Back in May, I made a Chinese dish called Shaoxing drunken chicken, it wasn't hard at all but require a lot of patience during the process. Waiting for the ingredients to cool down, waiting for the marinade to soak it, a lot of waiting going on there. I thought that took quite some time to cook, but compared to making your own bread, I suddenly realized that the drunken chicken was nothing.
All the time passed waiting for the dough to rise, plus a lot of hard work kneading it over and over again, I think I gained some muscles after just this one small loaf. However, guess I wasn't patience enough to let the dough fully rose so the end result wasn't as "puffed" as expected. Still taste good though, especially I got this super fancy butter imported from Japan. And that satisfaction when seeing and smelling freshly baked bread from the oven, priceless.
Brioche bread -
Ingredients (for 1 medium loaf)?
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Extra unsalted butter for greasing and brushing
- Extra flour for dusting
- 1 extra egg for egg wash
How?
Remove butter and eggs from the fridge and let them rest in room temperature. I got this fine Japanese butter shown below which was sold at a whopping $20 USD, it was well worth the price though.
Separate the egg yolks and egg white for needed amount. Two yolks so to speak.
Slowly warm up the milk, lukewarm, not like you need to blow it before drinking type of warmness.
Combine 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour along with 1 teaspoon of salt in a big mixing bowl.
Also take another big container, I simply used the big bowl for the stand mixer. Break in 1 whole egg, 2 yolks, lukewarm milk, yeast, and sugar.
Whisk till blended.
Pour in the flour and salt mixture to the wet ingredients/to the stand mixer bowl. Use a plastic spatula to mix these ingredients till small dry lumps start forming.
Attach the mixer with a hook, knead with medium speed till the dough has been incorporated.
Add in softened butter and keep kneading till well blended.
Dust a working surface with some flour. Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer to the working surface. Form the dough into a ball.
Brush some oil or softened butter to another big bowl. I was running out of big containers so I used a clay pot instead. Make sure to use something that's big enough, at least enough room for the dough to rise. Transfer the dough to your chosen container and cover with a cling foil.
Place in warm place and wait for about 1.5 to 2 hours, or till the dough "puffed up," double the size preferably.
Take out the dough and punch it down, just think of it as your mini exercise. Roll the dough back into a ball shape. Repeat the punching and forming back into a ball cycle three times. Put back to the container and cover with cling foil again. This time, store the dough in the fridge and let it rest overnight.
The next day, remove the dough from the fridge. Prep a floured working surface again. Transfer the dough over and knead for about 30 seconds, more so to gently warm up the dough and become more pliable.
Divide the dough into 5 portions. Shape each portion into ball shape, and make sure the seams stay on the bottom. Shape these balls into logs.
Brush some softened butter to a loaf pan, I used medium-sized meat loaf tin here. Place the logs inside, side by side.
Cover with cling foil. Again, let it rise in warm place for about 2 hours. I think I didn't wait long enough here, perhaps I'll try to move it to the oven with very low heat instead to slightly speed up the process next time.
Preheat the oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit/170 degrees Celsius. Brush the top of the loaf with egg wash made with one beaten egg. Place the loaf pan to the center of the oven, bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Once ready, turn off the heat and open the oven door, let it cool off for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cool off again till ok to handle by hand. You can brush extra melted butter on top when the bread is still warm, but not necessarily.
It's hard to resist tearing off one little corner of the bread when fresh from the oven. The smell was too lovely. But please control yourself and just wait for it. Once ready, carefully invert the bread to take it out.
I like to slowly reheat the bread in the oven when serving it. Also pair with even more of that high quality Japanese butter along with some honey. Buttery and floral sweetness together, even though my bread wasn't puffed up as I hoped, but at least the flavor was pretty satisfying.
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