Maria's Easter Brioches … with a Paris Twist!
Well, this is my favourite recipe, fantastic buns, without kneading, fluffy, fragrant and very easy! My friend Maria Zaimidou gave me this recipe, but I changed it a bit and the result is just as perfect!
Ingredients:
1 kg and 100 grams of sifted bread flour
3 sachets of dry yeast
1 tsp. cardamon
1 tsp. mahleb
4 - 5 tears of Chios Masticha
350 grams of sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
125 grams of butter
500 grams of milk (200 grams of evaporator and 300 grams of fresh)
Before baking
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. sweet milk
Sesame or almond flakes
Method:
1. Put the yeast with a little sugar and mix them in a mortar.
2. Place 1 kg of flour in a large bowl then add the yeast and spices and mix all the solid ingredients together.
3. Melt the butter with the sugar and milk on low heat. Once they are well combined and the sugar is completely dissolved transfer to a bowl to let it cool a little. The way to check if our temperature is right is to dip our finger and touch the bottom of the pan. Then we have to count slowly until 10. If we can stand the heat, then it means that our mixture is at the desired temperature. If we use the liquid mixture too hot, we run the risk of "killing" the yeast!
4. Break the 4 eggs in a bowl, beat them well and set aside.
5. Now it's time to add our warm butter mixture to the flour. Add little by little and start kneading. When all the butter mixture is added, we must be careful not to leave any lumps of flour.
6. Once this is done, we will then pour the eggs little by little into our dough. The dough will start to become slippery, so by adding the eggs little by little, the dough will be able to assimilate them better.
7. This has to be a sticky dough however, if it is too sticky and you can’t work with it then takes a handful of the remaining flour (100 grams) and sprinkle on, and work it again.
8. Next, I gather all my dough into the centre of the bowl, lightly grease it with a little sunflower oil on top and then loosely cover it with cling film. Don't stretch the cling film too tightly as the dough needs to rise, and it will stop if it hits an obstacle. On top of the film we also place a warm towel and place the bowl next to heat (radiator, etc.) or if there’s nice sunshine, in front of the window to let is rise in the warm. If you are lucky enough to have one, use the proving drawer in your kitchen.
9. Be patient! We have to let our dough rest for almost 4 hours or until it doubles.
10. Once our dough is ready, we empty it on a large surface and divide it into 4 parts. We take one of our pieces and cover the rest with a towel.
11. If we want to form a bun braid, we divide the first piece of dough into 3 equal pieces and shape them into strings. NOT too thin because our bun will lose its volume.
12. Once we are done with the first bun, we place it in our pan and cover it with a towel. Follow the same procedure for the other three parts of the dough.
13. Once we form our buns and place them in the pans (not more than two in each pan) we cover them and leave them for 1 hour so that they rise again. The second prove is very important, because the volume they will take will be the one with which they will be baked.
14. Mix the yolk with a little milk, and spread the top of brioche. Finally, add the sesame seeds or almonds to taste.
15. Now we are ready to bake! Preheat the oven to 200 C/400F/Gas Mark 6 for 15-20 minutes (depending on how strong your oven is and how thick you made your buns.) You must be careful that it is baked through and please check the bottom of the buns by knocking them. You do not want a soggy bottom.
*** Greek Easter Brioche
The Photos show the Easter version of this brioche, complete with the famous hard boiled red egg.
In case you want to make buns for Easter, as soon as you take the buns out of the oven and while they are still hot, carefully form a dimple at the point where we want to put the red egg that you have dyed for Easter, with the handle (back) of the knife. Once the egg has been placed in the dimple it will stay there as the brioche cools around it.
