Now this recipe sounded like it would be a bread that would be straight forward ... well except for that first photo Monique ( Kitchen Of the Month )put up, now that did generate some real trash talk, talk that would generate a tremendous amount of internet traffic but ... I’m sure some of the other babes will give you the real scoop.  It didn’t call for fancy shaping or really exotic ingredients.  Nothing exotic about all purpose flour, yeast, water, eggs, salt and butter.  It’s true it calls for a LOT of eggs and butter but eggs and butter are common everyday found in most any of our homes.

And tin cans, you wouldn’t call those exotic would you?  I mean even if you don’t stock a ton of food in cans, cans are all over right?  And then one of this dirty dozen asked two very simple questions:  What’s the white lining in my cans made of?  Is it safe to bake in?  Ahhhh, actually: NO.  That clean white lining is plastic.  (to know more read HERE).

Coffee cans used to be the baking pan of choice; remember that brown bread?  I loved that as a kid, spread with cream cheese.  Coffee rarely comes in a can anymore it seems.  So, this group has now gone through a lot, I mean a really LOT of cans looking for those elusive unlined ones ... and mostly the unlined ones have beans in them but then a lot of canned beans have that white lining and it seems there’s no way to identify an unlined can from a lined one until you’ve bought it and opened it.  If you’ve found a way, I’d love to know because I know I’ll be baking this bread again and needing more cans.

I went back and read my two postings on Brioche after I baked this one.  In my Houston home-away-from-home-kitchen, I’m slightly equipment challenged and it’s always fascinating to me what we can do without - do without but come to appreciate oh so much more as we get by doing without. 

I did bring a couple of things from home anticipating some things I felt sure would be missing: two chopping knives, a bread knife, a wood chopping block to save my knives’ edge, several cookbooks, cookie sheet with silpat, microplane grater, shower cap to cover bread rising and a whisk. 

What did I miss bringing?  My dough rising bucket ... duh, what ever was I thinking.  A dough/bench scrapper and my extra scale.    Bowls ... now how basic are bowls?  There is only one big plastic (uck) bowl here.  Obviously this kitchen is not suppose to host a baker. 

I’d never mixed my dough making a well in the middle of the flour.  Now I have.  You can mix and knead dough without a bowl.  And you can hand mix and knead a really “buttery liquid” dough - no fancy stand mixer.

Brioche Mousseline

This is a spectacular and delicious loaf having its roots in France, Normandy and Honnefleur.  The recipe from prize winning Baker Andre David, comes from the Breads of Fance by Bernard Clayton Jr.  (a book long on my lust list)

The dough is allowed to rise in a cylindrical container(a soup or coffee can most likely, 1 pound cans).

(my changes)

Ingredients:  For 2 tall loaves - (I made 4 loaves)

Starter

1 package (1 tablespoon) of dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup all-purpose flour

Dough

4 cups all purpose flour

6 eggs at room temperature

4 tablespoons warm water

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

12 ounces unsalted butter @ room temperature

Dress the cans by encircling the cans with paper (buttered if needed) as a collar.

Butter the inside the can or better line in with paper.  (I sprayed the bottom of the cans with Pam & lined the inside.)

Starter (takes 10 minutes and 2 hours)

Dissolve yeast in water and set aside for a few minutes until creamy.  (I mixed yeast with four and then added the water.) Stir in flour and knead for about 3 minutes until shaggy loaf of dough.  Cover with plastic and let rest for 2 hours.

Prepare the dough to mix together with the starter at the end of the two hours.

Start with 2 cups flour, 4 eggs, one at a time, 2 tablespoons water, the sugar and salt, blend well.  Knead butter (on wax paper) soft and pliable with a dough scraper or spatula.  Blend into batter.  Then add remaining 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons of water.  Stir in rest of flour, 1/2 cup at the time until the dough is a soft ball.  Press into an oval on your flouered work surface, place starter in the center and fold over the edges and knead to incorporate with the starter dough with the yellow egg and butter dough.  Knead for about 8 minutes.  The dough stays a little sticky but will become firm after cooling in the fridge if that will help you kneading.

(With my limited resources - 2 salad bowls and 2 pans - I mixed 6 eggs and 3 tablespoons water and 12 ounces - a guess without a scale - very very soft butter - Houston was 82°.  I poured 4 cups AP flour, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1.5 teaspoons salt into a pot and whisked it to mix.  I poured this onto the counter and made a well in the center and poured a quarter of the liquids into the well.  Mixed the remaining liquids in and mixed well with my hand.  I then poured the Starter on top and attempted to fold/mix a very runny dough.   I scrapped the counter with my fingers and added in another 1/3 cup flour as I tried to fold/knead the stuff.  Sort of said the heck with it and covered it.  Let it sit for an hour.)

First rise: 3 hours

Allow to rise at room temperature covered until doubled in size.  It becomes light and puffy.

Refrigeration 2 hours or overnight

For at least 2 hours in the fridge.  Overnight is also possible but it will need a longer rise in the mold later on.  (Put it in the refrigerator.  Two mornings later I allowed it to sit out on the counter 4 hours.)

Shaping

Fill the coffee can 2/3 full and allow to rise.

(There was really no shaping this for me.  I divided the dough into four pieces and sort of rolled each piece into a cylindrical log and then let them slip into the parchment lined cans.  The dough reached the top of my 14.5 ounce cans but the parchment doubled the height of the can so the result was the cans were about half full.)

Rising 1 -2 hours varies

At room temperature.  If it’s been in the fridge overnight, at least 2 hours.

Baking 375°F for 1 hour

Pre-heat the oven 20 minutes before baking.  How high the bread rises will depend on the strength of flour that’s been used.  The Brioche is done when the crust is deep brown.

(Since I had 4 smaller loaves than the recipe’s 2, I reduced the temperature to 370° and baked the loaves for 50 minutes.  Normally I would have used a thermometer to test for doneness; in this case I went on color alone.)

Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before removing from the mold.  Twist gently to remove being aware the loaves are still very hot and allow to cool on a rack.

(Not having any of my cooling racks, I used the bottom rack of the oven over the sink.)

It freezes well for 6 weeks.

If you would like to join us being a Bread Baking Buddy here’s how:

1. * You have one week from our posting date to bake the bread and post about it on your blog with a link to the Kitchen of the Month’s post about the bread.
   

2. *E-mail the Kitchen of the Month with your name and a link to your post  OR leave a comment on the Kitchen of the Month’s blog that you have baked the bread and a link back to your post.
   

3. *Kitchen of the Month will do a round-up of our Bread Baking Buddies at the end of the week and send you a BBB badge for that month’s bread.
   

4. *No blog, No problem - just e-mail the Kitchen of the Month with a photo of the bread you baked and you’ll be included in the round-up.
   

Kitchen of the Month is

*** Living on Bread and Water (Monique)

Buddy Posting Date is Monday 23 November

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting.  I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland!  If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.

You love the smell of fresh bread baking right?  Wouldn’t it be grand if you could get that fresh buttery yeasty smell at the drop of a hat?  Bake this bread and for as long as you can keep slicing into this loaf, drop a slice into the toaster, you can have that same wonderful buttery yeasty aroma - the problem is can you make it last???

I gave two loaves away, one is in the freezer and one is in our tummies.  Bake this, toast it and tell me how long you can keep it.  I’m going to try to leave that one loaf in the freezer for Thanksgiving breakfast.