For the past few months, I’ve been collaborating with Chef Gram on The Chopping Block's new Artisanal Breads Boot Camp class. We’ve been developing a menu that we are so excited to share with you! We chose some of our favorite bread recipes that touch on different techniques, methods and ingredients, including preferments, sourdough starter, pizza dough, brioche, baguettes, and ciabatta. We will share our knowledge and teach you step by step how to successfully and confidently make your own bread at home.
I couldn’t resist giving everyone a sneak peak of one of the recipes in this new menu we created: Cinnamon Swirl Brioche. We had to include at least one enriched dough, and this was the obvious choice. It’s buttery, soft and tender, with a gooey cinnamon swirl inside. Eat it warm, toast it, make french toast with it - it’s just all around a fabulous loaf of bread.
An enriched dough contains fats, sugar and/or eggs. These additions enhance the flavor and texture of the bread, making it softer, richer and more flavorful.
A preferment is a dough preparation that ferments separately from the main dough before being added. It’s a portion of the bread dough that is fermented for 24 to 48 hours. Preferments improve bread quality by allowing fermentation to occur before the main dough is mixed. This leads to a more complex flavor, improved rise, and better texture. There are various types of preferments, including sourdough starters, poolish, biga, and sponge. We will be using all of these preferments in the new bread boot camp!
Cinnamon Swirl Brioche
Yield: 1 loaf
Prep time: 30 minutes
Inactive time: 26 hours
Bake time: 30 minutes
Total time: 27 hours
For the base:
103 grams bread flour
2 grams dry active yeast
13 grams granulated sugar
52 grams water
31 grams eggs
Total weight: 201 grams
For the dough:
185 grams bread flour
5 grams dry active yeast
5 grams fine sea salt
42 grams granulated sugar
81 grams water
42 grams eggs
78 grams butter, cut into pieces
201 grams base
Total weight: 693 grams
For the filling:
1 egg white
150 grams brown sugar
8 grams cinnamon
1. To make the base, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well combined. Place in a small bowl, cover, and allow this to ferment overnight or up to 24 hours.
2. To make the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, add all of the ingredients except the butter. Mix on low speed for 6-8 minutes, then on the next speed until it pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl and forms a cohesive ball around the dough hook.
3. Add butter in three additions; mix until all the butter is absorbed. Fold out of the mixer into a lightly sprayed bowl.
4. Proof until doubled in size about 1 hour at room temperature.
5. Lightly spray a loaf pan.
6. When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Lightly flour your work surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about a half inch thick. Using a pastry brush, brush the surface with beaten egg white, then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch border at the top. Roll it up into a log and pinch to seal. Place the loaf seam-side down into the prepared loaf pan.
7. Lightly spray the top of the loaf, drape with plastic wrap and proof for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Check on the bread about half way through the bake - if the top is browning too quickly, tent with foil. To test for doneness, gently tap on the loaf, it should sound hollow. For a more accurate test, the bread is done when a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 195-200 degrees F.
9. When the loaf comes out of the oven, remove it from the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool before slicing.
If you want to dive deeper into bread making or just want to take a fun class, our new Artisanal Breads Boot Camp is coming this August. You'll learn to make pizza dough, ciabatta, cranberry-walnut batards, baguettes, country sourdough, and brioche. We are so excited to share this new menu with you, book your spot now and don’t miss out!
