Sugar Rose Brioche

I should have never watched 

The Great British Bake Off

Sunday night.

No good can come from being inspired 

to bring out flour and yeast late at night.

Be that as it may,

I lost track of how many eggs I added to

the starter sponge, 

if I added eggs to the starter sponge,

and exactly when did I add them?

So I added a few more

and hoped for the best.

Here is the mystery eggy dough after 

mixing in the butter.

Poured into a bowl for the first warm proofing

it comes out looking even nicer.

Off for cool rising in the frig to set the butter,

then deflate 

the beautiful dough before 

another warm rise.

Next comes the business letter fold

we have come to know.

Back into the frig for six more hours.

Always a good sign when the zip lock

plastic bag is puffy from the dough proofing

overnight.

An egg wash is blitzed with a pinch of salt

and strained through a fine mesh.

Learned a trick of using two forks together

to whisk small amounts.

They act like a flat whisk.

Dough is rolled out into a very large circle,

washed with the egg then sprinkled with

cinnamon and sugar.

I really wanted to add Muscavado sugar 

as well.

Time for the rolling, cutting and twisting

Lucky my camera died.

It wasn't pretty.

Off for the final warm rise,

popped into the oven for a short twenty minute bake and

then tented for a full hour.

I did wash the top with egg and sugared

the heck out of it.

The house started to waft lovely aromas which is quite 

nice early in the morning.

Cautioned the bottom might burn if the sugared sides 

faced down, I popped a metal cake cooling rack on top

of the pizza stone for a slight cushion.

It worked because I am certain

mine was not correctly braided.

As swear words swirled around the kitchen

I wondered how in the world those 

British Bake Off contestants

manage to bake with a camera

in their face in the midst of mishaps.

The flavor of this bread is incredible.

The texture light and fluffy.

No wonder people mistake it

for cake.

This is truly a spectacular recipe.

Well done, Rose!

Once again you have proved

that it doesn't take flawless

baking skills to turn out

superb bread.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaun