Lately, I have thought a lot about bread.  The local grocer/garden center that I shop in (the place that sells lots of locally grown and organic dairy, produce, and meats) also has a bakery.  Their prices are on par with other bakeries and their quality is very good.     While I shopped last week, I reached over to pick up a loaf of cranberry-pecan wholegrain bread.  I looked at the price on the label.  Imagine my shock at the $7.95 price tag. 

    “What?”  I could not believe it!  “Has the price of ingredients increased this much? I can bake my own damned bread for $8.00 a loaf!”
 
    Needless to say, I did not buy the cranberry-pecan wholegrain bread.  Now, the truth is, I have not always had a symbiotic relationship with baker’s yeast.  When it came to yeast-based baking, I always felt like I did not intrinsically understand how the magic worked.  When I cook, I feel connected to my ingredients and my process – that is not to say I always create everything perfectly, but I know why something doesn’t work if it fails.  With yeast, well, I just never got it.

    This weekend, I resolved to change my relationship with baker’s yeast.  I decided to embrace the tiny microbes with respect and love.  First, I read three of my baking books’ “bread sections” completely, from chapter-to-chapter (including the recipes) and searched for the commonalities in the methods and explanations of the process.

    Then, I read the two bread-specific baking books for a deeper-dive into the yeast-development process.  Finally, I chose a recipe and decided to dive in.

    J’adore Brioche!  This rich, decadent, and delicious bread borders on cake.  (Once I made it, I understood why).  It is most similar to a Challah bread, but richer, with less sweetness and no fruit.  I took a recipe from the King Arthur Baking Book and set out to build my Brioche.  (While I have many baking books, I think theirs is the absolute best for breads). 

    First, I began by blooming my yeast in warm water.  The yeast emits a lovely fragrance when it mixes with the water.  The tiny bubbles remind me of the first bits of pale green grass that sprout up in the spring singing “Yay!  We are here!”
    I put the bloomed yeast in my mixer with 4 large eggs and 1 1/3 cup of sifted flour.  After combining the ingredients, the recipe called for it to relax as-is for 45 min.  King Arthur Flour called it an Autolyse.  They informed me that even though it didn’t look like much, this process gave the yeast a chance to kickstart. 

    After my dough took a 45-minute nap, I added the remaining flour, sugar, salt, etc.  and set it to mix for about 10 min.  While it mixed next to me, I took out the stick of butter that the recipe called for and began beating with a rolling pin on top of my floured counter.  Each time it flattened out, I folded it into a triangle and started again, until it became pliable, but still cold. 

    My recipe told me to add the butter to the dough, so I put it into the mixer.  I panicked after a few moments when my dough – once a lovely, shiny ball – looked like cake batter clinging to the sides of the bowl. 

    The mixer churned as I watched it, fighting back the lump in my stomach that comes right before I get upset.   But after 10 minutes in the mixer, the cake-batter texture changed into a sticky ball of dough (very sticky). 

    “Whew!”  I guess I needed just a little bit more faith on that one *wink.*

    Now, I was ready to let my dough have its first real rest.  It remained in the mixing bowl for about an hour, covered with tinfoil.  When I returned to it, I found that it grew about 1/3 its original size.  As the recipe called, I removed it from the mixing bowl, shaped it into a ball and set it in an oiled bowl to rise for the next 5-16 hours.




    At about 6:00pm, I wanted to play with dough again.  My beautiful Brioche rose substantially in the fridge (as the recipe instructed).  It had a deep yellow color and strands of gluten made up a soft, but resilient texture. 

    I gently deflated my dough and re-shaped it into a ball, this time in my star-shaped Brioche pan.  I left it on the counter to rise – next to the oven – and went off to catch up on some of my favorite episodic television on demand and edit my book with my cousin Michele.  
    Saddened by the fact that I now have to wait another year for more United States of Tara, I returned to the bread.  
    It must have liked the spot I gave it near the oven because it rose to three times its original size!  I slashed the tops and baked it in a 400-degree oven, 40 minutes later:  Voilà Brioche! 





    First, I must say that this bread is totally worth the effort it took to bake!!!  I removed it from the pan, to let it cool.  Michele and I didn’t wait very long to slice into the hot bread and begin devouring it.  It really does not need much on it at all.  It has such rich, delicious flavor and moist texture.  Yet, Michele and I couldn’t help but add an apricot and almond spread to it.  What started out as a taste, turned into a loaf.  Between the two of us (and of course, my very over-indulged dog) we nearly finished the entire thing.  
I sent Michele home with some of the last remaining pieces and saved myself a slice for the morning. 





    I had a few minor corrections in my process for next time:  1) Let the dough stay in the fridge overnight (not that anything was wrong with it, but I think it will have even greater flavor if it can enjoy a long, slow rise); 2) When the recipe calls for a 375-oven, remember to correct for convection!!!!  (Hence, why mine ended up set at 400).  While my bread came out delicious, I had a slightly doughy bit in the center that could have cooked longer, but my crust was already finished when I took it out of the oven.  That problem could have been completely avoided by a slightly lower oven temp; 3) shape the bread more specifically to the pan.  Because I shaped it as an oval, it rose high in the middle and not as much on the sides of the star.

    While I note these corrections, I am quite proud of myself for knowing what the problems were and how to best fix them.  In the past, I would not have known why my breads didn’t work… which only frustrated me.  I am doubly pleased that my bread turned out quite well, and I know how to improve it next time! 

    Stay tuned for more breads to come