Enjoying my breakfast outside

Dedicated to Lulu who always has some mouthwatering cake pictures that make me drooling on my keyboard ;)

 

In summertime, I like taking my breakfast outside, just after the sunrise when everything is so peaceful and fresh. Some people need to always have the same thing at breakfast as a routine. For me, it is the opposite otherwise it is boring. Today, it was vanilla red tea (from Mariage frères*) and a yummy homemade mirabelle plum and redcurrant brioche**.

 

♫ Breakfast at Tiffany's [lyrics], Deep blue something.

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* If one day you are in Paris, go to one of their shops. The one on Rive gauche is so old-fashion (I do not know for the other ones). Without the bank card reader, you could believe that you were a hundred years back in time. Smelling teas is a great experience. Their range is so large that it is very difficult to select which ones to buy. For the moment, my favorite one is the Marco Polo Green tea. Teas can also be bought online.

** These brioches taste like the ones we buy at the bakery. They do not look as pretty maybe because I did not put some "make-up": I did not spread yolk on and I did not sprinkle them with sugar pearls :-) If you want to read the French recipe with cranberries and see the make-up/mouthwatering version, go here.

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Brioches

Translation of this French recipe

 

Ingredients

For the dough:

500 g (4 cups) flour (T45), 60 g (0.24 cup) sugar, 9 g salt, 2 eggs (medium size), 220 ml (0.94 cup) milk, 100 g (0.44 cup) butter cut in small dices, 2 tsp of dried yeast.

Personally, I have also put some poppy and sesame seeds.

 

For the filling:

125 g dried cranberries (any filling you like such as chocolate, fruits, or cream)

1 egg (beaten)

some sugar pearls

 

1] Make the dough

If you have a breadmaker, add, following this order, the milk, beaten eggs, the butter, 3/4 of the flour, sugar, salt, poppy and sesame seeds if you want, the remaining of the flour, the dried yeast.

Start the dough program (30mn of kneading, 1 hour of "resting"). Add a little bit of flour if the dough is too sticky (should be a ball), or milk if too dry.

 

If you do not have a bread maker, just use your elbow grease ;)

Mix the tepid milk with the yeast and the sugar. Leave it aside 10mn. Beat the eggs, add the yeast/milk/sugar, add the butter, the seeds if you want and then the flour. You should get a ball of dough, not sticky. Then you need to knead for, at least, 15 mn. Let it raise for one hour in a warm place (without any draft), covered with a kitchen towel. The dough should double in size.

 

2] Shape the brioches

Cut 14 balls (~70g each) from the dough. Let the balls rest 10 mn. Then, using a rolling-pin, shape each ball into a small rectangle where the cranberries (or any other filling) can be laid on. Each rectangle can be finally rolled into a brioche. Let them rest another hour.

 

3] Bake them in the oven

Preheat the oven at 200°C (add a small dish containing some water in the oven)

Spread the last beaten egg on the brioches. With a pair of scissor, make some gashes in along the brioches. When the oven is at the right temperature, add the brioches. Bake them 10 mn at 200°C (392 °F), then 5mn at 180°C (356 °F).

 

Please have a look at the original recipe for the photos of the step-by-step.

Done