Brioche En Couronne

If this recipe here doesn't get your brioche loving juices going.. Keep looking around (when you're done gagging) until you come across something more like this with pictures that pop and entice you to actually give the long-winded recipe a go.

Crown brioche (also known as brioche en couronne) "uses a dough weight that is equal or greater than 250g. After the dough has been divided and weighted, each section is rounded into a ball. The dough ball is allowed to rest for 15 minutes, then pierced along the axis. From that point the hole is progressively enlarged until the desired "crown" form is achieved. The formed dough "crown" is then placed on a baking tray and then into a proofing chamber, where it is protected from the air. Before being placed in the oven, the crowns are brushed with an egg wash, following which the tops of the loaves are cut into "saw teeth" with scissors. They may also be sprinkled with sugar after baking." (Raymond Calvel)


This is my adaptation of the latter brioche recipe. It makes 3 braided loaves (pictures of the braiding technique can be found here) or 4 crowns.

Brioche

225 g unsalted butter, room temperature
125 g milk, room temperature
520 g strong flour
8 g instant yeast
75 g sugar
8 g salt
4 eggs (210 g)
1 yolk (30 g), for brushing
15 g milk, for brushing

To make the sponge, in a small bowl combine 70 g flour and yeast.
Add milk and whisk until smooth.
Cover and let proof for 30 mins at room temp.
Place remaining flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric standing mixer.
Lightly whisk eggs and combine with sponge.
Pour into mixer and mix on low speed for 4 minutes with dough hook.
Increase speed to medium and continue mixing for an additional 15 minutes.
Decrease speed to low and add butter a little at a time until fully incorporated.
Increase speed to medium and mix for 5 minutes or until gluten is fully developed and the dough can be stretched thinly without breaking.
Place dough into a well-greased tray and cover.
Proof for 1 hour at 30ºC.
Degas gently and push the dough out to cover the tray in an even layer for fast and even dough retardation.
Cover and refrigerate for 14 hours.
Turn onto lightly floured bench and cut into 3 or 4 equal pieces for braids or crowns respectively.
For braids divide the 3 pieces of dough into 9 and roll out into long sausage-like lengths.
Braid 3 lengths together, tucking the ends underneath and place onto trays lined with baking paper.
Cover with a large clean cotton cloth to prevent drying out (and formation of "elephant skin") and proof at 25ºC for 2 hours.
Make egg wash by combining egg yolk and milk and brush over the loaves.
Bake at 180ºC for 40 mins.

Some Food Porn

Okay I'll admit that I've been a little lax in posting lately. But before you go and get all upset about there being someone else, I have an excuse ready. I've been studying. Yes it's true. This Stephen King fan of science fiction fantasy and RPGs has had her nose in a 1000 page textbook folder brushing up on the very interesting subjects of applied mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. They're all such interesting topics I could go on and on about them for days but I'll try to restrain myself for the moment. I've managed to tick off 8 chapters and exams in the last month and hopefully I'll be able to keep myself motivated enough to finish the remaining 42 in a year instead of two. Because I still love you enough to want to keep you tagging along, here is some studious food porn or should i say mastication material. Grilled peppered cheese sandwich. Mmmm..

Oh, and on a little side note from Better World Books: "we're giving you an exclusive 20% off coupon on all used books. In order to redeem the coupon, enter the coupon code FBFAN10K during the checkout process on or before Monday, March 30, 2009. Thank you for your support, and Happy Reading."

Mushroom Ketchup

I was watching Heston Blumenthal's series 'In Search of Perfection' and I have to say that his enthusiasm for the scientific exploration of taste is quite catching. An email to Donna Hay requesting information on safe methods of aging meat at home unfortunately proved fruitless so I cycled down to my local supermarket butcher and asked for some rib-eye. He offered me a few smallish new york steaks instead which I accepted with slight reluctance before whisking them off behind the counter to wrap each carefully into a parcel of butcher paper.

Ten minutes later I was in my kitchen, tearing away the packaging and trying to figure out how I would cook them. I'd kill for a cryovac machine. They eventually went into the oven at 55ºC for 1.5 hours, looking very strange indeed with their layers upon layers of plastic wrap.

I left some baby red cabbages to braise on the hob with some garlic, rosemary, mustard and cream, picked some beans then began sorting out dear Heston's recipe for traditional mushroom ketchup with what I had available.

Mushroom Ketchup

360 g apple cider vinegar
100 g castor sugar
170 g swiss brown
mushrooms, stems discarded, quartered
118 g red wine
3 g mushroom soy
40 g brown onion, finely chopped
1 star anise
2 whole cloves
100 g chicken stock
3 g potato starch

Bring 300 g of apple cider vinegar to a simmer with castor sugar to dissolve.
Pour into a bowl and immerse all mushrooms until soft (about 1 hour).
Combine remaining vinegar with red wine, onion, star anise, cloves, soy and boil to reduce by 2/3rds. Strain.
Make a slurry with a tablespoon of chicken stock and potato starch in a small bowl.
Add all chicken stock, whisking continuously, then temper with a little red wine reduction.
Pour back into pot and whisk until smooth.
Bring to the boil to thicken (keep whisking).
Reduce until it reaches the desired consistency or thin with a little more stock.
Strain the mushrooms from the pickling liquid and stir into the thickened ketchup.

Rast Test Trip

I finally made the time to take a trip over to Bunnings Warehouse to get a trusty old-fashioned watering can and a few more packets of seeds to add to our garden. I spotted a pack of Jiffy Peat Pellets which "Give your plants the best start in life!" and thought I'd take those. Actually.. It was for the novelty factor - just add water and watch the peat pellets expand to 7 times their size! Anywho, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be transplanting coriander, dwarf borlotti beans, sun 'n' snow sweet corn, tiny tim cherry toms and forono beetroot seedlings out into the garden with the rest of my babies. My dad is always a little hesitant when it comes to growing veggies since the slugs always seem to get them first, but fingers crossed this year.

Rast Test results came back from Symbion Laverty Pathology yesterday and apparently I'm highly allergic to the 'seafood mix' which includes (but most likely not limited to) codfish, shrimp, mussel, tuna and salmon. Ah shit. Well that would explain the brush with urticaria in Thailand and Japan and last week. I asked the doctor a barrage of questions about the allergens, proteins, possible effects after consumption. I mean all it says on the piece of paper is "Allergen specific IgE Seafood Mix - High (2)". WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! TELL ME!

"If you don't eat it you'll feel better. Don't eat it. It's not good for you."

Thank God he went to medical school.

Does anyone else have experience with this pathology stuff? I suppose they just lump all the possible seafood allergens together and do one test since there's no specific information included with the test results. What does the (2) indicate? I've read that people who are allergic to say tuna in its raw state can still happily eat tinned tuna. I doubt I'd be particularly happy about eating tinned seafood for the rest of my life but it would be infinitely useful to find out exactly how the proteins change under specific conditions to denature the allergenic properties (I have no idea what I'm talking about but it sounds good doesn't it).

Therapy

It just occurred to me that I'm twenty-two. It's been six years since I graduated and I've done nothing with my life.

I think I'm having a mid-life crisis.

Apparently we're at our more attractive at age 23 and then it all goes downhill from there.

Six years! I still have no idea what to do with my time. I have no mentionable hobbies, no plans of grandeur, no achievements. God, six years.. No wonder my mother persistently berates me. I need to get my driver's licence; I need to quash my fears and take a holiday; I need to get out of the kitchen and meet new people; I need to buy a house, invest myself in something that my heart feels is wholly worthwhile, visit Melbourne, take a class, teach someone something and ignite forgotten passions. I don't want to wake up later and think "Gosh! What have I done with the last 6, 16 or 26 years?"

I've been calming myself with a good dose of retail therapy - a brand spanking new pearl metallic kitchenaid and canon EOS 450D, a set of bookshelves and the Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan. I've also signed on for a correspondence course called "The Science of Baking" run by the BRI which I swear I'll start tomorrow..