Alpha Bakers: Sugar Rose Brioche

As I am trying to fit baking back into my weekend life, it occurred to me that I might be out of practice. Rose's recipes, as much as I love them and I love the author herself (she is a sweetheart), does require multiple steps. Knowing that Sugar Rose Brioche, from the name itself, is brioche, which does require extra steps and probably a course of 2 days, I read the recipe ahead of time to make sure that I would not miss anything.

I was so busy concentrating on the steps and the days (i.e. I have to start on Saturday for Sunday baking) that I completely and totally missed one of the first sentences on page 476 that clearly stated to double the recipe.

Rats!

So again folks, I made 1/2 recipe, albeit unintentionally this time. It seems that 1/2 recipe is maybe my fate? I am okay with that :).

It was Sunday morning when I realized I had made 1/2 recipe, right before I start the Sugar Rose Brioche instructions on page 476. Oh well, damage is done. I went back to the storage room where I kept all my cake pans and took the 8 1/2 inch round spring form that I have.

It was quite fortunate that I have a smaller spring form pan, otherwise there might be more cussing in this blog post.

This bread was pretty easy all in all. Even though it requires lots of steps and lots of time in between but the good thing about it is that it's easy to work it around your schedule. And the result is extremely gratifying because you get this really beautiful braided bread that looks like it comes from a fancy bakery and you can hardly believe that you had baked it yourself.

Step by step photos for Brioche (day 1):

Yeast mixture.I use half King Arthur Bread flour and half AP flour.

Dump in flour mixture and let it ferment at room temperature.

After a couple of hours.

Mix the mixture until incorporated then mix in the buttah a tablespoon at a time.

After all the butter's in. I kept the dough in the same pot (why dirty another pot) and placed it in the microwave next to a hot pan to rise for an hour an a half. 

Look how big it is now! It then goes to the fridge to nap for an hour.

Deflated on purpose. But it looks so sad this way.

Shaping time. Supposed to be rectangle. Kinda a square, this one.

The first turn.

The second turn and the storage overnight.

Step by step photos for Sugar Rose Brioche (day 2):

Take out an egg from the fridge to warm up at room temperature. I speed up the process by soaking said egg in warm (not hot) water for about 40 minutes. Mix the egg with salt and then strain it to get rid of the thick egg-y stuff.

Quite an adventure trying to get the sticky dough out of the plastic bag without cutting the plastic bag (I heard that Rose reuse plastic bag so I plan to wash mine and keep it for future use) - you can see my 3-finger print on the dough.

Flattened with fingers.

Roll out to a circle or close to a circle in my case.

Brushed with egg mixture (which has turned brownish thanks to the salt) and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Fun part - rolling the dough.

Cut in half.

Cris crossed.

Braiding.

Braided.

The edge goes to the center of the spring form bottom and then the rest gets encircled around it.

Is it wrong to think that this looks cute?

After an hour and 20 minutes rising time.

An hour and 20 minutes of baking later.

It came out a tad too dry - I think I could have baked it 5-8 minutes less time.

Photographed next to No Knead Bread that I made for hubby (Jim Lahey's recipe)

A tad dry or not, I ate 2 slices already. Hubby took a small bite and he said "it's not sweet enough." When I told him that this is bread and not dessert he revised his opinion: "oh then it's okay." I think it needs more cinnamon. I put 3 teaspoon and I can't taste any cinnamon. Next time I will try using 5 teaspoon.

Alpha Bakers is a group of bakers who are baking through The Baking Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum's latest cookbook. Come check out the rest of the group at Rose's Alpha Bakers.

Click here for a full listing of all the recipes we are baking.