I couldn't forget the wonderful brioche from Victoire I had when I visited Sydney, Australia. I decided to make one batch just to see how difficult it is. I found this link. The recipe seems to be straight-forward enough, judging by the first picture that all the ingredients are in the mixing bowl at the same time.
As straight-forward as it seems, I still made some modification (whether it's intentional or not). Here's what happened:
- I don't have milk powder at home so I have to improvise. I had 1/2 cup of warm milk to replace 1/4 cup milk powder and 1/4 warm water.
- instead of 1 tablespoon yeast, I put 1 package of instant dry yeast (8g).
- This is the second time our mixer reached its limit. Instead of using flat beater for 5 min after all ingredients were fully incorporated, I had to switch to bread hook to knead the dough after couple of minutes.
- The dough didn't go in the fridge for minimum 2 hours (to overnight); instead, it was sitting in the kitchen for about 2 hours (the first stage and last stage of fermentation were same as instructions in the recipe).
Results and lessons learned:
The end result looked similar to the pictures on the recipe page. It has the matte finish as opposed the "glossy finish" (by applying egg wash (egg yolk) on the surface of the dough).
Flavor-wise, it's neither sweet nor salty. I might need to increase the amount of seasoning next time. It goes well with marmalade or banana compote with orange juice reduction though.
In terms of texture, it is a tad dry (for brioche). Somehow I suspect it's due to the fact that I went the shortcut on the fermentation process. The dough wasn't stored in the fridge. Maybe I'll try to make softer dough next time as well.
Reference link for troubleshooting:
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007zip
Final verdict
It's unanimous (including Baby Martini's vote) that I should make it again.
Sapphire Martini, "How come the brioche from Victoire tasted so flaky and buttery?"
TripleQ, "I think you just mentioned the keyword."
Recipe see Brioche - revised.