I thought this was a strange recipe to have in a book of cakes. Then I realized that it's actually just a step of another cake but since it takes awhile, it gets it's very own recipe!
I was actually kind of scared of this recipe because it has the evil ingredient: yeast. I am terrified of yeast. Once, when I was really young, my friend Katie and I decided to make a king cake at 8 o clock at night. This wasn't just any king cake, it was a king cake from scratch aka yeast. Obviously we had never used yeast before because we decided to start it at 8pm.
About 12 hours later the cake was finally done. The microwave timer beeped and we anxiously opened the oven to take out our beloved cake. But alas, it didn't rise at all. It looked like it did about 10 and a half hours before. To be honest, it hadn't risen the entire time we were waiting on it to rise but we didn't know any better. We put lots of icing and sprinkles on it to see if our eyes would trick our minds into making us think it tasted good. It didn't work. The whole cake went into the trash and we went to bed.
I have used yeast once since then and it's been with a bread machine. I was very apprehensive about this bread.
I thought it was really strange because the dough starter doesn't have to sit for awhile. You make it and then you keep on going. It even has yeast in it. I was convinced that this is where I would ruin it.
But I kept going. Made the dough (added more yeast......) and then let it sit. Here's the test. Will the dough rise?
2 hours later, I came back and was absolutely delighted to learn that IT ROSE (think of the Christian's excitement on Easter Sunday and that's almost how excited I was). I'm really sad that you can't really tell in the picture just how much it rose, but I promise it did.
Then it had to rise a few more times. I thought I was going to completely kill it because I put it in my car and drove back to Oxford with it in my seat. I think it had a little extra rising time but that just means fluffier bread right?
In the end it came out great. It even made my house smell fabulous. It kind of made me want to try to make some other type of breads. I guess I better get through this year of cakes first...
Rose's Heavenly Cakes
classic brioche- page 346
The crumb looks great and I love the shiny top. I have yet to make this bread/pudding cake recipe but I heard from several HCB-ers that the bread is a real winner and that even if you don't like pudding cake, to just make the brioche. Maybe for a free choice week sometime.
ReplyDeleteI used to be terrified of anything yeast. My rolls and loaves of bread used to be lethal weapons, ha ha. But as they say, practice makes perfect. My bread is nowhere perfect but it sure is a lot better, both in taste and texture. Now you can't hurt anyone with it even if you tried :o)