Organic Cotswold Brie Brioche

These Brioche Parisienne buns make for an interesting cheese course!

For my tasting menus I used to try and introduce people to all the amazing ingredients you can find in the Cotswolds. Once, in between dropping off frozen meals around Stow-on-the-Wold I stopped by Kirkham Farm near Upper Slaughter where they make Simon Weaver's range of cheeses. One of the workers stopped production to serve me. Interesting to see how it's made, and the volumes!

That's the great thing about the Cotswolds - you can pick ingredients up straight from the farm - always interesting to hear production stories first hand.

Here they are in action!

Brie Brioche Recipe 
You can make these plain, without the cheese. Or change the brie for chocolate chips or date & walnut. You can use fresh yeast, but I found Doves Farm instant dried yeast very easy to use and easy to keep on hand.
I got the brioche tins from a charity shop back in 2006 - charity shops are great places to find kitchen equipment bargains.
The recipe I use is from the Bread book by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno which I have modified slightly to make in my trusty Kenwood Mixer rather than making by hand. I started off making bread by hand, but then I was making so much I couldn't keep up and turned to the mixing machine for help.

Stuff
375g Strong bread flour - try Shipton Mill
2 1/2 tsp Dried yeast
2 tbsp Caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp Salt
5 eggs, beaten up
175g Unsalted butter, softened + extra to brush the brioche tins
Eggwash - either whole egg and a drop of water, or just the egg yolk with a dash of water
Organic Cotswold Brie, cut into pieces - judge the size by the size of the brioche tins

Things

1. If you're using a mixing machine with dough hook, add the flour to the bowl with the dried yeast , sugar and salt. Add the beaten eggs and mix on the slowest setting for 10 minutes to knead till the dough is soft and elastic.
2. Cover with a tea towel and leave for 1 - 1 1/2 hours till risen and doubled in size. Knock back, then leave for 10 minutes. 
3. Add the softened butter and mix in on slow speed. Once the butter is incorporated keep going on slow speed for 5 minutes for a second kneading, then rest for another 5 minutes. 
4. Grease 10 brioche tins (8cm diameter, 5cm deep) with the extra softened butter. 
5. Divide the dough in to 10 pieces with a pastry scraper. We're making these into cottage style buns, so then cut each of those 10 pieces into 2 so you have one large piece for the base and 1 small piece for the top - roughly 3/4 and 1/4. 
6. Roll the brioche base in your hands till round and smooth. Place in the greased brioche tin.
7. Place a piece of brie on top as the picture above and press down slightly so it stays in position. 
8. Roll the smaller brioche dough ball and sit it on top of the brie. Press down slightly so it sticks to the base. Make sure the piece of brie is covered by dough. 
9. Allow to prove for 30 minutes-ish. This depends on the heat of room the dough is in - if it's cold it takes longer, if it's a hot summer's day it will be faster. They should double in size.
10. Brush the tops with egg glaze. Place on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 oC until glossy and golden. Turn out and leave on a wire rack.

Note:  Oven temperature may vary depending on your oven. The original recipe says 220 oC. I found 200 oC worked well in my Blue Seal Turbofan oven.

For the brie brioche buns above I served them with an extra slice of brie so you've got the contrast to the baked one in the brioche. Then garnished with caramelised orange, pickled fig, pickled cherry, walnut and dried barberries (from the Turkish shop).

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Seven Course Tasting Menu near Cirencester

Pavé of Halibut with Oxtail

In case you haven't heard La Belle Assiette is at the forefront of changing the English perception of private chefs. As staying in becomes the new going out, more chefs are giving up the restaurant kitchen stove and taking the restaurant out to people's homes instead. Kind of what I've been doing for the last 10 1/2 years, though now, on occasions, I also do them for La Belle Assiette clients, as I was on this evening.
As I always say to the clients at the events I do - it's much more interesting cooking in a different place each time than being stuck in the same underground kitchen of a hotel or restaurant. And there's also a much better client - chef interaction, none more so than when you are doing a tasting menu.

This was for a joint 30th birthday in early November - so both husband and wife had a decision on the menu. I gave them 4 choices per course to choose from - this is what they chose. I talked about each dish with the guests just before plating it up.

Pork Cheek, Celariac and Watercress

Also making an appearance - romanesco which you burn with a blow torch (gives it a nice barbecue style flavour), toasted pine nuts, pickled butternut squash ribbon, beetroot coulis - all the flavours!

We do quite a lot of hog roasts through the year, and there are always some guests who are in the know and ask for the pig's cheeks & ears - they're the tastiest parts! Slow cook the pigs cheeks and they are meltingly soft. 

Roast Guinea Fowl with Samphire, Gremolata and a Honey and Lemon Dressing

I love samphire with chicken & guineau fowl - the saltiness really seems to work, Samphire has life beyond fish dishes! There was also black pudding, orange, pickled cucumber and crackling. The honey & lemon is a nice light touch to the guineau fowl - you don't want too many heavy things I've found at the begining of a tasting menu. 

The honey & lemon dressing with Guineau Fowl was something I put together once on holiday in Venice - I even cook on holiday!

The red plates were a new find earlier that week. It was love at first sight!

Pavé of Halibut with Oxtail

Fish and meat.... together? For some this might seem an odd combination, but it's really an old French classic pairing. Maybe more like a marriage made in heaven - like the couple celebrating their 30th birthdays!

Also possibly my favourite dish I've done this year! The splat is the new swoosh, but, man it's so much more fun to do! 

It was butternut squash puree in case you're wondering. With a few sprouting lentils dotted around the place. 

Hendricks Gin and Tonic Sorbet

So the birthday girl is an absolute fan of Hendrick's gin and had seen the Hendrick's Gin and Tonic sorbet I had made for another party - so this just had to go on their menu somewhere. Sorbets can seem like a cop out on tasting menus I know, but it sure went down well, and at the end of the day, I'm all about giving people what they like!

Whole Fillet of Beef Wrapped in Wild Mushrooms and Rosemary

Rosemary Roast Whole Fillet of Beef, Rainbow Chard, Wild Mushrooms, Roast Garlic and Oxtail Jus

Luckily it was just the end of pumpkin season. Well, the sale season anyway. People are so fickle - they only seem to buy pumpkins around Hallowe'en time. Then all suppliers stop stocking them because noone wants to buy them. Don't they know how good they are?

These baby pumpkins were filled with rainbow chard - also in season at that time. and there are a few shallots and baby turnips there too. Taste city!

Cotswold Organic Brie baked in Brioche

Using Simon Weaver's Cotswold Brie - I've been to the farm where they make it. You have to dress up in a white coat & hat to go in. So I put some inside the brioche buns, but also a slice on the side - can never have enough brie!

To go with it there were some caramelised oranges I made, pickled figs and pickled cherries that I picked up from Upton Smokery a few days before, and just before I left for this party I found some barberries in the local Turkish shop - their acidity works really well with the brie I found.

Hmm, cheese course or dessert course first? The French would have the cheese first, the English would have the dessert first. On the night we actually went for the English way. 

Pressed Apple with Pistachio Crumble and Blackberry Sorbet

 Like apple and blackberry crumble, but lighter. Served with creme anglaise on the side. The apples are cooked in caramel like you do for tarte tatin and the crumble sprinkled on top. Gotta roll with the times!

Rose Flavoured Macarons

After coffee and rose macarons, it was just a matter of clearing up the kitchen. Really need to work on that self-cleaning kitchen invention.........

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Nutella in toast - Espresso, nutella and hazelnut brioche crown

Coffee then toast or toast then coffee - so which do you make first in the morning?
So last year I was mixing up the bread dough while Adam poured the coffee on the other side of the work bench..... and I thought why not add the coffee to the bread. One year or more later here it is - AIGT (all in good time).

I was considering a caffe latte bread - 2 parts milk to 1 part espresso, but changed to an espresso brioche - who can pass up making brioche, after all calories don't count on a Friday - especially when it's Nutella Day.

Based on brioche recipe from Bread by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno. An egg is c. 55ml so I swapped 2 eggs for the espresso and the 2tsp water they used - hence 140ml.

375g Strong white flour
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
140 ml espresso
175g softened unsalted butter
Nutella
Flaked hazelnuts (I used whole ones cut on the slicing side of the grater)


Because it was quick action yeast I combined all the dry ingredients and mixed in the egg and espresso. 10 minutes kneading - because it's quite a wet mix it's easier to do this with the pastry scraper - as seen here.
Grease a large bowl with 15g melted butter. Place dough in the bowl and turn to coat it. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours till doubled in size.
Then knock back and incorporate the softened butter (fun part). Knead again till butter is evenly distributed and brioche is silky smooth.Roll out on a floured surface.Spread on nutella and hazelnuts on top. Then you roll it like a swiss roll.

At this point I was hoping to leave it in one long line and fold some pieces left and some pieces right.... but..... well it wasn't quite working, so I ended up turning it into another bread crown - which is no bad thing after all. Just means I'll have to try again.





But that's not all.....



The best chocolate digestives are made with plain digestives spread with nutella. It gets you through a late night in the kitchen - tried and tested. Andrea who I once worked alongside, came from the area of Italy where Nutella originate from - needless to say he was a fan.... and soon we were too. He'd make these normally around 10:30pm.

Find out more about Nutella Day here:
World Nutella Day
Ms Adventures in Italy,
Bleeding Espresso


Related posts

BNT brioche crown - homecured bacon, nettle and tomato
Cinnamon, raisin and candied orange bread crown

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Ruhlman's BLT challenge becomes an BNT - Bacon, nettle and tomato

I first came accross Mr Ruhlman's BLT challenge from Ryan's blog (1 blog leads to another - isn't it great!). A BLT how easy - shouldn't take long. Call that a challenge? Oh yes, you just need to grow the tomatoes. And the lettuce. And make your own bread. And mayonnaise. And cure your own bacon. OK - that's more like it!
As luck would have it, I already had the lettuce growing in the garden, and had a couple of tomato plants from my mum, who had been given them by her friend. So I thought I would get it done nice and early. Then July happened, and August dissappeared into the ether. So I had missed it - till the entry date got extended. There still wasn't time to do it now, but they say if you want something done give it to a busy person.........

1. Bringing home the bacon

(Stole Sam's title there)

I found Home Farm from the Big Barn website 3 years ago, one day when I got a phonecall for a breakfast booking the next morning. There was no time to get to Carol Webb in Chipping Campden, so I consulted Big Barn and found the Meadows at Home Farm about 6 miles away. It's amazing what's on your doorstep and you don't even know.

The family has been farming there for over 50 years, and though they started doing just turkeys they now keep cows, pigs and sheep too, as well as egg laying hens. Now the 'children' have grown up they run the farm which leaves Micky to run the butchery and farmers markets and Anne to keep the shop and B&B. I get premium cuts from the butcher in Broadway - like fillet steaks, because when I get them direct from farms I run them out so they haven't got any for their other customers, but pretty much everything else comes from Home Farm - you really can't find better quality.

As I turned up once Micky was just curing a piece of loin for back bacon, and explained the difference between the dry curing they do and the brine curing. They learned both on the butchers course he did. With brine curing the bacon asborbs some of the brine so increases in volume and weight, hence the butcher or supermarket can charge more for it. Dry curing (with salt rubbed on direct) is far superior, but of course you lose a certain amount of weight. This is also why when you cook cheap bacon a watery goo comes out. When you cook the meadows' bacon it goes crispy because the water is taken out. I know which one I'd prefer. Their pigs are Berkshire/ Gloucester Old Spot cross - which is a great combination. Carol Webb breeds pure Berkshires and the meat is so gamey it's almost like wild boar and smallholders come from all aover the country for her weaners. The Meadows' cross breeds gives you the best of both worlds.

Seeking a cure

I picked the (half) pork belly up on the way back from delivering these canapés. As I was talking to Micky about what I was going to do with it (I was hoping to take a bit of his sel petre), he suggested using his vac pac machine to speed up the proccess - I was leaving it a bit to the last minute. As I also had a rather full fridge at that point, with so much happening that weekend, it seemed a great idea, as it would keep it contained. Only thing was, no camera. How would anyone believe I made it myself? So I rushed back to base, trimmed up the belly a bit while I was there, picked up the cure (salt & demerara sugar - couldn't find the juniper berries I'd wanted to use, and went back.

Fast forward 10 days to this morning, and it was time to open it up (below left) then dry it, and hang it by the fan for around an hour and half to dry it out (below middle) before sharpening the old knife and slicing it.

2. Lettuce

All through June, July and August the lettuce was going great guns. I'd planned on using rocket for this. Alas, as August went into September the lettuce was all going to seed and dying away, so I had to switch to plan B.

Every day I walk through the Abbey gardens on the way to work. It's a nice peaceful start to the day. Just behind their car park are a fair few nettle patches. The tips I picked a couple of weeks back still hadn't grown back - a sign that the nettle season too is coming to a close. Further round though I found these ones and got the rubber gloves out. If you're eating nettles you just need to cook them to remove the sting. I wash them, dry them (below) and saute them in a bit of olive oil.
3. Tomatoes

These are what we call Gardiners delight. Gardiner was my Grandpa's surname - hence the change of spelling. Down in Devon they had a microclimate - so all their tomatoes (they kept different varities which fruited at different times, so there was a constant supply) were Gardiner's delights, but only this one variety was Gardiner's Delight, and it's still my favourite.

Even they are on their way out now - not long till I'll be collecting the green tomatoes for chutney.....

I cut them in half, drizzled with olive oil, maldon salt and pepper. They weren't quite ready so I put them back in the oven, had to switch the heat up to get the coq au vin (due to be delivered that afternoon) cooked. Then the phone went, and I had to write an email, so they were a little more 'caramelised' than I had wanted......
4. Bread

5 Eggs! Yes 5 eggs! I was reminded a couple of weeks ago it had been so long since I'd made brioche. And this week I picked up a bread book in Cooking: The Books by Eric Truille & Ursula Ferrigno, and the brioche there looked like it had to be made. Great book by the way. I'm picky - it has to be something I'm realistically going to use. I will at some point post the recipe - but it's already 1am.....

It started off quite moist - which is no bad thing (nothing worse than heavy bread), so I kneaded it with the pastry scraper rather than by hand until it came together (middle). Then left it to rise for 1 1/2 hours before rolling out into a rectangle. I'm quite a mustard fan, so I spread it liberally with wholegrain mustard before laying on the bacon rashers.

I sprinkled the (cooled) sauteed nettles onto and spread the dried tomatoes in a line, then rolled it like a swiss roll into a long rope. This was the cut into 15. You almost cut through, but leave it attached then twist the bread round so it opens up. At this point the bacon was raw - I wanted it to cook in the bread so all the flavour and juice would go through it was it cooked.

I left it to rise for around 45 minutes before baking it for another 45. After about 20 minutes it was golden on the outside, but there was no way it was cooked inside, so I covered it with foil to stop it burning on top and replaced it in the oven.

5. Mayonnaise

Meanwhile, I whisked up a couple of egg yolks, mustard and vinegar to make an olive oil mayonnaise.

What a difference real mayonnaise makes!

The finished result - tear & share...... blink and it's gone!

I served the mayo in ramekins as a dip. It would have been nice to take some fancy photos at this point, but the reality was I had a delivery meal due out ASAP, the roast potatoes were just on the verge of being ready, the dauphinoise needed taking out of the oven, the sauce was boiling, the cream needed to be piped onto the dessert, the chocolate sauce needed to come off the heat and the phone was ringing. It all happens on Fridays!

Nice to eat - even better to share. So I shared it with some of my neighbouring businesses. I'd emailed the Basepoint manager earlier to say I'd bring it over just before 5 so people could pick some up on there way out (normal people finish at 5pm I hear), and I tweeted Vivid too. Assistant Basepoint manager Mel was being supervised by her son who was the first to tuck in......

Post note

The brioche was a great choice of bread - rich and flaky. Got to make more of it.

Maple cured bacon - now there's a thing to try next.

Related posts

Top nettle picking tips
Cooking with nettles
Cinnamon, raisin and candied orange bread crown
Other things we have made with nettles

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