Ages and ages ago (like, about a week), I decided I was craving something fresh baked for breakfast (it’s just occurring to me that I probably shouldn’t write this post right before breakfast.  Oh well, scones are easy and tasty) and decided to try my hand at a bit of pastry.  I have always been nervous about attempting anything that is meant to be light and flaky, more because of the time it requires – it’s always more disappointing when you mess up something you spend a long time making – but I found what looked like a fairly simple recipe on the BBC website.

Ingredients
Yeast Batter
2 tsp dried yeast or 15g/½oz fresh yeast
3 tbsp milk, hand-hot
1 tsp sugar
25g/1oz strong white flour

Other Ingredients
200g/8oz strong white flour
large pinch of salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
50g/2oz butter
2 eggs, beaten

Method
1. Stir yeast into the milk. If using dried yeast leave it to stand for 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the flour and sugar and leave in a warm place until frothy – about 20 minutes.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
4. Rub in the butter.
5. Beat the eggs into the frothy batter.
6. Stir in the flour mixture and work to a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and no longer sticky.
7. Cover the dough and leave to rise until doubled in size – about 1-1½ hours.
8. Knock back the risen dough.
9. Grease twelve brioche tins 7cm/3in in diameter or twelve deep bun tins.
10. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. With each piece cut off a quarter and form the largest part into a ball and place in tin. Firmly press a hole in the centre of the ball and place remaining small piece of dough as a knob in this. Glaze with beaten egg.
11. Cover and leave to prove until light and puffy – about 30-40 minutes.
12. Bake in a very hot oven 230C/450F/Gas 8 until golden brown – about 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Now, I’m not sure it was the lack of folding and chilling (often used in pastry making) or the fact that my flat was so cold that the dough didn’t rise properly (maybe I was just impatient) but it was pretty clear these weren’t the best brioche.  Whether the recipe or my cooking skill, they came out incredibly dense without any of that light flaky inside I had expected.  They still tasted great, with jam and butter, but really they were more like buns than brioche.