between 80 to 90 dollars. When I sent my family the link, the price was around 90 bucks.  I almost changed my mind and when I made the final decision, the price was down to 80 and some change. Not bad, right? Well, when I just now went over to grab the link for this post, the price was sitting at 70 dollars. Crazy.

Still, it is worth what it cost. If I was able to buy it for myself, I would not have been mad about paying $100. If you have priced Ezekiel Bread (or any other good quality bread) lately, you will see how fast the machine pays for itself. And with the jam? Shut UP!

Next time, I will be reviewing the Stand Mixer that was my second gift.

Peace

--Free