Sunday Brunch

The Craft of Baking has a "Brioche in a can" recipe, not to be confused with the tragic emergence of other baked goods in a can (pancake in a can?). Instead you prepare an old can (butter and bake for an hour) to simulate a cast iron pan. It's very simple, though it does require an overnight fermentation. After having made traditional brioche which proved to have many unexpected difficulties, such as high temperature sensitivity and sticky consistency making it hard to work with, this dough was a welcome simplification. I was concerned that because you use some "short cuts" it wouldn't taste as good. Actually, I prefer it. Not as flaky and pastry like and a bit more dense. I don't know if this is because my previous attempt could be greatly improved on-probably, at least to some degree. I'll need to attempt another traditional loaf.It's advised that you use the same can over and over because it will "flavor" the can (like a cast iron skillet) and make the bread better. The first time around I used parchment which isn't necessary, but because I needed a well shaped loaf for my next venture, I used it anyway.
The next day I cut up one loaf (the recipe called for 1.5 inch slices-huge!) to make Pain Perdu! And because everything tastes better when its homemade (and especially homemade brioche) I was very excited. I've had the brioche french toast at Balthazar in New York, so I've set high expectations. The batter is traditional; egg, yolk, heavy whipping creme, milk, sugar, vanilla paste. I used the double broiler method of whisking the egg and yolk and pouring into the milk mixture careful not to break the custard. Then soaked for three minutes per side (had to absorb as much batter as possible!)

And of course, served with maple syrup. The thickness ended up being key, allowing the center to be incredibly soft and moist, and I can honestly say I prefer these to the famed Balthazar version, but then again, that's just my opinion. Very, very, very rich (as you might have guessed), so consume with caution.

Below: Russian style yogurt parfait

with granola and homemade

strawberry jam.

Using a recent batch of homemade strawberry jam, from our saturday farmers market venture I made (from bon appetit) strawberry "pop-tarts." Mostly, it was an excuse to work with chilled dough, a practice I'm attempting to perfect. I always love a perfectly flaky pastry dough with the ideal amount of sweet sugar caramelization (who doesn't?!) and I aim to master this!

Dough is chilled and rolled, shaped and pressed. Then after freezing for at least 2 hours, baked. I really like that I can leave all but one frozen (for up to a week) so I don't feel bad discarding perfectly good pastries, or forcing Alex to consume more than his share.

An excellent Sunday morning for baking!

Next on my list is cinnamon buns, with of course, brioche.

Maybe I should try a few lighter dishes first...