Poor Man's Brioche

Poor Man's Brioche - taking the advice of some fellow bakers on the google group message boards, I decided I wanted to make a version of the brioche that if I accidently just happened to eat it all, I wouldn't feel as guilty as if I ate the rich man's brioche (2 cups of butter)...so I opted to make the Poor Man's version (1/2 cup butter)...wow...I feel so much better about myself already... Ok...the sponge...full fat milk between 90-100 degrees...

45 minutes for the sponge to do its thing...

Then mixing the rest of the ingredients & the 90 minute proof...

Whoa...definately doubled in size...

2nd proof

Divided up...

A little egg wash...

I wish this was a scratch & sniff sticker...because the smells coming from my kitchen were just a*m*a*z*i*n*g!

The egg wash gave the bread an amazing golden color...

Wow...another successful turnout! Don't worry, I'm not getting a big head...I completely burned tonight's dinner & considered ordering pizza...The only thing salvageable was the bread which we used the little rolls as burger buns...I think toasted slices with anything will be great as well!

Bagels

Bagels! Here is the sponge mixture...

Resting for 2 hours...

2 hours done...not as bubbly or foamy as I'd thought...

Adding the rest of the dry ingredients... I was able to find Barley Malt at my local Henry's store.

My KitchenAid mixer started to smoke when I was mixing this...so I had to roll up my sleeves & finish it myself... I never came to a good "window pane" test...the dough always ripped...but my arms were tired so I just divided up the dough...

4.5 oz for each piece

I ended up with 14 pieces exactly at 4.5 oz & one straggler at about 3.5oz

Then I decided it was time to finish off the remaining ounces of this yummy Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon...

My husband asked for chocolate chip bagels...so I was happy to figure something out...

I used the "poke your thumb through the dough" method...worked well for me...

For 3 of the pieces, I smooshed in about 1/8 cup of chocolate chips...

On these two I wanted to see what the result would be to flavor the dough overnight...OK...into the fridge for the overnight proof...

Here goes...my first bagel in its very own boiling bagel bath...

One minute per side...

Flip for another minute on the other side...

Ready to come out...

My assembly line...

Looks like a big fat doughnut to me!

A little sesame seed/poppy seed/kosher salt mixture & then cinnamon & sugar...

I kept waiting for them to deflate...

& waiting...

& waiting...

But they didn't!

Now for the chocolate chip ones...

Experimentation time...

So far so good...only one started to tear open a bit...the water turn a bit brown from the chocolate...

These 5 sort of lost their fullness...but if its filled with chocolate, I don't care...

After 10 minutes in the oven they were done! My entire house smelled like a real bakery..

Wow...they turned out really well...

Of course I was anxious to see what the chocolate stuffed bagel tasted like...

Obviously not quite a chocolate croissant, but not a chocolate doughnut either..

The chocolate was all gooey & melted & the bagel dough very soft...an aquired taste...

Quite a lot of steps in the bagel recipe itself & in this post, but I wanted to capture just how easy this was...Next time I'd have more topping handy to make more of a variety.

Greek Celebration Bread

Something is wrong...terribly wrong...in the photo above...

the full recipe for the poorish is in this bowl...& I didn't even figure it out until the end of the kneeding process...D*A*M*N...double damn!...

Not one to cry too much, I just dumped more flour & more cinnamon to compensate that I used 2 1/2x the amount of poorish... & divided the dough in 2 bowls... still...ARGH!!! ...the first rise...

2nd rise...

Ok...this looks like something you might find in a plastic surgeons office... Who am I kidding?..I live in So.Cal...you find that everywhere... whatever... into the oven...

At 35 minutes they were pretty well done...

Lemon glaze...yum...

For not having very high expectations, the Greek Celebration bread turned out suprisingly good...more like a dense cinnamon bread...

Again, the bread tasted great toasted...its all gone...& I'll never make that silly mistake again...