The Queen of French breads

Who can pass by a French boulangerie in the morning hours, and not stop in for a special pain for a petit déjeuner? Certainly not me. Some go right for the croissants. Moi, I head for that most royal of treats: the little puffy crown called la brioche.

Brioche is a rich egg bread, taking the form of a small crown with a topknot, or a knotted loaf in its larger version, which is great for bread pudding or French toast. Sometimes an individual brioche will be sucrée, with coarse sugar on top, or full of tiny chocolate chips.

Our English friends Pete and Dee are always welcome visitors, but were especially welcomed on their last visit, since they arrived with a gorgeous brioche loaf which Dee had made herself. I’m not much of a baker, so I was dead impressed, especially when I saw that was stuffed with blueberries! I’ve never seen blueberries in a brioche, and neither had Dee. But she had lots of fresh berries, and she said, why not? Pourquoi pas indeed, it was delicious for breakfast.

Dee invented her blueberry brioche as she went along. She used a traditional recipe, but then rolled it out, sprinkling it with sugar and nutmeg and berries. Then she rolled it up and cut it like cinnamon rolls. She then laid the slices in a ring-mold cake pan, and when they rose they formed the beautiful shape you see above, and they pull right apart. Photo right, from BBC Food: the traditional crowns, called "brioche à tête".

Dee swears this is easy to make, and she avoids kneading by putting it in a standing mixer. Patience, however, is required; it must rise 40 minutes or so, and it’s even better if you leave it overnight in the fridge.

Try this at home, it looks pretty easy. Me, I’m just going to invite Pete and Dee back again soon!

RECIPE: Dee's Beautiful Blueberry Brioche

Dee shared her recipe, but you can use any brioche recipe you like for this, and then add the steps with the berries. Dee put the slices in a ring mold or ring pan to make these.
Dee says, “Alternatively, you could put the cut rolls into muffin cases in a muffin tin and bake like that, just reduce the baking time a bit.”

350g (a scant 3 cups) unbleached all purpose flour, or bread flour
175ml (3/4 cup) warm milk
8g (1.5 teaspoons) salt
40g (1/4 cup) sugar
75g (1/3 cup) butter
3 eggs
15 grams (4.5 teaspoons) active dry yeast ( leave it in about a third of the warm milk with a teaspoon of sugar for 10 mins)

Filling/Topping:

2 tablespoons of brown sugar
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups blueberries
1 egg

Mix first set of ingredients together well and knead until smooth and silky (by hand or with a mixer and dough hook). This is going to take 10 to 20 minutes.
Leave in a warm place until at least double in size. Knead by hand for a minute then roll dough on floured surface into a rectangle (about 38x21cm, 15×8"). Doesn't need to be too neat. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture dough, then the blueberries. Rolled up the dough to enclose the blueberries and sugar making a 38cm (15") roll.

Cut into slices about 3cm (1") thick and arrange them in the tin evenly, standing on their sides.  Leave in warm place to rise. Alternatively they can be left in the fridge overnight before baking .
  
Heat oven to 350F (180C). While waiting for the oven to warm, brush with beaten egg, or egg and milk mixture.
Bake for 20 mins. Protect the brioche with tin foil if it browns too quickly.

In the COMMENTS:  I asked for your best restaurant in France, and we got lots of answers! Im keeping this list and I'd love to visit every one. There were several in Paris, on the Riviera, and in between. Connie, I think the restaurant you're thinking of in Tournus is called Aux Terraces.  Suzanne, I've been to Le Grand Courbot too! Funny story about the waiter. Clyde–Billy Joel, wow! Hope you pay that bill off someday.

And going back to the previous post on the French alps, Debbie of the blog A French Opportunity has written several posts on the French alps, so check out her blog if you're thinking of touring that area.

Favorite Reads: Here's a French memoir by Debbie Woods, one of our readers, that you need to check out! Debbie took a life leap and bought a place on the Riviera. You can visit her blog here. Her memoir is called girl Lost–Found in France.