'Tis the season

RAIN!!  It rained today, a lot!  I think we've had more rain in the past 24 hours that we've had in the past several months combined.  This is the first day that it's really felt like fall--I think we barely hit 70º today.  So awesome. =)  Not that the lack of cooler weather has kept me from baking--once the calendar says October, I don't care what the temperature is, I'm baking with fall ingredients.  Heck, I was so sick of summer, I started in September, when it was still getting over 100º on occasion.  My favorite fall ingredient is definitely apples.  While I do like to use local ingredients when I can, I think that the best apples are from New York.  We are starting to get some of them down here, but it takes a little while to get the full variety.  So I'm also baking with my second favorite fall ingredient, pumpkin.

For my blogging friend Phyl, pumpkin is definitely a favorite ingredient.  So much so that he invited a bunch of us to join him in making and posting pumpkin recipes today.  We're aiming to have a full dinner's worth--with a whole lot of courses, I think.  I usually go for dessert, but I figured there would be several others more than willing to cover that course.  So I decided to make a recipe that I've been wanting to for a long time--the Pumpkin Brioche from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking.

The Secrets of Baking is one of the cookbooks that started off my very large (and still growing) collection of baking books.  My husband got it for me for a birthday or another occasion--I can't remember exactly anymore.  It was published in 2003 and he got it not long after publication, so I've had it a long time.  It's a really nice book for someone who likes to bake but is looking to expand their repertoire of pastry skills.  Each chapter starts with a basic recipe that shows a technique, like caramel or pound cake, and then uses that as a jumping off point for more complex recipes.  I have quite a few technique books now, but this is still one of my favorites.  

I've made brioche before, so this recipe wasn't as scary as I thought it would be when I first got the book.  It's a medium-rich dough, so it's buttery without being a huge pain to work with.  I used canned pumpkin puree, but you could certainly use fresh if you have it.  I made a few small adjustments to the recipe.  Since this is a rich dough, I used my SAF Gold yeast.  I had extra large eggs in my fridge, so I only used 5 instead of 6.  This is a pretty forgiving dough, since I totally didn't follow the mixing instructions.  I forgot that you're supposed to develop the gluten with about 5 minutes of kneading before  you add the butter.  I added it not long after I added the eggs.  So I just kneaded longer after the butter went in--about 8 minutes, I think.  Everything still worked out okay.

The recipe says that it makes 3 pounds of dough, but by my measurements, it's actually about 4 pounds (about 1.8 kilos).  I used about a kilo of the dough to make sandwich rolls--a dozen rolls of 85 grams (3 ounces) each.  I'm still deciding what to do with the remaining dough--maybe cinnamon rolls.  After shaping the rolls, I let them proof at room temperature for about 2 hours, then baked them at 350ºF for 25 minutes.  As usual, I skipped the egg wash, though you could certainly use it if you prefer shiny brioche. 

The verdict?  Fantastic!  The rolls don't really taste like pumpkin, but as Brianna said, there's something different about them.  The color is gorgeous.  And I think this is my favorite style of brioche--you can taste the butter, but it's not out of control.  I used one roll to make a ham sandwich for lunch, and it was delicious.  I think they would also be tasty with jam.  Brianna was enthusiastic about having them in her lunch, so I'm sure we'll be making these again.  

Phyl should have the full round-up of pumpkin dishes on his blog sometime this week, so head over to check it out.  Updated: You can find the round-up here. And for more delicious breads and rolls, be sure to check out Yeastspotting.  

Pumpkin Brioche

(adapted from Sherry Yard's The Secret of Baking)

170 grams (3/4 cup) whole milk, at room temperature

5 grams SAF gold instant yeast (or regular instant yeast)

225 grams (1 cup) pumpkin puree

65 grams (1/3 cup) granulated sugar

140 grams (1 cup) bread flour

700 grams (5 cups) bread flour

14 grams (2 teaspoons) table salt

5 extra large eggs (267 grams out of the shells) or 6 large eggs, room temperature

225 grams (1 cup, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

This brioche starts with a sponge.  Put the milk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine.  Let stand for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is dissolved and starts to bubble a bit.  (This step isn't absolutely necessary with instant yeast, but I figure in a rich dough like this, the head start for the yeast is still a good idea.)  Mix in the pumpkin, sugar and the cup of flour.  I like to use my dough whisk for this, but you could also use your mixer with the paddle attachment.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the sponge stand at room temperature until bubbly, 30 to 45 minutes.

For the dough, first add the flour and the salt to the sponge.  Next mix in the eggs until they are absorbed.  Then add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time.  Once all the butter is in, switch to the dough hook.  (You can do so sooner if you need to, but I found it easier to mix the butter in with the paddle.)  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then knead with the dough hook for about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny.  Transfer the dough to a well-oiled 4-quart container and turn the dough so it is coated with oil on all sides.  Cover the container (mine has its own lid) and let the dough rise until it is doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Deflate the dough by folding the dough over on itself. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours or overnight.  It will rise to fill the container again.  Once chilled, the dough can be made into loaves or rolls or used for other recipes.  For the rolls I made, remove about half the dough from the container.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces of about 85 grams (3 ounces) each.  You could also do 60 gram (2 ounce) pieces for dinner rolls.  Roll the dough pieces into smooth, tight rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Spray lightly with oil (I use Pam) and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.  During the last 30 minutes of the rise time, preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the size.  The rolls will be nicely browned and register about 195ºF internal temperature when done.  Transfer the rolls to a rack and let them cool before serving. 

Fun with brioche

I've mentioned before that we're very fond of breakfast in this house. In fact, I just realized that "breakfast" is one of the biggest categories of posts on my blog (surpassed only by chocolate). You hear all the time about how many people skip breakfast. I have no idea how or why they would do that. =) Growing up, breakfast during the week was simple. Cold cereal, a lot of the time. One of my earliest cooking memories was my mom teaching me how to make oatmeal (real oatmeal, cooked on the stovetop) for my sisters. I wasn't making it for myself, mind you, since I hate oatmeal. She would measure out the ingredients the night before (ooh, mise en place, long before I had any idea what that meant) so all I had to do was put them in the pot at the right time. I was probably about 10 0r 11 at the time.

More involved cooked "breakfasts" were reserved for dinner time, or Sunday mornings, especially at Gramma & Grampa's house. On those weekends when we went to visit my grandparents, we knew that we had good stuff to look forward to after church. Eggs, bacon, leftover potatoes cut up and fried in the bacon fat, bagels or English muffins... And coffeecake. We all loved the coffeecake part of breakfast. =) Sometimes homemade, but often Entenmann's. My favorite store-bought ones were the classic crumb cake, and the raspberry danish/coffeecake. I've got some really good recipes now for homemade crumb cake, like this one. And thanks to the Daring Bakers, I've even made my own danish. And let me tell you, that danish was fabulous. But it's rather time consuming to make danish dough, so it's not something I can do all the time.

Which brings us to the next bread I made for the BBA Challenge--brioche. I wasn't too concerned about this one. Thanks to Tuesdays with Dorie, I've made brioche dough a couple times before, for raisin snails and sticky buns. Both times I used the other half of the dough to make rolls or bread. Plain brioche just doesn't appeal to me that much--too rich for something that will be eaten on the side. But I liked the pastry-ish applications, a lot. So I was pretty sure that I wanted to use my BBA brioche for making a yummy breakfast pastry.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice has three different versions of brioche--rich man's, middle-class, and poor man's. They vary in the amount of butter and eggs that are worked into the dough. For what I was looking to do, I figured the middle-class version would be a safe bet. The full recipe uses a cup of butter. And it seemed like a good opportunity to use some of my eggs from the farmer's market. I've only made brioche dough in my standing mixer, and that works just fine for me. I made sure the butter and eggs were at room temperature before I started, and I didn't have any trouble at all mixing up the dough. It just takes a while to come together. Once the dough was made, I stuck it in my 4-quart bucket and tucked it into the fridge to rise overnight. Plus, such a rich dough is much easier to work with when it's very cold.

I had looked through various books in my cookbook collection trying to figure out what to do with the brioche dough. I ended up taking ideas from a couple different ones. The main idea came from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking. In the brioche section, there's a recipe for a Brioche Coffeecake, in the style of what my mom used to call a "tea ring." You roll out the dough, spread filling over it, and roll it up, kind of like you're making cinnamon rolls. Then you form the log of dough into a ring, joining the ends together. You cut the dough at 1 1/2" intervals, and twist the sections so the cut edges are facing up. The whole thing ends up looking kind of like a flower. For the filling, I went with a simple Cream Cheese Filling from The Art and Soul of Baking. I spread it over the rolled out dough, and then spread a layer of raspberry fruit butter on top of it. Once the coffeecake was formed, I let it rise at room temperature until puffy. I baked it for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F, then turned the temperature down to 350 and baked it 20 minutes more. While it was still warm, I drizzled the pastry with a glaze of powdered sugar mixed with a bit of milk.

The verdict? I'm really happy with the way the coffeecake turned out. The flavors were just what I was looking for. While not quite the same as Danish dough, the result was a buttery crumb with a flaky exterior. Gillian was a big fan (as usual), and Brianna ate some as well, though she wasn't quite as enthusiastic. I probably ate the majority of it, though I did take some to work. I'm sure my memories of the Entenmann's raspberry danish are much better than the reality (I haven't had it in years). But I won't soon forget how good this coffeecake is, and I'll be making it again, sooner rather than later.

With the other half of my batch of brioche dough, I tried to make something like a cross between the raisin snails and cinnamon rolls. But it didn't work out quite right; I'll tell more about it if I can get it to turn out better next time. Meanwhile, be sure to check out what the other BBA Challenge bakers have been up to by checking out the blogroll. Many of the bakers are quite a bit farther along than I am. Next up, Casatiello, a brioche-relative with some interesting add-ins. I've got a couple variations to share. Also, I'm submitting my pretty coffeecake to YeastSpotting.