Sourdough brioche is a thing that happened.

Sourdough brioche. Why? Because I can.
It's fall and not stiflingly hot anymore, and we could use some good bread in the house.

Cinnamon sourdough brioche loaf -- look at that spongy light crumb!

My sourdough mother has been underemployed all summer because of... well, life. But I took it out and fed it Friday night in anticipation of baking Saturday, and the poor creature rallied. (I have a liquid sourdough, fed equal parts flour and water by weight. If you have a biga or firm starter, you'll pull back on the flour in the dough to compensate.)

Brioche, of course, is an enriched yeast dough bursting with egg and butter. It's a natural for pre-ferments, but it's one dough that many pastry people make with commercial yeast and the straight method... because all that butter and egg make brioche the dough to turn to for breakfast rolls, burger buns, and various other "plain but not plain old" uses, often on the fly. It combines nicely without too much attention in a standing mixer, then you just let the mixer do its thing to develop the structure before rising and shaping.

It's nice to be able to take the time to make a brioche of value as its own self and not just a hapless vehicle. I do like the bright color that a lot of yolks gives the dough -- this uses a lot of egg and comparatively little butter. The yolks also give these great keeping qualities -- I've had a loaf on the counter for more than a week and it's still tender.

As you can see, this will make three household-sized loaves -- I like to make multiples... more on this on the next post. If you don't have freezer space or receptive co-workers/neighbors/etc, you can divide the quantities for one loaf easily.

35 g milk or water
300 g sourdough starter, fed 6-8 hours before
256 g Egg yolks
7 g Granulated yeast

516 g bread flour
56 g sugar
11 g salt

113 g unsalted butter, cool but not cold

The way I usually mix brioche is to put the liquids in the bowl with the yeast first and mix that together with the paddle to distribute the granules evenly. Add the bread flour, salt and sugar and mix for 5 or 6 minutes on low speed with the hook until the dough comes together... scrape down into the divot to get any moisture encapsulated there. It will look stiff and undermixed -- that's fine.
Add the butter in chunks and mix that in, then change to medium speed and let the dough hook do its job to get the (formerly scraggly) dough into a smooth, elastic and supple dough that hangs together off the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. If it doesn't, add a handful more flour, but it will take a good 7-10 minutes to get to this anyway -- yay for stand mixers!

When I make bread at home I just cover the bowl with plastic and let it rise in the mixer bowl, but if you have another use for your mixer bowl, turn the dough out into a buttered container that will accommodate it while it doubles its size.

Have some loaf pans ready -- for plain loaves, just buttered or sprayed. For cinnamon/sugar, parchment or foil will ensure that they come out with all the yummy nuggets intact.

Knock the (by now puffy and wobbly) dough out onto a floured counter and nudge it into a rectangle to divide easily into 3 pieces. Try not to handle the sticky dough too much or the butter will start leaking out and it will get even softer and stickier.

For a plain loaf, fold  one piece like a letter -- two edges onto the center. Ease it into the prepared pan, trying to aim the seam into the middle.

For a cinnamon loaf, you can sprinkle cinnamon sugar (200 g sugar/25 g cinnamon) on the rectangle, fold it and place it in the pan that way, or the more fun, less pristine way which is the "monkey bread method": have the cinnamon sugar in a wide bowl; cut off chunks of the risen dough about the size of golf balls or prune plums -- 1 1/4" or so? -- and toss them in the cinnamon sugar. Pile them in the loaf pan, still handling lightly.

Cover the loaf (loaves) with a towel and let the dough rise until it comes up to the top of the pan -- depending on how lively the starter is, it will take about an hour.

Bake in a 350 oven until the brioche is well-browned and the crust is springy/firm to the touch. The cinnamon loaf will color much faster because of the sugar on the outside, but it should take about 30 minutes.

the plain loaf -- nicely golden.

Let the brioche cool in the pans until you can comfortably hold a pan, then turn the loaves out to cool completely. Brioche cuts well with a serrated knife, but you can also just pull chunks off the cinnamon loaf willy-nilly...

Quick note: apologies for the lack of pix in this post... I'm still trying to figure out good lighting in this new kitchen.

Rainbow Chromatic/CMYK Croissants! Or, Ally baking.

I actually started these last Sunday after my croissant and brioche class (hi everyone who came from that!), the day of the New York Pride parade. But I didn't actually have time to finish them until this Saturday, the very last day of Pride Month -- skating in just under the wire to support the LGBTQIA+ community, and finally get an idea out of my head and into the world.

UPDATED with more pictures -- scroll down!

You've probably seen this London hotel's rainbow croissants, but I've never seen a recipe or technique that goes with it. And I wanted to make the colors run parallel to the croissant's sections, rather than perpendicular, so each one would be more likely to display all the colors side by side.

I started with a batch of croissant dough, made the usual way with 3 single folds. 

While that rested, I made a small batch (approximately 300 g of flour) of "dead dough" -- the detrempe without the yeast. I used all milk for extensibility, and all-purpose flour because I knew I'd be handling it a lot just to mix the colors in. I divided this dough into three pieces and colored one with egg yellow, one with sky blue, and one with rose pink/red red. (Gel colors rather then liquid, so the dough didn't get too soft.) I then took about a third from each and mixed them with each other to create green, orange and purple/violet doughs. Wrapped and chilled to relax the considerable gluten developed.

Cut to Saturday! Little 2 helped me -- actually she bugged me to make them even though I said it was too hot. I'm glad she did though, I would not have persevered if not for her!

 I figured out that my best bet for making the color strips very even was using a pasta machine. So each color was run through with a bit of flour to make a piece with consistent thickness.

I handcut strips and stacked them, slightly overlapping, to make the rainbow. (You'll see I tried a few different sequences of colors) 

Going through the pasta roller a few times to make the whole piece thinner. I stopped on setting 4. 

These went into the fridge.

Rolled out half of the plain dough, dabbed it with water to make the color panels stick.

Rolled over a few times to make sure they adhered well, then chilled a good while. I had to cut this piece in half to fit it in the fridge...

  
Rolled out again, to about 10 inches wide, then cut in triangles. Notice the different sequences...

 rolled into the familiar croissant shape, and set onto silpat-lined pans to proof.

I use a half sheet plastic cover to prevent them from drying out but also so nothing sticks to the soft dough and chances ripping the surface. 

 

I decided not to eggwash them so they retained more of their color instead of being yellow-tinged, but of course if it matters to you to be authentic you can eggwash them.. or brush them with glaze after baking.

Et voila -- Croissants arc en ciel! Happy Pride everyone... We are chuffed that these worked as well as they did. Next time I will try to make the orange truer in tone, make the color dough sheets thinner if I can, and pick a cooler/less humid day to do them!

UPDATE: We made them again ! 

This time I didn't use a pasta machine and just laid the colors out in wide panels striped parallel to the long sides of the rectangle -- i got a few that were each color, and a few i cut perpendicular to get as many colors on there as I could. It was much easier but each croissant was not as rainbow-y. I also used a much truer-toned blue color so it came out brighter in the baked finish. I think the happy medium is between the two tho!

sourdough potato bread color experiments...

Fun with spuds! This idea had been playing around in my head for awhile, and when there were some beautiful purple fingerlings in a mixed bag I knew it was a sign that this 3-color potato bread needed making, in time to tweak a bit before Easter.
I started with the same potato/sweet potato bread used to make the hotdog buns -- by now a mere cousin of RLB's Bread Bible and blog version. I doubled the potato and used high-gluten flour in the main dough to compensate, and added some liquid starter for flavor and ease of shaping. (I don't use the milk powder or butter for allergy reasons.)

This makes one showy loaf  about 14 inches long but relatively flat, as braids go. (If you want a deeper/taller slice, you could rise and bake this in a pan, or make the ropes shorter and fatter.)
First the potatoes: boiled a regular (white) potato and the purple Vilotte (i think, they weren't labelled) fingerlings until tender, then drained and mashed. The sweet potato i cooked like i normally do: in the microwave, then mashed. I ended up with about 70-80 g of each.

Cooked and mashed potato varieties. They are in matchy bowls because i can. :D

 The sponge is mixed as normal and risen, using the potato cooking water. I then completed the dough as one, then divided it in three parts to knead in the colors of potatoes, but you might find it easier to divide the sponge into three bowls and add the other ingredients to form separate colored doughs.

The completed doughs -- kneading in the potato and oil or vegan butter. It's unintentionally a big smiley.

Shape each into a ball  then let rise covered until doubled. I put them right on a nonstick mat.

Before the first rise, and after the second.

Punch down and envelope fold, then rise another time; it should take about 45 minutes each time.

To shape, press one round into an oval, then roll up and pinch the seam so you have a tube with pointed ends, like a football... press out any big gas bubbles as you roll. Elongate the rope slightly, but keep the middle a bit thicker and the ends pointed. Do the same with the other two colors, lay them side by side, and start braiding from the middle.

Press the ends together and tuck them in. Flip the pan and braid the other end the opposite way, keeping the tension even... this keeps the shape consistent.

Cover (I use another pan to make sure there won't be sticking) and let the braid rise until it about doubles, about another 40 minutes. It should feel puffy, almost wobbly, when pressed with a fingertip.

Bake at 375 about 30 minutes. (I don't like eggwashing savory breads that don't have egg in them, especially ones that color well on their own, but you do you!)  It's done if you hear a hollow sound when tapping lightly underneath. 

Nicely colored! As you can see the white and purple strands broke a little as they rose and oven-sprang... 

The braid will have a crunchy crust when it comes out, but that will soften as it cools and the moisture distributes evenly.
My braid looked fine when it went into the oven, but as it rose and baked, the regular and purple ropes kind of fell out compared to the orange. It might be because of extra moisture from boiling, so next time I'll cook all the potato types by the same method and give up having cooking liquid in favor of ropes that keep their shape. (Of course, there will be an update when I accomplish that!)

Let the braid cool to the touch before you slice... even with the potato, it's a delicate crumb that will crush and gum up if it's too hot. But look how pretty! 

Mini Minty Moto!

Munting Moto? Actually not that small, it is a constant surprise how big they are getting, every day before my eyes. And not really mint, more like a seafoam green. Upholstery suede from Mood Home.

Froo designed it from a few Pinterest pictures. I suggested the lavender/lilac zipper tapes (sz 5 and 3 brass from Wawak) and lining (poly broadcloth from stash, I think Joann ca 2014?). I also wanted to do the princess seams -- are they still called that if the garment is the polar opposite of princessy? I have yet to get a good photo of the yoked back. Originally based on the Oliver + s Schooldays coat, with later input from Burda 183... but not really any of those because I shaped the pieces to really take advantage of those seams. Completely redrafted the sleeves after the first fitting. All in all, a very good fall-weight jacket that I might make again in grey ultraseuede with zips on the sleeves and inside pockets for the other kid.