Is there a recipe that was a challenge for you?
What did you make, stubbornly and tenaciously, until it works out as you wanted?
In my list of challenges, faced and won after so many attempts and so much patience, I put: mayonnaise, meringue and, recently, brioche bread.
After several experiments, I am happy to share a recipe of mine to make homemade brioche bread that doesn’t require a long rising and without too complex steps (even for those who don’t have kneading machine. Although I have it, I continue to knead by hand, as for this brioche bread).
I used a small amount of butter, and even that makes it interesting, right?
A brioche bread filled with delicious jam
This delicious bread is soft, tasty and light.
I tried so many times, puffing every time I had to mix the butter with the dough by hand. In fact, it’s the part that needs the most “elbow grease”, but I never lost heart.
Brioche bread calls for some sacrifice. Especially if you want to eat one made by yourself.
I’ve enriched brioche bread with berry jam and hazelnut crumbs.
Perfect for breakfast, merenda and brunch, you can wrapped it as a gift or cut into slices for the picnic basket.
If you want to enhance the sweetness of the slice, you can lightly toast it.
Cook with passion, you’ll nourish with love.
Good cooking, Monica
Foot Tips
© You can substitute the jam with a chocolate spread.
© If you’re an instagrammer, berry jam is what makes it look best when cut.
© Instead of hazelnut crumbs, you can use almonds or pistachios.
© If you haven’t spelt flour, use whatever you like.
© Divide the dough in half to make two small sweet breads.
Spelt Brioche Bread with Jam Recipe
Ingredients
1 large brioche bread
mold, 25cm length
Spelt flour, 300 g
Manitoba flour, 200 g
Warm water, 255 ml
Steel honey 50 g
Soft butter, 50 g
Fresh brewer’s yeast, 12 g
Salt, 7 g
Filling
Butter, 20 g
Sugar, 20 g
Berry jam, about 300 g
Yolk, 1 + a drop of oil or water
Hazelnut grain, q.b.
Directions
Dissolve the yeast in warm, almost hot water.
In a bowl mix the two flours, add the honey and the water where you have melted the yeast.
Knead for 5 minutes. Add the salt and, if necessary, a drop of water. If you exaggerate with the water and the dough becomes sticky (it happened to me), add a little flour and knead until you get a smooth, soft and compact dough.
Look at your dough and… go for it! Add the butter cut into small pieces. If you don’t have the kneading machine and, like me, you use your hands and the strength of your arms, get ready for 5 intense minutes during which you’ll ask yourself: what was I thinking of doing, why I trusted Monica and, finally, and also, this recipe will never come.
While you are mumbling, I can hear you, continue to knead with patience and, after about ten minutes, the dough will return smooth, soft and compact. Incorporating the butter is the part that requires the most work, but nothing you can’t do.
Let the dough rest, close the bowl with film and place a cloth on top for about 30 minutes.
Before the time of rising ends, melt sugar and butter in a small pot.
Put the dough on a clean surface and roll it out with your hands or rolling pin, obtaining a rectangle of about 30×40 cm.
Brush the dough with sugar and melted butter, add a layer of jam and roll the dough on itself from the long side.
Cut the roll in half in the direction of the long side and weave the two halves tightly together.
Put in the buttered mould, cover with film and cloth and leave to rest for about an hour or until it has risen.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C degrees, where you have to put a little pot full of water, for about 30 minutes.
Halfway through cooking, brush with the yolk mixed with a drop of water and sprinkle some hazelnut crumbs on the top.
