Mini Brioche

I love shopping. And like most women, while I do enjoy shopping for shoes, bags and clothes, it really isn't an that important to me. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I admit have way too many shoes. Actually, let me rephrase that - I HAD way too many pairs of shoes. Just last week, I gave away more than 30 pairs. I figured I wear only about 5 pairs regularly, and I felt good about clearing out all that storage space. But as I said, shopping for clothes and accessories is not really an obsession for me. It's not hard for me to walk past a store that's having a huge shoe sale. But it is REALLY hard for me to walk past a book sale! Oh SO hard!

And not too long ago, I gave in to the temptation and walked into a book sale. It was a huge room full of second-hand books at throwaway prices! I was like a kid in a candy store. Actually, MY kid would be happier in a fruit store, but that's not really relevant, is it? So, getting back to the sale. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing through the hundreds of books (though they were a little dusty) and I found some real gems. One of the books I was most excited about was a lovely Julia Child cookbook that I got for a steal! You wouldn't believe me if I told you how cheap it was!

What was really funny, was that while I was reading through the recipe, I could hear Julia Child's voice reading it out in my head. Creepy, no? I think I have watched way too much of her show! LOL!

This is the first recipe that I made from this book, and it turned out awesome! Don't be fooled by the name of this recipe. It may be a 'basic' brioche recipe, but it is truly delicious! I have posted it with some minor modifications I made. I made only half the recipe, and I got 6 regular mini brioche buns, and 1 medium sized loaf topped with white poppy seeds. I am sure with this recipe, you can do a lot of things. Stuffed buns, rolls, knots, twists, herbed loaves - whatever you can imagine! I hope you try this recipe.

Basic Brioche 
(adapted from a Julia Child recipe)
Ingredients
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk
3 1/2 level cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
4 large eggs

Method
1. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl, and set aside until frothy and creamy.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter along with the milk. Set this aside.
3. In a large bowl or the bowl of your mixer, combine 2 1/2 cups of flour, the salt, the sugar and the eggs. Beat for about a minute until combined.
4. Pour in the warm butter and milk mixture, and continue beating for another 3 minutes.
5. Touch the sides of the bowl to make sure the mixture is not too hot before adding the yeast. The mixture should be barely warm.
6. Mix for another 2-3 minutes until well combined.
7. Add the remaining flour, a little at a time, and continue mixing. If your dough is still too sticky, add more flour, a little at a time. I didn't need to add any more flour. It was just perfect.
8. Keep the mixer running until the dough is smooth, elastic and springy. I kneaded the dough for about 20 minutes with in my mixer.
9. Form the dough into a smooth bowl, and transfer to a clean, greased bowl. Cover with greased clingwrap and a tea towel.
10. Set in a warm place until tripled in volume. This took about 2 1/2 hours for me. If you find your dough is rising too fast, and this can happen when it's too hot, place the bowl in the refrigerator for a few minutes every now and then during the rising time.
11. After 2 1/2 hours, knock down the dough and knead briefly.
12. Shape as desired, and set aside to rise again. I made 6 mini brioches in my silicone muffin tray, and 1 loaf of bread topped with white poppy seeds. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes.
13. Brush the top with a basic egg wash (1 egg + 1 tbsp water), and bake at 400 until the crust is golden brown and the base sounds hollow when knocked. (The mini brioches I made took about 20 minutes, and the loaf took about 30.)

We ate this for dinner within a couple of hours of baking it. I really thought I would have some bread over for the next morning so I could make some cinnamon French toast, but it was all gone in a jiffy. I had family over, and I guess it is a good sign when something disappears so quick! It was buttery, rich, flavorful and even my husband who isn't a big fan of bread (can you believe that?!), asked for more! The crust was crisp, and the inside was soft and feathery.

I made a hearty Beef and vegetable stew, and it was really good with the freshly baked Brioche. I wish I had taken pictures of the stew, because it turned out great! I really ought to be more disciplined with taking photographs. I made some really yummy Crunchy Top Lime Muffins earlier this week, to take on our Mini-Vacation, but again - no pictures! I will get down to making both these dishes again soon, and I will post the recipes.

For now, I hope you enjoy Julia's Brioche.

Giveaway winners! (and our Mini-Vacation)

I'm back from my mini-vacation at the beach! It was just two days and one night away, and it was relaxing at all, but I totally enjoyed the change of scenery. And what beautiful scenery it was! 

Oh, to be a child again!

All of us woke up at 5:30 in the morning to walk down to the beach and wet our feet in the sand. I wasn't really sure I would be able to rouse a sleeping 20 month old at that early hour, but all I had to do was lean over and whisper in her ear, "Baby, Mommy's going to the beach now. Do you want to come?" She sat up within 30 seconds, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and said, "Mommy. Beach. Water. Shoes. Come on. Let's go." And so, she got her shoes on and we played on the hammocks while Dadda freshened up. She walked all the way to the beach. A really looong walk, and when we got there, the look on her face was worth every minute of lost sleep! Mommy and Aimee splashed about in the waves, and when she had had enough, she said, "Mommy. Sleep. Mimi (milk). Let's go." I carried her back to our cottage, got her into some dry clothes and gave her a bottle, which she chugged down. Within minutes, she was back in the Land of Nod.

Have you seen a smile THIS pretty at 5:30AM?

The long walk to the beach

There at last!

Sandy toes...

Aimee had some wonderful (and new) experiences on this trip. She picked a mango from a mango tree, enjoyed running over manicured lawns, dug in the sand and played 'catch' with some other little girls. And the sights! She saw crocodiles, snakes and turtles, oh my! And while we were at the crocodile park, we also saw some beautiful, bright blue kingfishers and some gorgeous, colorful butterflies. She saw mallards, and little love birds, too. 

Aimee, my husband and I loved our little getaway, and we have decided that we are going to do this more often. Hooray! And speaking of 'Hooray', hooray for the winners of my first giveaway!

I had a fun time drawing the names, because I couldn't get the numbering to work on my Disqus system. I ended up having to do the whole thing manually. I had to copy the comments, format them, delete ineligible comments (unless Jill would like to win a copy of her own book! LOL), and then number them on an Excel spreadsheet. Then, I used Random.org to draw the winners, and they are -


Manu, from Manu's menu, who said, "Ahhh and I already like both The Harried Cook and Mad About Macarons on Facebook! ;-))))"
AND
Elisabeth, from Food and Thrift Finds, who said, "I popped over from Lizzy's blog. Your mousse pie looks beautiful, and light as feather...no doubt absolutely divine! Such a nice giveaway...will be checking her site out, and follow. I'm also following your blog...happy to say! Please visit my blog, and follow, if you'd like! 


CONGRATS, Manu & Elisabeth, and please email me at foofoofoodie(at)gmail(dot)com with your address, and I will pass that information on to Waverley books, so they can send you each a copy of Jill Colonna's best seller, Mad about Macarons! 

I finally got to do some baking today, and I am looking forward to sharing that with you soon. Tomorrow, perhaps? 

Coca Cola Chicken

I am SO behind on visiting my favorite blogs that I am sure you all think something's happened to me. I assure you I am still around. But I've been so busy that sometimes I feel like my head is spinning! I just started visiting blogs over the weekend and I still haven't covered all of them! My Google Reader is overflowing, and I can't believe how many yummy recipes I have missed out on seeing!

Well, visiting the remaining blogs is going to have to wait two more days, because we are heading to the beach for a couple of days. We leave Monday morning and we're back Tuesday evening. Not a long trip, and we do have a work thing there on Monday evening, but at least it's by the beach! I am so looking forward to it! I can't believe how much luggage we have for just ONE night away from home, but I guess that's inevitable with a toddler to pack for! And I still think there's something I've forgotten to pack... Sigh!

Before I leave, I want to share this recipe that I made last week. It is one I've made before, but this was the first time I managed to get some (not-so-great) pictures! This tastes really yummy, and reminds me so much of the kind of food we used to eat when we lived in Singapore!

For this recipe, I use Coca Cola, and I honestly don't  know if Pepsi would work the same. But I really don't think the 'diet' variants would work at all.

Coca Cola Chicken
Ingredients
1/2 kg chicken pieces (around 1 pound)
300ml Coca Cola
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp julienned ginger

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1-4 dried red chillies (I used 4)

1 tbsp sesame oil

Method

1. In a large bowl, marinate the chicken pieces with the coca cola, ketchup, lemon juice and soy sauce for at least an hour.
2. In a large saucepan/wok, heat the vegetable oil, and stir fry the ginger and garlic until the garlic just softens.
3. Remove the chicken from the marinade, and stir fry the pieces of chicken along with the ginger and garlic until lightly browned.
4. Pour in the marinade, add the red chillies and cover the wok. Cook until the chicken is tender.
5. Cook on a high flame until the juices reduce to form a thick, sticky sauce. If you want more sauce, don't let it reduce, but just thicken it by adding one tablespoon of cornflour mixed with some water.
5. Taste the sauce, and add more soy sauce if more salt is needed. I even added a wee bit of brown sugar because I thought it needed to be a little sweeter(!!!).
6. Stir in the sesame oil, and serve with steamed rice and vegetables.

I have made this with boneless thigh pieces too. For that recipe, I brown the pieces slightly, remove them from the wok, add the sauce & cook it down until thick. Then I add in the chicken pieces and cook until the pieces are tender. The original is tastier because we all know how much of the flavor is in the bones!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! It is sticky, sweet, salty, spicy and fragrant. I really love it. I must admit that my husband is not a very big fan of this recipe. He finds it too sweet, but my daughter and I gladly ate up every single bit, and there were no leftovers.

We're off to the beach now! See you later this week! :)

Thanks to all those who entered the giveaway. I will draw the names when I get back and will announce the results on Wednesday! I can't wait to see which two lucky commenters won a copy of Jill Colonna's Mad about Macarons!