Fun With Brioche
A few weeks ago I started thinking about sliders (miniature hamburgers/sandwiches). And I was NOT thinking White Castle, for those of you who are familiar with the American burger chain. I know people who are in love with their sliders, but personally I think they're disgusting. I knew I could make a better bun and filling. And this way your filling choices are endless.
I posted this to BakeBakeBake, it's just parked here until the moderator posts it :)))))
I learned how to make brioche a few years ago in a cooking class at a country French restaurant in northern Michigan. What a fantastic time that was. We generated piles of dirty dishes making chocolate mousse, pissaladiere, phyllo purses, veloute sauce, and more. And didn't have to clean up a thing for two days. Trouble is, now I can't remember precisely the order in which we mixed the dough ingredients...I don't think it was anything very fussy. Chef Dave was a very un-fussy sort of guy. I know there are ways that involve starters, and carefully cubing the butter. This time I just sort of blopped everything together. My butter was soft to the point of melting. I figured the overnight chill would redeem all.
I absolutely love the smell of brioche baking. The most wonderful, buttery yeasty smell fills the house. And it may look like quite a bit of sugar in the recipe, but this bread is really not sweet. You can go sweet or savory with your fillings.
Brioche Dough Recipe (adapted from Walloon Lake Inn Fonds du Cuisine class cookbook)
1/4 ounce yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup warm milk
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 ounces butter
Proof yeast in a large bowl with a bit of the sugar and the milk for about 15 minutes. Add remaining sugar, salt, flour, butter, eggs, and stir until sticky. Knead for 10 minutes and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours, or until double in size. Punch down and then let sit overnight in the refrigerator, covered. Bake in molds, as buns, coffee cake or en croute, 350-400 F, temps and times depending on what what you decide to make. I baked these buns at 400F, for 11-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway though (they were small, and I wanted them to puff quickly). I closely watched them until they sounded hollow/dry when tapped and were a nice dark golden color.
The dough was sooooo sticky, I 'kneaded' it with my spatula/scraper right in the bowl, until I felt some elasticity developing. I could have let the stand mixer do the job with the dough hook too. But it was my weekend off, so I didn't need to multitask and hurry like usual. I could give it the time.
Pictured is a double recipe of the dough. I used two of the quarters to make 16 buns, and froze the other two for more fun later.
I let the dough balls rise about an hour and a half (uncovered--I didn't want anything to stick to the dough and tear the smooth surfaces).
I've done ground chicken patties before, but I had some leftover steak strips, so I made steak salad sliders, loosely based on this recipe.
Then I made dark chocolate ganache sliders for dessert!
In the past have made a roll and filled it with Nutella:
And a lemon coffee cake: I rolled lemon curd inside the dough, shaped it into a ring, baked it and then drizzled it with a tangy icing.
And I've done fish en croute a couple of times. Here's the one from our class (I've made a slightly more attractive one since then).
Enclose a raw fish filet with herbs in brioche dough rolled out to about 1/4 inch thick, make a fish shape, then decorate it with scrapes of dough and fin/scale details, the whole works. The dough puffs a little, but the design stays relatively intact. Just don't cover it with plastic wrap, or it will stick and your design will be ruined. For deeper shine and color, you can add an egg wash. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until you get an internal temperature of 140F. Our chef instructor cautioned us that an egg wash can fool you into thinking it's done before it really is (it browns faster). He preferred to leave it off, but I think it's pretty. Have fun!