Brioche

It was the weekend. I had time. What's a better way to spend time than baking bread? Picture it, gently kneading the dough while watching tv or listening to music, letting out stress and frustration when you get to punch it down, filling your house with the wonderful aroma of baking bread, and of course, don't forget eating it.

Once I had decided that I would be making bread, I was faced with the toughest question of them all; What type to bake! Images filled my head. To ease my decision I freestyled.



Ciabatta, Focaccia or Jewish Rye,
Which type of bread will I try?
Baguette, whole wheat or brioche,
Which type of bread do I love the most?

No Snoop Dogg, I do not want to be a part of your record label, thanks anyway. To make my decision, I resorted to my inner foodie spirituality. When there are tough decisions like this to be made, I do not ask WWJD, I ask WWKD (what would Keller do, Keller being Thomas Keller). Seeing as his only bread recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook is for brioche, brioche it would be.

Brioche is a rich buttery french bread, which is usually my bread of choice in restaurants. I had made it once before from the same cookbook with terrific results.


I mixed some yeast, flour, sugar, salt and eggs with my kitchenaid before slowly adding a very large amount of butter. It's okay though. As one famous, old, probably portly French chef said, "butter, butter, give me more butter!"
I let my KitchenAid do its thang then I proofed the bread for 3 hours. As soon as it had doubled in size, I took out my anger at my mom for making me do the dishes, by punching down my bread. I then set it in the fridge over night. I divvied up my dough then baked it in two loaf pans at 350 for about 40 minutes.
And Voila!

Wow! Baking bread at home is so easy, yet it produces fantastic results. I would even bake this just for the smell filling my house, not to say this bread didn't taste good though. This bread was really delicious. Light yet, rich and buttery at the same time. This is the ultimate grilled cheese bread.

I immediately froze one loaf, and dug into the other just as quickly, helplessly devouring half a loaf before my family could get in on the action.

Why buy Febreeze when you can bake bread instead?

Oh yea, and if you want a more detailed post about the same brioche, check out this link at French Laundry at Home.