This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the members of the Eggless Baking group to make an eggless version of Barbara's Cinnamon Swirl Brioche.
My first reaction after reading her mail was, "What ? Brioche without eggs ? Really ? "
Initially I had decided to skip this challenge... but the pretty cinnamon swirl and the simplicity of the recipe kept bringing me back to it until I finally decided to give the eggless version try.
I usually use the combination of yogurt and baking soda to make an eggless version of an eggy bread. However the mere substitution felt a little inadequate for an eggless version of brioche. After all it was brioche.. and no ordinary bread. How could a simple substitution render the bread its richness and textural lightness. I discussed with my mother and she suggested an extra helping of yeast. Okay. I said and pondered a little more... until I remembered Reeni's review about the scalded flour method. She had used the method for making a Scandinavian White Bread and had compared its texture to a brioche... I decided to modify the method to adapt the given recipe..
The adaptation however did not seem direct...
You see, the scalded flour method(SFM) requires one to make a starter of scalded dough which is cooled and then kneaded together with the remaining dough ingredients to make the dough for the bread. This meant, involing the SFM would add an extra step to the suggested recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, thereby depriving it off its ease and simplicity, the two things that had attracted me towards this bread at the first place. I thought for a while and then decided to try a simple modificaion. Instead of making a scalded dough starter, I decided to beat the yogurt with boiling hot water, then quickly stir in the remaining ingredients including the flour to the hot yogurt. I am not sure if that little step helped, or if it was just the right proportion of liquid to flour, but things suddenly fell into place and soon I recognized the dough as brioche-like... soft, flow-y and unmanageable. Thereon I followed the given recipe and was duly rewarded with a lovely loaf the following day.
To be honest, the loaf wasn't as soft as a brioche from the store but the texture was comparable. It was somewhat like my Hokkaido Milk Bread.. only richer with all the extra butter. We were really happy with it and relished it with our morning and evening tea everyday till it got over...
The adaptation however did not seem direct...
You see, the scalded flour method(SFM) requires one to make a starter of scalded dough which is cooled and then kneaded together with the remaining dough ingredients to make the dough for the bread. This meant, involing the SFM would add an extra step to the suggested recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, thereby depriving it off its ease and simplicity, the two things that had attracted me towards this bread at the first place. I thought for a while and then decided to try a simple modificaion. Instead of making a scalded dough starter, I decided to beat the yogurt with boiling hot water, then quickly stir in the remaining ingredients including the flour to the hot yogurt. I am not sure if that little step helped, or if it was just the right proportion of liquid to flour, but things suddenly fell into place and soon I recognized the dough as brioche-like... soft, flow-y and unmanageable. Thereon I followed the given recipe and was duly rewarded with a lovely loaf the following day.
To be honest, the loaf wasn't as soft as a brioche from the store but the texture was comparable. It was somewhat like my Hokkaido Milk Bread.. only richer with all the extra butter. We were really happy with it and relished it with our morning and evening tea everyday till it got over...
.jpg)
.jpg)
