November 05, 2018

Cinnamon Swirl Brioche

Name: Cinnamon Swirl Brioche
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 9 h 5 min
Ingredients: 125 g whole milk; 7 g active dry yeast; 260 g flour; 30 g sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 eggs, at room temperature; 65 g butter, at room temperature; 113 g (1 stick) butter, soft; 110 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar; 2 tsp cinnamon; 1 tsp cardamom; 1/2 tsp salt

November 05, 2018/ Anna Ramiz

A soft, buttery brioche bread filled with cinnamon sugar.

My mom makes great breakfast toasts. Growing up, I remember there being quite a variety of toast options in my house and there was just something about my mom’s toast that tasted better than all other toasts. Even today, just plain toast with butter tastes so much better when my mom makes it. I think that’s just a mom thing. But hands down, the top two toasts of my childhood were cheese toast and cinnamon toast. Cheese toast is fairly self explanatory- its toast that my mom would top with slices of cheese and slip under the broiler for a few minutes. The edges would crisp and then cheese would get all melty and delicious. For cinnamon toast, my mom would smear the toast with butter and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar before tucking it into the heat of the oven. There were the extra toasty bites where the sugar had begun to caramelize and the soft squishy bites where the butter completely soaked the toast. It was a work of toast art.

This is a traditional brioche dough swirled with softened butter and cinnamon sugar, reminiscent of those cinnamon toast mornings of my school years. Brioche is an enriched dough, which means that has sugar, eggs, and butter, all of which add flavor and richness to the dough, but slow down gluten development and yeast production. This means that brioche dough needs a longer mixing time and a longer proofing time than other yeasted doughs. For this, we tuck our dough into the fridge to cold proof for 6-12 hours (or overnight). Cold proofing slows fermentation and gives the butter a chance to re-solidify before shaping so that it doesn’t melt out of the dough when you begin working with it. This also means that you can mix your dough the night before and have freshly baked cinnamon brioche in the morning, which is never a bad thing in my opinion.

After the dough has been filled, we slice it and braid to, similarly to a babka, mostly because I think it looks pretty and the swirls make sure that there is cinnamon sugar in every bite. After it rises one last time, the dough is baked until golden brown and then brushed with butter. In the words of the great Ina Garten, “How easy is that?”

Yield one 9x5" loaf

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

35 Min

Inactive time

8 Hour

Total time

9 H & 5 M

Cinnamon Swirl Brioche

A soft, buttery brioche bread filled with cinnamon sugar.

Ingredients

for the brioche

125 g whole milk
7 g active dry yeast
260 g flour
30 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
65 g butter, at room temperature

for the cinnamon filling

113 g (1 stick) butter, soft
110 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Warm milk in the microwave to remove the chill. (Liquid should be between 110-115 degrees to proof yeast which means it should feel warm, but not too hot to the touch.) Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar to the milk. Stir to combine and then let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
Slowly add the yeast/milk mixture and mix on medium speed until combined. With the mixture running, add the eggs one at a time. When the eggs are combined, add butter piece by piece ensuring that it is mixed in before adding more. At this point, the dough will be very wet and sticky, that’s ok- just keep mixing!
Increase the speed to medium high and continue mixing for about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth.
Place dough into a greased bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
When the dough has proofed, punch it down and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Transfer to the refrigerator and allow to cold proof for 6-12 hours.
Take the brioche dough from the refrigerator and allow it to rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, just to take the chill off. While the dough is resting, make the cinnamon filling.
In a medium bowl, mix together all of the cinnamon filling ingredients until smooth and combined. Set aside.
Turn brioche dough out onto a clean surface. (The dough should not stick, but I always like to keep a small bowl of flour next to me as insurance in case the dough starts being temperamental). Roll the dough to a large rectangle, about 9x18 inches in size.
Use an small offset spatula (or a spoon) to spread the cinnamon filling over the surface of the rectangle, leaving about a 1/2 inch at the edges.
Beginning with the short side, roll brioche tightly to create a log. Trim 1” off of the ends of the log. Slice the long in half lengthwise, leaving the top 2 inches unsliced. At this point, you should have one piece of dough with two “legs”. The pieces should be facing up so that the layers of filling are visible. Begin to twist the two pieces over and under each other, to create something that resembles a braid. Pinch the ends and then place the braid in a greased loaf pan.
Cover the brioche with a towel and let rise again, about an hour, until it has almost doubled in size.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Brush with melted butter and let cool in the pan 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to complete cooling before slicing and serving.

Notes

This recipe is so versatile--feel free to add nuts or spices to the cinnamon filling. You can also wrap the baked bread tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for a later date.

Similar Recipes

Chocolate Tahini Brioche Babka

Pumpkin Brioche Swirls

Einkorn Pecan Sticky Buns

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October 29, 2018

Russian Honey Cake

October 29, 2018/ Anna Ramiz

Today, we are going to take a trip across the Atlantic and explore the history and tradition of the Russian Honey Cake. I love learning about and eating food from different cultures, but I must admit that Russian cuisine is not one that I am familiar with, at all. Russian culture is not often known for it’s cuisine and it’s especially not a culture known for its desserts, but the Russian Honey Cake, also known as medovik, is a traditional Russian dessert that has been an important part of Russian culinary history since the early 1800s.

The cake was created by the personal chef of Czar Alexander I in the 1820s. Because of its long shelf life and preservation qualities, honey was a commonly-used sweetener in that time period. Stories tell that the it was a well known fact that Czar’s wife did not like the flavor of honey. A new young chef began working in the Czar’s kitchen and created this honey cake, not knowing the wife’s aversion to honey, and thankfully, she loved the cake. It quickly became popular with royalty and aristocrats and became a staple at parties and Russian tea ceremonies. The cake gained popularity with the general public during the Soviet era when people began adding boiled cans of sweetened condensed milk to the frosting.

This cake is not a difficult one, though the rolling and layering of the biscuits makes it slightly labor-intensive. The sweetness of the honey is balanced by the tanginess of the sour cream layers and, in my opinion, the cake is best served next day after the biscuits have had a chance to soften and the flavors have melded together. I also highly recommend enjoying this cake with a cup of coffee and some good friends.

Russian Honey Cake

Yield: 1- 8 layer cake

Ingredients:

For the biscuit layers:

1/2 cup (170 g) honey

1/3 cup (170 g) sugar

1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter

1 tsp baking soda

3 large eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups (455 g) all purpose flour

For the dulce de leche cream:

1 can sweetened condensed milk, cooked into dulce de leche *see instructions below*

3/4 c sour cream

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp honey

4 3/4 cups heavy cream

Procedure:

To make the biscuit layers:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat honey, butter, and sugar in a large saucepan for 4-5 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is fragrant.
Remove from heat and whisk in baking soda. Let cool for about 5 minutes.
Place your eggs in a large glass measuring cup and beat them with a whisk. Then, carefully stream some of your hot honey (1/4-1/2 cup) mixture into the eggs, whisking continually. Now, while still whisking, gradually pour all of your egg mixture back into the hot honey pot. Whisk to combine everything. (This process is called tempering and it helps to gradually warm your eggs before mixing them into a hot batter. This prevents scrambling your eggs and that is very important!)
Stir in salt and vanilla. Add flour gradually, stirring with a wooden spoon until completely combined.
Turn your dough out onto a well-floured work surface and begin to shape the cookies. Divide the dough into 2 large pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a very thin rectangle, about 1/8” thick. (You will need 8, 7” circles in total, so make sure that you are able to cut 4 circles out of each rectangle.) *Note: I tried this a few different ways and the easiest, least messy way that I found was to roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper, removing the top sheet of parchment and transferring the bottom parchment with the dough to a sheet pan. It is much easier to remove baked cookies from the parchment than the sticky dough.
After your dough is rolled out, use a cake pan (or any other circular object) to score your 4 cookie circles. Poke holes in the dough with a fork and bake for 5-6 minutes, until browning at the edges and slightly firm in the middle.
While your first rectangle is baking, repeat step 6 for the second half of your dough. (Depending on your pan size, you can also divide your dough into 4 pieces and get 2 circles from each rectangle. The world is your oyster.)
Let all of the cookies cool slightly on the pan before cutting out your circles and transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Remove all cookie scraps and place them on another sheet pan. Return them to the oven for about 5-7 minutes, to allow them to crisp up. Let cool completely and then smash using a rolling pin or crumble with your hands. Use them for decoration on your finished cake.

To make the dulce de leche cream:

In a large bowl, whisk together dulce de leche, sour cream, salt, honey, and 3/4 cup of heavy cream. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the remaining 4 cups of heavy cream until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, slowly stream dulce de leche mixture and continue to whip to medium peaks. The cream should be thick and spreadable. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To assemble the cake:

Place 1 cookie circle on your cake stand. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop cream on top of the cookie and spread to the edges using an offset spatula. Add another cookie, press down slightly, and top with cream. (It doesn’t really matter how much cream you put between each layer, just that the cream amount is equal between the layers.) Continue until until you have completed all 8 layers. At this point, you can use a large offset spatula to cover the sides of the cake with cream or you can embrace the “naked cake” trend and leave the sides exposed. Smooth cream on the top of cake and sprinkle with cookie crumbs.
Refrigerate the cake overnight (or at least 3 hours) before serving. This will allow the cream to soften the cookie layers and all the flavors to meld together.

Notes:

To make dulce de leche: Set a can of sweetened condensed pot in a medium saucepan and cover with water (the water should come up about 2 inches over the can). Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to maintain a low simmer and let cook for 3-4 hours, adding water every 30 minutes or so to keep it 1-2 inches above the can. The longer you let the can simmer, the darker your dulce de leche will be. When your dulce de leche is done simmering, use tongs to remove the can from the water and place on a cooling rack. Let the can cool COMPLETELY before opening. (This is really important because if it has not cooled completely, the pressure from the can will cause it to explode when you open it and that would be a giant mess! I let it set at least 4 hours to be safe.)

October 22, 2018

La Vina Cheesecake

October 22, 2018/ Anna Ramiz

A traditional Basque dessert recipe, this La Viña style cheesecake is a sweet, creamy treat. Baked without a crust for that "burnt cheesecake" quality, this is a great recipe for a traditional Basque cheesecake. Recipe from Marti Buckley’s Basque Country.

I recently joined the Saveur Cookbook club (as if I needed any extra motivation to buy more cookbooks). Each month, a new book is selected and people from all over the world share pictures, tips, and reviews as they cook and bake their way through the pages. I was excited that this month’s selection was Basque Country by Marti Buckley, a book from a region and cuisine that I am fascinated by, but I don’t think I would have sought out on my own.

Part history book, part cultural guide, and part culinary handbook, Basque Country goes so much deeper than just recipes. I learned about the different regions, languages, climate, and traditions before I even reached the “Soups” section and I know that I am going to be learning from and cooking through this book for much longer than the month.

If I could choose one word to describe the cuisine from the Basque region, it would be simple. I don’t mean simple as a synonym for “easy”, but as an approach to ingredients that allows them to speak for themselves. The people and culture of the Basque region find tremendous value in the foods that their land and seas produce and they don’t try to cover them up in long ingredient lists and fancy techniques. The cuisine feels mindful and unfussy and I love it.

Most of the people in the Saveur Cookbook Club chose to start with savory recipes, but being the pastry chef that I am, I flipped straight to the back of the book and began devouring the desserts section. I decided to begin here, with the La Vina Cheesecake. La Vina is a restaurant in San Sebastian that is known around the world for this cheesecake. Different than the traditional cheesecake (Marti Buckley refers to it as a cross between a “NY cheesecake and a flan”) this one has no graham cracker/cookie crust, it’s ultra creamy and the custard is wrapped gently by a dark caramelized exterior.

how to make a basque-style cheesecake

Basque cheesecakes might even be simpler than regular cheesecakes. Without a crust, it’s really all about the filling. For this recipe, we combine cream cheese, sugar, eggs, heavy cream, and a bit of flour until it’s ultra smooth and creamy. The custard is then baked in a parchment-lined springform pan until its deeply browned and caramelized. Simplicity at its finest.

A quick tip for smooth cheesecakes: When mixing anything (but especially cheesecake) it is imperative that you scrape your bowl often. Cream cheese tends to hang out at the bottom of the bowl and there is nothing worse than pouring your batter into a pan only to find large clumps of cream cheese stuck to the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl. I usually scrape at least once when mixing the cream cheese and sugar, before adding eggs, halfway through adding the ends, before adding the cream, and after adding the cream. Remember: scrape well, scrape often!

Yield: 8

Author: Anna Ramiz