Remember that bake-a-long that I was doing with Catherine and Victoria? The one where we pick recipes from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
and blog about our results…well, I haven’t exactly been baking along. Don’t get me wrong, I tried a few times, but failed. The problems started when I made Aunt Melissa’s Granola Bread and after 2 ½ hours, the dough barely rose. I baked it anyway and my house started to smell like burnt chemicals – perhaps something just didn’t go right.
I thought, “better luck next time”, and eagerly mixed up a batch of Sunflower Seed Breakfast Loaf, our next assignment. But, yet again, this loaf fell flat too.
The sunflower seed dough was tossed and I moved onto the Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread…flat again! Frustrated, but not ready to give up, I discussed my issue with Catherine who thought maybe my water was too hot, killing the yeast right away.
I bought new yeast and got into the brioche assignment; this time using my laser thermometer to make sure the water temperature didn’t go over 100°. While the dough didn’t rise as much as I had anticipated, it still seemed to be working better than my previous attempts, so I moved into making caramel rolls.
Success! The brioche made for sinful caramel rolls that I couldn’t stop eating. Yum! I’m glad I stuck with the project despite several failed attempts; caramel rolls were a great reward.
Not sure what we’re picking next, but I’m eager to keep baking!
beautiful! I want more caramel rolls NOW!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think we should do with the rest of the brioche dough?
Oh goodness. . .I have to try baking these! I have the cookbook and went gangbusters with the original recipe at first. . .and lost my motivation after that. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteWay to go for sticking with it, Crystal! When I made that recipe from the book, it didn't turn out half as beautiful as yours.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any brioche dough left, I'd recommend making the chocolate brioche. The almond brioche bostock recipe is totally delicious too but a little more fussy to make.
I think we talked about this at Savories, the issues I've had with the Artisan bread recipes. It's nice to know that you've had some success. I used a thermometer to test the water too and yet it didn't seem to help. Pretty frustrating, especially when you crave good, wholesome bread.
ReplyDeleteAnd those rolls would be so dangerous in my house! Too dangerous.