Nanterre

Nanterre is a town in France but also a delicious loaf of brioche bread. We've made brioche before in the book (craquelins, hot cross buns, and sticky buns), but this is the first of the brioche recipes to be classified as a bread. The dough is divided and rolled into balls, which are placed in loaf pans to rise. The end result is a beautiful loaf of eggy, buttery brioche. The French Laundry used to pair this with foie gras, but since it's been banned in California, instead Thomas Keller recommends using it for the ultimate BLT sandwich. Either way, it's an indulgent treat. 

Savarins

A brioche that is soaked in a sweet syrup for flavoring and moisture. The cavity in the middle is filled with piped whipped cream and fresh fruit. The recipe takes a tropical turn with mangoes, papayas and bananas but feel free to pick your favorite fruits to accompany this treat.

Tropézienne

Continuing with the brioche recipes, this week we attempted the tropézienne, a pastry originating from southern France. According to the book, a local chef from Saint-Tropez created this pastry while a movie was being filmed in the area. It is traditionally filled with orange blossom scented pastry cream, but this recipe adds Nutella instead, and I can't imagine anyone objecting to that!

Tania

standard bake and measure
special ingredient: Biscoff spread

This recipe was the most difficult in this chapter so far. I made the dough, let it rest overnight, and the next day it hadn't risen at all. After shaping it and letting it rise again for 2 hours, no change. I baked it anyways and it was flat and dry. The yeast failed me! So I ran out to the store again and bought more yeast, and tried again that very night. The second try was better, I could see (and smell) the yeast working. The next day, it was obvious that the yeast had worked. So I shaped it again and set it out to rise, and it was quite sluggish. Maybe my house was too cold, because after over 3 hours, it still hadn't risen as much as the recipe indicated it should. But, I baked it anyways, because at this point I was super frustrated with the whole process. It rose and got nicely browned, but I'm not sure if that's how it was supposed to look. 
Making the filling was much easier. I made a half recipe of the pastry cream, and it turned out perfectly. Believe it or not, I couldn't find Nutella at Whole Foods. Fortunately, I had a jar of Biscoff spread on hand, so I used that instead. The filling was smooth and delicious, although a bit loose for piping. 
I did a poor job cutting the pastry for filling, it was a bit uneven. I piped the filling in a swirl and sandwiched the top over it. 
Maybe it's because I had such a hard time with the dough, but I wasn't impressed with the final outcome at all. The finished brioche wasn't as light and airy as previous recipes. Although the filling was delicious, and I'll remember that for the future, I won't be making the dough again.

Craquelins

The brioche treats are sweet inside and out, with a sugar cube tucked in the middle and crunchy pearl sugar on top. Candied orange peel adds another note of sweetness and flavor. There is quite a bit of butter in this recipe, so a bit of patience is needed while your mixer kneads (pun intended). And when our bakers went to photograph their creations, coincidentally all the craquelins were shown in threes!

Doughnuts, 3 ways

Doughnuts. Little bits of fried dough. Whether they're dusted with powdered sugar, or filled with cream or jam, they're the perfect sweet treat. Most cultures have their own version of fried dough, usually made for special occasions or holidays, but the American version is the everyday doughnut. Bouchon's version, which they only sell in the bakery on weekends, is similar to a brioche dough, either coated in vanilla sugar or filled and glazed. Our bakers had varied results with this recipe, but overall produced delicious results.

Hot Cross Buns

With bites of currants and cranberries and a lovely spiced icing with cinnamon and cardamom, these brioche buns have the marks of a fall treat. We couldn't wait till Easter to try this recipe. Warm bread with a spiced topping - Happy First Day of Autumn!

Sticky Buns

This week we start a new chapter, Brioche and Doughnuts. These sweet treats are made with an enriched dough, which usually has butter and eggs in it. Not quite breads, not quite pastries, this dough is yeasted and usually used for morning sweets. The perfect example is this week's recipe, sticky buns! Now, these are not your run of the mill sticky sweet sugar bombs that you might find at the mall or airport. These are elevated, rich but not too sweet, refined but still utterly satisfying. And they definitely live up to their name, sticky.

Unfortunately, our bakers have dwindled over the weeks of this project, but hopefully delicious recipes like this will encourage more baking and sharing. Don't be shy, please share your delicious results with us!