I checked out the book The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts, by Judith Choate from the library last week. It's a beast of a book. When I first cracked it open I was frightened by the use of the metric system. Grams?! Crap. Therefore, it sat lonely for a week and I only used it as a staple on the coffee table.
Then earlier this week I was pulled toward it again and began reading through pages. The directions and ingredients were fairly straightforward. There's nothing worse than getting excited to cook or bake something and as you're pulling ingredients together realize that there's an ingredient needed that's specific to only the sub-Sahara and is only available through mail order. Martha Stewart anyone? Lord that lady can pack recipes full of "essential" ingredients. I expect it from her now and always skip something in her recipes. Needless to say, there's nothing that I've come upon in this book that requires mail ordering anything!
So I decided to tackle brioche. It's a morning bread as I see it. It's main ingredient is butter...need I say more? I always taste the dough of whatever I'm making. I figure, if that doesn't taste good, neither will the bread. This dough was difficult to stop "testing"! There are dough eaters and there are not...I am a dough eater. Let's move on.
After all my converting of measurements, letting my dough sit in the fridge for a day, I shaped it and threw it in the oven.
I was pleasantly pleased with it's outcome. Buttery, slightly sweet and perfect for the start to my day! Now this once intimidating book is full of slips of recipes that I want to try in the future.
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