Non c’è niente di meglio di una brioche calda per colazione (con granita o gelato). Ora potete prepararla voi stessi con la seguente ricetta e imparare anche un po’ di inglese nello stesso tempo.
1.Classic Brioche
This butter-enriched bread, a true French favourite, is delicious eaten fresh but also makes great toast.
makes: two brioches or a batch of doughnuts
preparation time: 40 minutes, plus rising time
oven temperature: 200°C
Ingredients:
- 500g flour
- 10ml salt
- 10g instant yeast
- 70ml hot milk
- 6 eggs
- 350g butter
- 30g homemade vanilla sugar
Preparation:
1.Make the dough Sift the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast and hot milk. Leave for 3 minutes or until the yeast foams. Attach the dough hook to the mixer, add the eggs to the flour and mix at a high speed for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cream together the butter and vanilla sugar. After 10 minutes of mixing, add the creamed butter, a spoonful at a time, mix well after each addition. Continue mixing for a further 5 minutes once all the butter has been mixed in. Remove the ball from the mixer and cover with greased clingwrap. Leave the dough to rise in a warm spot for about 4 hours. Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and knock it down a few times. Place the dough in a greased mixing bowl, cover again with greased clingwrap and refrigerate overnight.
2.Shape the bread Turn the chilled dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. (Because brioche is such a soft dough, it takes shape more easily when cold.) Divide the dough in half and break off a third of each piece of dough. Shape the larger portion into a ball and place in a buttered brioche pan. Make a deep recess in the middle, shape the smaller amount of dough into a ball and place it on top of the bigger one. Place in a warm spot to double in volume (about 30 minutes). Then preheat the oven.
- Into the oven Brush the dough with beaten egg and bake until done. Test by tapping the base of the loaf – if it sounds hollow, it’s cooked. A large brioche will bake for about 45 minutes. TIP Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C for the last 20 minutes if the loaf is browning too quickly.
2.Brioche doughnuts
Preparation:
Roll out the brioche dough on a floured surface to a thickness of about 1.5cm. Use a 10cm round cookie cutter to form the doughnuts and then use a small 1.5cm cutter to make the hole. Roll the leftover centre into a ball which you can also fry – the combination of doughnuts and balls looks lovely. Carefully arrange the doughnuts on a greased baking tray and let them rest for about 20 minutes; they will pluff up slightly as they rise.
Deep-fry the doughnuts and balls in hot oil at 180°C if you have a thermometer, or test with a small cube of bread (if the bread rises quickly to the surface and turns a golden brown colour, the oil is ready). Fry only a few doughnuts at a time and drain on kitchen towel. Roll the doughnuts in vanilla sugar while they’re still hot (the dough on its own isn’t very sweet).
TIP Mix 150ml icing sugar with 5ml vanilla essence and enough water to make a runny, glossy icing to drizzle over the hot doughnuts.
| butter-enriched | con tanto burro/ricco di burro |
| yeast | lievito |
| to foam | schiumare, spumare |
| to attach the dough hook | fissare il gancio per l’impasto |
| greased clingwrap | pellicola trasparente unta |
| to knock it down | abbattere |
| to divide in half | dividere a metà |
| to break off | spezzare |
| recess | nicchia, buco |
| beaten egg | uovo sbattuto |
| to tap | toccare, battere (leggermente) |
| loaf | pagnotta |
| hollow | vuoto, cavo |
| to reduce | ridurre |
| to arrange | sistemare |
| to drain | scolare |
| glossy icing | glassa lucida |
