It's been so long since I posted that I've probably lost all two-to-three of my loyal readers. Where have the months gone? Well, I spent several weeks (and months leading up to it) baking and fine-tuning recipes in the wee hours of the morning in a pizza shop using their deck ovens and a variety of baking pans from my own house.
I was going to open a morning bakery in the pizza shop. But I missed science, so I stayed in grad school. Unfortunately, I didn't photodocument any of those creations, not that I had much energy left over for such.
Then I went on vacation.
I came back, and, truth be told, I was burned out on baking (and eating), so the oven sat cool for a while.
I moved.
Then I got back to some baking, slowly, almost trepidatiously, and definitely rusty. I over-salted a pie crust. I burned the bottom of a batch of cranberry bars. I set a chocolate cake on the glass stove top whose burner was on.
And I didn't bust out the camera to share these trials-and-errors. It wasn't part of the routine in the new house.
But last weekend that changed. I set out to bake more bread to fill the freezer for a post-swim snack in the mornings. I was craving brioche, and tried to ignore the strong lobby for chocolate bread in the house. Note that tried is the operative word here.
My brioche recipe, which women seem to prefer over the chocolate bread, and my chocolate bread recipe, preferred by men hands-down (go figure) are both rich in fat and delicious, but are different species:
Brioche: 5 eggs, 3.5 Tbsp sugar
Chocolate bread: 2 eggs, 1/2 c sugar.
So there I was, making brioche, or so I thought, when I added half the eggs and twice the sugar called for in my recipe. Plus vanilla extract. Oops. Apparently the Chocolate Bread Lobby was vocal enough to affect the hand.
Not willing to give in, I had about a pint of fresh cranberries in my fridge leftover from the cranberry bar episode. And cranberries need a lot of sugar. So I added fresh cranberries, almonds, and maybe a bit more flour to make up for the extra moisture from the cranberries. The result: delicious. These doughs are so forgiving, I think the only thing that messes them up is overproofed dough. I'll make this again. I will add more cranberries next time. At least 1.5 pints, maybe 2 full pints for this much bread. As it stands now, there are only about 2-3 cranberries per slice. It looked like a lot when I kneaded it in.
I blame the rise.
First, make a bit of prefermented dough:
400 g flour
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
500 g warm milk
let that sit on the counter for a while, until it gets bubbly. A few hours should do it.
Then whisk in until smooth:
5 eggs at room temperature
1 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
After which, knead in:
650 g flour
1.5 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
Knead well, then let it sit on your kneading surface for about 5-10 minutes for the gluten to develop before you go adding fats (remember, it's "shortening" because it shortens the strands of gluten that develop). During this time, you might consider washing your hands off and getting your other ingredients in order. This would involve chopping up some almonds- I probably used at least 1/2 cup, though next time I'll use more. And make sure your cranberries are picked over and washed.
After you've let the dough rest, go ahead and knead in 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), breaking up into about 6 pieces just to make it easier to work into the dough. When it's pretty well worked in (you will still see some chunks of butter) add your almonds and cranberries. Knead them in just until mixed through, being careful not to burst the berries.
Let rise for 1 hr, fold, then let rise again until about doubled in size.
Split into 3 equal pieces and shape into loaves. Put the dough into greased loaf tins and let it rise, covered, until the bread is close to the top of the pan- within 1 cm or so is fine. This should take 45 min-1 hr.
Bake at 350 for 45 min.
