Fruit and Nut Brioche | Caging Skies
This was because she was being spoiled by her two new 'breadwinners,' as she called them, Janusz and Krzysztof, who brought her fresh bread filled with nuts and raisins, and Viennoiseries too, as Pimmichen liked to call them.
Caging Skies
Christine Leunens
I’ve gotten, like everyone I assume, stupidly into making my our sourdough bread during the lockdown months. A colleague mailed me some of her own starter in exchange for an array of homemade marmalades from myself. I’ve managed to keep it alive for the last three months as well, so I consider that an accomplishment. I’ve made an absolute array of different breads, some with roasted garlic throughout it, others with onion - to stop my onion hating partner from eating it.
While technically this isn’t really brioche (missing the all too important eggs component), it still has that same rich taste, the same texture that almost melts in your mouth. I’ve experimented with some different add ins to create a brioche bread before, and have found that adding in a ton of butter (well, your plant based alternative to butter) and your choice of milk, can replicate the fat elements that is needed to create a rich brioche. This was my first experiment in adding it into a sourdough starter however, and it was so very successful.
I was maybe expecting a tad funnier read from Caging Skies, considering I knew it had inspired the recent film Jojo Rabbit. I probably shouldn’t have been all that surprised to read a particularly sad coming of age tale. Despite not containing the comedic elements i was expecting, it was still a great read. Overall quite sad and poignant but good. There are a lot of books commonly mentioned when talking about WW2 literature, interestingly Caging Skies never seems to come up.
Fruit and Nut Brioche
Makes one loaf - or can be done in little buns if preferred
Ingredients
150g sourdough starter OR 2 tsp instant yeast
450g strong bread flour + extra
2 tsp sugar
1 cup milk, lukewarm
4 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
150g dried fruit, your choice, roughly chopped
50g buts, your choice, roughly chopped
1 tbsp milk + 1 tsp maple syrup, mixed for glaze
If you’re using the instant yeast, combine that, the sugar, and the warm milk together in a bowl and leave to sit for five minutes or until the yeast becomes frothy. If you’re using a sourdough starter you can skip this step and just continue from the next.
Add in the flour, oil and salt to the yeast mixture (if using the sourdough starter, add in the milk and the sugar as well at this point). Mix until it begins to form a dough.
Lightly flour a surface and pull your dough out onto it. As you begin to knead it, you want to mix in the butter. Do this as you are kneading the dough, pulling it towards yourself and incorporating the butter in. It will probably get a bit slippery during this from the butter, you can dust your hands with flour to make the process easier. Knead the dough for about ten minutes, it should be elastic like and soft when done.
Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough inside, covering with a damp tea towel. Place in to a warm area and leave to rise. If you’re using instant yeast, it should only take an hour or two to double in size. If you’re using the sourdough starter, you’ll want to leave it overnight to really get the flavour amplified.
Once your dough has doubled in size, pull it out again onto a lightly floured surface, pressing the air out. Press the dough down and scatter your chopped dried fruit and nuts on top, working it into the dough until they are well distributed. Shape the dough however you like, place it into a loaf tin if you want, and cover again. Leave for another hour.
When you have a half hour remaining on the last rise, preheat the oven to 180C.
When the dough has finished its second rise, glaze the top with the milk and maple syrup mix, placing into the oven. Bake for approximately 35 - 40 minutes. Checking on it regularly. When the bottom sounds hollow when tapped it is ready.
Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. Absolutely splendid toasted, served with cinnamon butter.