Baking - Assortment of Brioche; Nanterre, Sucre grains & Parisienne

I like eating breakfast.

My favourite to have breakfast consists of milk with cereals; honey stars or Coco Crunch. They are not really healthy, but I enjoyed them anyway. On certain days, I would have a Set D from coffee chain, Coffee & Toast; consisting of half boiled eggs, ham & cheese croissants and iced milo.

Sometimes, my family helper, Emi, would help prepare some bacon and egg sandwiches packed in ziplock bags. Ben and myself would pick up two bags on our way out to work, and my daddy Teh taking his as well. It was really a nice gesture; to have home made breakfast.

If I am rushing through my morning, I'll make myself a hot cup of Milo and wolf down some cracker biscuits or with a slice of bread spread with Nutella filing - these are what I usually have when I was much younger, so I sort of relive my childhood days when I have them.

Why am I going on and on about breakfast? 

Because today's demo and practical classes are on Brioche; a type of rich yeast dough.

It is of French origin and is considered as a viennoiserie - baked goods made from from a yeast-leavened dough. It is made using the same method as bread, but is slightly more like a pastry because it has more amount of eggs, butter or sugar.

Chef Marc did the demonstration on various types of brioche buns with different variations, like Brioche moulée, tropézienne, Nanterre, Parisienne, Sucre grains and nid d'abeilles.

First up, we have the Brioche moulée,; one of the different type of brioche buns. This is made using 12pcs of dough weighing in at 30g each and putting them around in a 18cm bread tin, allowing for them to proof first and then proceeding for baking.

The results are like soft butter buns, with no filings. It look like something we can buy from our neighborhood bakery shop with red bean or green custard (Kaya) fillings.

Next, we have the  tropézienne; a brioche bun which is made like a cake, and filled with cream, sprinkled with nibs sugar.

Nothing impressive about this, besides the fact that it is a very old, traditional pastry which dates back to the 1940s and taking its name from the Saint Tropez, on the French Riviera.

Here, we have two of the breads which I will be baking; Nanterre and Parisienne. It's also plain old brioche buns, done up different. Nanterre consists of using a loaf tin, and fill it up with 6pcs of 50g each, letting it proof before brushing egg wash and letting it bake.

The parisienne is also done up using 5pcs of 50g each dough balls, with the 5th dough being rolled like a pear shape as the 'head' to be placed in the middle.

I had much fun and gaining experience in making round dough balls with my hands curved like a 'C' shaped. It's not easy to roll the surface of the ball into a perfectly round ball with an equally curved bottom.

Then, we have the Sucre grains; my favourite lot of the brioche buns. It's an individual piece of 50g per dough ball, brushed with egg wash, cut in the center with the scissors and sprinkling any toppings you like - chocolate chips, nib sugar, cheese etc. It's really yummy! Like a sugar bun.

I only have enough dough left to make one less than 50g sucre grains ball, and I ate that up the same night when I got home; because nothing beats a nice warm freshly baked buns yo!

Last but not least, Chef Marc showed us how to make the nids d'abeilles; also known as beehive. It's also individual pieces of brioche buns topped with caramlised almonds flakes.

I have no idea why is it called beehives. HAHA!

I'm always talking about Chef Marc, yet have no photos to share. This time round, my friend took the opportunity to take a shot with Chef Marc. He's in the middle (duh! Quite obvious right, judging from the tall chef hat!) and I'm finally putting the face to the name! ;)

Taken right after the demo class.

Anyway!!

Presenting to you, my very own Brioche buns!!

I would really like to think that my photography skills sort of, improved? What do you think?

As usual, I love spreading nutella over my slices of bread. It's damn good together, like a perfect marriage. I actually got hungry after uploading the photos (What's new!), that I went to make myself one nutella 'sandwich'. (Screw the diet plans).

Check out the many holes my parisienne has! Proper proofing will allow air bubbles to be formed, and the yeast helps too - creating a light and fluffier bread, instead of heavy, denser texture.

Here's a picture of my happy family of brioche; I definitely will bake this when I'm back home, with different savory or sweet filing, and share a good recipe!

Baking this got me slightly excited and wishing that I could do more bread; perhaps, continuing with another bakery course at LCB? HAHA! That's just wishful thinking; I'm not that interested in bread making.

I'm excited for this Friday's lesson, we'll be baking croissants and pains au chocolat, and next week will be all about puff pastry - double and single turns; here I comes!!!

Till then!!