Bubble-top Brioches

I've been thinking about your post about the importance of family home-cooked meals, and how you feel lucky that your parents have passed that tradition on to you.  My parents passed that on to me as well.  There weren't very many nights that we sat down to have dinner together -- it was expected.  Now, as a childless person, I am far from the authority on these matters, but it seems to me that a family tradition like eating together trumps all the other weird eating habits that we may or may not have.  I mean, if she grows up thinking that peppermint patties are their own course, what's the harm?


I finished my first week of work at the new job, and I feel very much like a fish out of water.  It hit me on Friday that this was my life...this is my job, this is my commute, this is the house I come to (for now)...etc.  Living in SLC felt suddenly permanent.  Good news is that I'm the same cook/baker that I've always been, and somehow food, in this case, is providing me some sense of sameness, and that feels good.


Enter Bubble-top Brioches, from the wonderful Dorie Greenspan.  I've made this a few times, and they turn out delicious and comforting.  They also make breadmaking pretty easy and straightforward.  I really like making bread.  Waiting for the yeast to rise makes me feel calm, and I love seeing results incrementally through each step of the recipe.  I feel a bit Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Sidenote: I felt 'meh' about those books as a kid, and the only parts I loved and reread were the tales of stockpiling food.  I was interested in food then too, apparently.


Bubble-top Brioches
(Makes 12, I got 16)


1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1/4 cup warm whole milk (you can get by 1% or 2%, at 110 to 115 degrees)
3 teaspoons active dry yeast, measured from two 1/4 ounce envelopes
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)


Combine 1/4 cup warm water and warm milk in bowl of mixer fitted with paddle attachment.  Sprinkle yeast over and stir to moisten evenly.  Let stand until yeast dissolves, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.


Add flour and salt to yeast mixture.  Blend at medium-low speed until shaggy lumps form, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.  Beat in sugar.  Increase mixer speed to medium; beat until dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.  


Reduce speed to low.  Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until blended after each addition, about 4 minutes (I wasn't sure if this was total time, or after each addition of butter; but whatever, it was really thick and soft by the end of all this butter adding).  Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and climbs paddle, 8-9 minutes.  


Lightly butter large bowl.  Scrape dough into bowl.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.


Gently deflate dough by lifting around edges, then letting dough fall back into bowl, turning bowl and repeating as needed.  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill, deflating dough in same way every 30 minutes until dough stops rising, about 2 hours.  Chill overnight.  (At this point, use the dough to make 12-16 brioches, or 6 brioches and 1 tart, or 2 tarts).


Butter 12 standard (1/3 cup) muffin cups.  Divide dough in 12 equal pieces; cut each piece into thirds.  Roll each small piece between palms into ball.  Place 3 balls in each prepared cup (dough will fill cup).  


Place muffin plan in warm draft-free area; lay sheet of waxed paper over.  Let dough rise until light and almost doubled (dough will rise 1/2 inch to 1 inch above top rim of muffin cups), 50 - 60 minutes.


Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.  Place muffin pan on rimmed baking sheet.  Gently brush egg glaze over risen dough, being careful that glaze does not drip between dough and pan (which can prevent full expansion in oven).


Bake brioches until golden brown, covering with foil if browning too quickly, about 20 minutes.  Transfer pan to rack.  Cool 10 minutes.  Remove brioches from pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.