It's all wrong, until it's right.
Remember how I said I like bread because it pushes me and forces me to plan and strategize differently? Well, this bread was a TEST. I had this idea for a matcha tea sweet bread after I brought matcha home from Japan. I don't love matcha but I do like that it's a weird, unique flavor. Whenever I try adding a flavor to bread without a recipe to gauge the amount to add I err on the side of caution. Just like with the beet swirl bread, I didn't add enough matcha to the dough to really dive the flavor home.
Brioche is a enriched dough that has a ton of butter and eggs in it (a pound and 10, respectively). Having never made brioche I was guessing it would be close to challah. It's not. This dough is extremely sticky. Even after refrigerating overnight when I turned the dough out of the bowl it was tacky and hard to handle. I had a grand idea of braiding it into beautiful loaves. I did braid two loaves and then did not want to fight to braid the rest.
Keeping on brand, this is sourdough brioche. It called for starter and poolish (a store bought yeast starter) as it's rising agents. While mixing and building up the gluten the sour smell was strong. It was late when I was making the bread and thought it might have been off, but I wasn't going to give up so after it finished proofing I shoved it in the fridge anyways for the bulk rise.
Lastly, man. I should not have baked the loaves for as long as I did. Or I should have been more cautious and checked on the bread half way and put some foil over my quickly browning bread. Because the high fat content in this dough it does and should be a deep golden brown. But mind caught the heat a little too much and was burnt. Past the crust the bread is sweet, pillowy soft and delicious. I have some slices going stale as we speak so I can french toast it up soon.
What I've been reading, watching and thinking about...
This recent interview with Kathleen Turner is a blunt, no-BS breath of fresh air. Watching rainbow croissants being made is a delight (rainbow bread!) and stressful (where do the ugly croissants go after these shoots?). But it's the content that I am here for. There is a cute potter in Asheville looking for a date (are forms a new online dating method?). In Japan this medical school is chronically biased against female applicants and just seem to shrug it off. Hell is other people, heaven is other people. The thing I love about Paula Kerger, PBS CEO is that she knows exactly what she's doing, who her staff is and what is important.
I was convinced to get Bitmoji for a work thing. So, this is me now. (also this is me always)
