French Brioche

Here in Baltimore there is a hint of spring in the air. We had a few days this month that crept towards 60 degrees, the birds are chirping again and the crocus' are beginning to pop out of the ground. Thank goodness! Although this means that we will not likely have anymore snow days, it doesn't mean I have given up on bread baking for the year.

Last weekend, I felt inspired to bake a few loaves but I wanted to make something that felt, well, springy. The first thing that came to mind was brioche. The recipe I use came from a beloved French tutor (Madame Angen) who taught my brother and I French in anticipation of our family's year-long sabbatical to Switzerland in 1987. This sweet French bread has been a favorite of our family's ever since. BF tried it for the first time on Sunday and loved it! We enjoy our brioche for breakfast toasted with some butter. However Baby Flava enjoyed hers as a sandwich with hummus and spinach. The sweet and savory flavors together were really tasty. As you can imagine, brioche also makes amazing French toast.

Mme Angen, if you are out there, thank you for this wonderful recipe.

French Brioche
3 packets of dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
Add 1 1/2 cups warm water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow raisins
7 cups flour

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the water, yeast and sugar. Add mixture and the rest of the water, sugar, oil, salt, vanilla, and eggs into a mixer and combine. Add 1/2 of the flour, mix, and then add the chopped raisins. Add the remaining flour slowly until the dough is smooth. Knead for 5 minutes (this is a slightly sticky dough). Put the dough in a greased bowl and rise until doubled. Punch dough down and rise again until doubled. Form dough into 4 round loaves and place on greased cookie sheets. Cut two slits on the top of each loaf and rise again until doubled. Bake loaves for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven and brush with beaten egg yolk mixed with 1T milk, return the loaves to the oven for another 10-15 minutes until nicely browned.