Brioche Bonanza

Yes, yes... I know. Brioche is meant to be shaped into little knots and put into cute high-walled fluted tins. Well, I don't have special little tins that exist for that sole purpose. It's not in the cards for me right now. AND, living on my own as I do, I can't possibly eat 12 or 24 little brioche rolls before they go bad. My elegant solution to this problem is the 1-lb loaf tins, in which my bread rises nicely, develops a buttery thin crust, and toasts from the freezer beautifully, if I do say so myself.

Being my breakfast toast, I like to change it up with mix-ins (I am a product of the frozen-yogurt for 4 years through college generation, after all.) My favorite combos so far: apricot-almond and golden raisin-walnut. Today I tried maple-cherry-pecan and I also did one in which I spread cooked apples over dough that had been rolled out, sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar, and rolled it all up into the center.

My basic brioche dough starts with...
400 g flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
500 g milk (cold)

Mix that all together before you go to bed, leave that on the counter overnight. Also, leave out a stick of butter and 5 eggs. Eggs are fine on the countertop overnight, and you want them about RT when you mix them in.

The next morning your starter should look bubbly and airy. If it doesn't, set it somewhere warm, like on your stovetop if you've got a pilot light to warm it up a bit more. Or bring it into the bathroom with you while you shower. Friends and colleagues need not know you shower with dough in the room...

When you and the dough are both ready, wisk in eggs and 3.5T sugar. Knead in 475g flour, 2 tsp yeast, and 1/2 tsp salt. Wait a few min for the flour to absorb the liquid and the gluten to start to form. Then knead in 6-8T butter, depending on how rich you want your dough and how the dough is feeling.

Finally, when you've got all that worked in, add your mix-ins: 150g nuts and 200 g dried fruit is where I typically start. It may or may not all make it in there.

Return dough to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, let rise. After about an hour, fold your dough to increase its strength.

Let it rise for another hour or so, depending on the temperature, then shape it into 2 loaves and put them into buttered 1-lb loaf tins. Cover those with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough comes up to the top of the loaf tin.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350. If you've got a baking stone, throw that into the bottom of the oven to help it maintain a constant temperature.

Bake bread for 35-40 min, until a thermometer inserted reads 190F or until it's golden brown on the top and "hollow-sounding when thumped on bottom," a description I've read various places and never quite grasped myself. If your bread isn't done yet but it's brown on top, you can turn the oven off and put it in the warm oven, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Resist the temptation to bust into those loaves too soon! Let the bread cool, it is still cooking. If you cut it while it's still warm, you won't be able to fully appreciate it's flavor, and the remaining bread will have a hardened, slightly fallen end where you cut.