Brioche

There's nothing I love more than a warm slice of brioche for breakfast or tea time, or any time for that matter!! My Facebook friends and I have been sharing and making this brioche recipe for a while now. It comes from this french blog and I have been doing it since. It takes no time to make especially if you have a Kitchen aid, the longest part is waiting for the dough to rise once overnight and again when shaped into a brioche.



First make the sourdough by diluting yeast in lukewarm milk. In a mixing bowl put 2/3 cup of flour and add your sourdough. Mix the dough and let it rest for about 1 hour or until it doubles in volume. Just like so...



Preheat your oven at 375F

In the same mixing bowl put 1 1/3 cup of flour, 1 whole egg and  6 egg yolks (in the recipe it asks for 175 gr of eggs), sugar and salt, mix for a few minutes, then add the sourdough. Mix again for another 10 minutes at speed 1 on your Kitchen Aid mixer.

Add 1 stick of soft butter. At this stage I switch from the paddle to the hook on the mixer. And mix for another 20 minutes !! I know it's long and that's why having a mixer makes it so much easier.

You should end up with a soft and elastic dough that dos not stick to the mixing bowl

Put the dough in a large bowl (large enough so the dough can rise easily) cover with saran wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day take your dough which should have risen, and punch it to give it it's initial size !

Roll out your dough in a rectangle shape,

Fold it once...

then a second time...

and give it a 1/4 turn, repeat this operation 2 times. Roll out, fold and turn.

Cut your dough in 3 or 4 equal parts...

and shape them into balls,

Place the balls in your bread pan, cover with a towel and let rise for 3 hours or until it doubles in size

Obviously mine went a little bit over board, but that's OK. Paint the top with an egg wash. Put a small dish of water in your preheated oven and in goes the brioche. Bake for 30 minutes, 10 minutes before the end of cooking cover the brioche with a sheet of aluminium foil. Then leave it an extra 5 to 10 minutes in your oven with the oven turned off.

Always keep an eye on it during the cooking process though, all ovens are not equal, and from one oven to another you will have to adjust the temperature of it.

And here's the result !!!! Doesn't your mouth water just looking at it !!! Sure mine is...And if you want to eat it a different way than with butter for breakfast. Let me give you an idea, get your panini maker out, spread a good BIG spoon of nutella on one slice put another slice on top and grill this baby, you'll feel like going to Heaven and back!!!!!

Brioche recipe

Ingredients :

2 cups flour

3 tsp dry yeast

1 whole large egg + 6 egg yolks

1/4 cup lukewarm milk

1 stick of butter soften

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt





Chicken casserole

It's that season of the year again, when we all get our big pots and crock pots and have our oven ready for stew season !! Gazing at the window and as the weather is getting colder we all think of one thing, well I think of one thing, a warm, savory and rib sticking (and thighs sticking also!!) stew simmering in a pot. And the easier the recipe the better !!! This one just ask for a little bit of work but worth the dish, and the saffron in it make makes it extra special.

Today no tutorial of the recipe, my camera had the most unusual accident a few days ago, it fell in my banana bread batter...don't ask. I thought I was going to have a heart attack, and I was this close to washing it but then I stopped myself and just patiently cleaned it with paper towel!!!

Ingredients :

2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 ripe tomatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
6 of each brumsticks and boneless chicken thighs
1 lb of small potatoes
4 sticks of celery, chopped
2 large white onions, chopped
3 bay leaves
250 ml (9fl oz) white wine
Good pinch of saffron
75 gr (2 3/4 oz) black olives halved
500 ml (18fl oz) chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 350F.

 1) Dry-fry the seeds in a pan for 1-2 min until fragrant, then grind them (personally I just used the already ground spices) .

2) Boil the tomatoes for 2 min. Drain and cool before skinning. Cut in half, remove seeds and chop (again here I went the easy way and used chopped can tomatoes).

3) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in casserole dish and brown the chicken in batches then transfer in a plate.

4) Heat the rest of the oil, add the potatoes, celery, onions, bay leaves and ground spices and cook until de veggies are browned.

5) Add the chicken, chopped tomatoes, wine, saffron and olives, and boil rapidly for 2 min. Pour the stock and season.

6) Cover the dish, and put in the oven for 1 hr 45 min to 2 hr, until sauce has thickened.