Swiss Muesli Breakfast Brioche

-

During winter break, one needs decadent breakfasts to go along with the decadent dinners, only ensuring that one's diet in the new year is based on a month of over-indulgence and excess. No wimpy breakfasts around here, my friends.

Thus, I whipped up this brioche. "Whipped up!" you might snarl and scoff. Yes, I say, whipped up. This is remarkably easy, and the only thing that it needs is time. You don't even need to knead it.



Five years ago, dear friends of ours swooped down from Seattle years ago--the he in this couple is a delightful bread baker, and he swore by this cookbook: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  Upon their return to Washington, they sent the husband and I a copy of this book, and we have been all the better for it, if our waistlines have not.

 The premise of the book is that you should have pre-mixed, pre-risen, high-moisture dough hanging out in your refrigerator for that moment when a fresh bread hankering strikes you. Then you simply cook up what you want: et voilà, bread.

This time around, I started from the beginning--I didn't have the brioche dough in my fridge. I made half of the brioche recipe (which makes 4 loaves) and then broke the dough in half.  One half I used for the recipe below, and the other half is now in my freezer, ensuring that when the mood strikes, I can cook up a loaf of brioche. The recipe below represents the same for you.




The half of brioche dough that I used for this recipe gets mixed with a bowl of pre-moistened Swiss muesli--the result is a hearty breakfast bread that is slightly sweet. The muesli I used had some dried raisins and figs, which leads to little surprises in a bite here and there. And this bread is as wonderful with preserves as it is merely slathered with butter and a pinch of salt.

May my waistline quickly drop these pounds in the new year. Happy New Year!




-------------

Swiss Muesli Breakfast Brioche


Yield:
one 1-pound loaf (and a pound brioche dough for a small, plain loaf)

Ingredients:  
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3/4 Tbsp granulated yeast (1 packet)
3/4 Tbsp Kosher salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Swiss muesli
1/2 cup milk
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water)

Instructions:
1.  Mix the yeast, salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter with the water in a 3-quart bowl.

2.  Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon.  You may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour. (You may notice lumps in the dough, but they will disappear in the finished product.)

3.  Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. After the initial rise, mix together the Swiss muesli and the milk and allow to stand for 10 minutes. 

5.  Cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit size) piece of the brioche dough. Place it into bowl.  As for the other 1 pound see below note.*  Using your hands, blend the muesli into the dough in the bowl (which will be very wet and sticky).

6.  Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

7.  Allow the ball to rest for 40 minutes on a flour-dusted pizza peel.

8.  Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with a baking stone placed on a middle rack. Using a pastry brush, brush the top crust with egg wash. Slide the bread directly onto the stone, and bake for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Due to the fat in the dough, the bread will not form a hard crust.


Note:  Here's what to do with the other pound of brioche dough--in fact it's everything but step 4 and put the brioche in a small (mini) loaf pan.

continuing from step 3 and skipping step 4:

5.  Grease a mini loaf pan.  Dust the surface of the dough with flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6.  Elongate into an oval and place in the prepared pan.  Allow to rest for 40 minutes.

7.  Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a pastry brush, brush the top crust with egg wash. Bake the loaf for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Due to the fat in the dough, the bread will not form a hard, crackling crust.

Comments

Post a Comment

By Popular Demand

Ottolenghi's Semolina, Coconut and Marmalade Cake

-
Image
"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."  This week I did two very important things: I made Ottolenghi's Semolina, Coconut and Orange Blossom Cake and I rewatched The Outsiders . These two events are not related; however, they were both delightful. Let's start with the cake, shall we? This cake is a light - in - texture - but - heavy - in - flavor take on the ubiquitous Eastern Mediterranean semolina cake. From Greece to Syria, Egypt to Turkey, this cake, well, takes the cake. Call it revani , basbousa , shamali, harisi , mix in yogurt, coconut, rose water instead of orange blossom water--no matter what, you're going to do all right.   Ottolenghi's version adds coconut and marmalade to a large dose of sunflower oil and semolina. He also serves it with a dallop of Greek yogurt freshened with orange blossom water. However, this is the kind of ...
Read more

Whole Roasted Celery Root from NOPI

-
Image
Okay.  This almost doesn't qualify as a recipe. But I'll admit, I have never made celeriac this way. Yes, it took Yotam Ottolenghi to convince me to do something simple. And perfect. I am not going to mess around here. I love celery root. I have sung its praises here , here , and here . It is not a pretty little root vegetable, but if you can get beyond its humble, knobby exterior, it smacks of the bright, freshness that one expects from celery (which is, really, just the stalk of the plant) and the nutty, earthiness of something that comes from beneath the ground. This straightforward recipe comes from Ottolenghi's latest cookbook, NOPI , a collection of restaurant-approved recipes from London's powerhouse foodie and his partner and NOPI Head Chef Ramael Scully . Yes, it's true, I am a bit of a fan-girl when it comes to Ottolenghi, and next time I am in London (whew, it has been a long time  since I was last there), you better believe I pla...
Read more

Ottolenghi's Lemon and Eggplant Risotto

-
Image
Risotto is such a delightful dish. Comforting, creamy, simple, stable.   And I am a huge fan . As in, I will make me a risotto any chance I get, with any sort of ingredient you can imagine. It doesn't matter--any season.  Spring--lemon and peas;  Summer--tomato and parmesan;  Fall--mushroom;  Winter--butternut squash and pancetta.  If it's in your fridge, you can put it in this Northern Italian rice dish. However, you will want a very specific kind of rice--a high starch, medium- or short-grain rice--in order separate this delicacy from any other rice dish. The high starch means that as you cook it, it releases its starch, making that requisite creamy smoothness to risotto. The most popular risotto rice in the United States is, hands down, Arborio rice. This short-grained rice isn't as starchy as some of its popular Italian counterparts, but it is the most easily procured. However, a...
Read more

Ottolenghi's Lamb Shawarma

-
Image
Summer. Summer. Summer. Hello Summer. How I  love you. How I am delighted to meet you again after you have been away for a year. How I have plans for us. Big plans. Most of them involve books and napping, but still big plans. Some of my plans also include cooking. So much cooking. Stay tuned for pasta dishes, peanut butter shakes, ceviche, pastry cream. It looks like's going to have fun together, Summer. One of my first plans was to make Yotam Ottolenghi's Lamb Shawarma. Shawarma is the Arabic fast food of choice that is closely related to the Greek gyro , the Turkish doner  kebab, and the Armenian tarna . It is also big on heavenly goodness and is brought to you from Jerusalem via London from the dear, sweet, culinary mind of Ottolenghi.  What a good man. From the Turkish word  çevirme , which means turning, shawarma can be made from chicken, veal, goat, lamb, even fish. We're going to focus on the lamb--which  Ottolenghi ensures will ge...
Read more

Ottolenghi's Salmon Steaks in Chraimeh Sauce

-
Image
Oh, what a sauce this is.   What a glorious, glorious sauce. And it comes from our new Jerusalem cookbook, from one of this blog's favorite chefs and current culinary darling, Yotam Ottolenghi.  I need not detail that this blog has featured recipes from Ottolenghi here and here and here and here ,  but I will anyway because, whoo boy, I love these recipes.  This sauce comes from the Sephardic Jews, who resided on the Iberian peninsula until the Spanish Inquisition.  After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, many Sephardic Jews were folded into the Mizrahi communities in Northern Africa and the Middle East.  Such intermingling of people and cultures has produced some culinary superstars; this being no exception.  Indeed, you can taste the Spanish, Moroccan, and Libyan influence on this sauce. Sephardim pride themselves on their chraimeh recipes, and often serve them at Rosh Hashanah and Passover celebrations (whereas Ashkenazim might serv...
Read more