No, I’m not kidding, it really is. I’ve used Rose Levy Beranbaum’s basic brioche recipe for years and I’ve never had a failure with it. I’ve tried others including Julia Child’s – good, but not quite like Rose’s. Even though Rosaria, the other gourmaniac, doesn’t exactly have a sweet tooth, she does love bread. And I heard many times about her childhood memories of brioche back in Sicily. It seems they loved to have gelato with fresh brioche: it doesn’t seem like a stretch for me. In fact, I’ve made brioche for Rosaria in the past and served it with home made nocciola (a hazelnut gelato); it is truly spectacular.
The only thing about making Rose’s brioche is that it takes two and-a-half days to do it right. There’s not a lot of hands on, most of the time is spent with the dough in the refrigerator developing flavor and chilling. But you can’t go away for the weekend and take up where you left off on Monday or Tuesday.
At the beginning of the week I was rummaging around in the cabinet that holds most of my baking forms and paraphernalia, and my brioche form tumbled out. Have I mentioned how crummy the weather has been in our little corner of the world? So to ease a developing case of cabin fever, I made a “giant” brioche. I’ve provided a link to Epicurious which reprints Rose’s basic brioche formula verbatim. You have the option of making a dozen or so small brioches, or you can double the dough formula and make a “giant” one which is what I did.
If you want a special Sunday morning brunch treat, start on Friday and make some brioche; you’ll be glad you did.
RMA
