Brioche Satine

I have caved and bought yet another cookbook. Till today I think my cookbook count is 50. Goodness..

Let me rewind a little. I went back to the hotel I interned at yesterday for lunch with my friend J, who interned there with me. We went to a Chinese dim sum restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly with the very dishes we helped to prepare a year ago. I can't tell you how bizarre it felt to walk into the hotel using the front entrance instead of the staff entrance at the back, or walking into the restaurant as guests instead of kitchen trainees. And being able to actually eat the food that comes out of the wok. Overwhelmed by nostalgia, we sat and talked about the months of training and the people we met. We laughed and took silly pictures. We ate an obscene amount of dumplings.

We also snuck into the kitchens to see the chefs we worked with. Sadly, they were busy cooking and running around so we decided to leave lest they tripped over us holding platters of food to be served to the other guests. I did drag J to the buffet restaurant I worked at for a couple of months (she was in another kitchen at the time) and after twenty minutes of inner conflict as to whether to go in or not, I eventually walked through the doors. And I practically ran to one of the sections of the buffet and waved frantically at the window. Moments later, a smiling, gray haired chef popped out and we excitedly babbled at each other until he remember he had left something on the stove. 

I can't tell you how good it felt. 

I also met a friend I had worked with for almost a month and while that doesn't seem that long, you have to remember that it was an average of 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. At first, I just waved at him and headed in the other direction but J pulled me back to talk to him. My hesitance was because I had the biggest crush on him for over a year - I also have not seen him for over a year. Isn't it weird how the hearts works ?

We talked until he had to go back to work. I don't know what I was supposed to feel - nervous or scared or giggly - but all I could think about in that moment was he'slostweight and herememberedme and goodgriefheissmilingatme. After he headed back into the kitchens, we didn't linger, just dropping by to see a few other people and then leaving the hotel after that. We went to a mall to do some shopping and in my rather confused state, I bought a cookbook. After the shock of seeing him again wore off (that only happened this afternoon), I cracked open the covers of Pastries by Pierre Herme. Let me just tell you, I don't regret buying this book. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes are lengthy to say the least, but I kinda of like the challenge and the results will be worth it. Have you seen those desserts put on display in a French patisserie ? Yeah, that's what you'll find in this book. And to be honest, I'm going to need the distraction.

I made up my mind to pick a recipe and finish it today. It's an effort sometimes because when I finally go out and locate the ingredients I don't have, then buy them and get back home, chance are I'm already distracted by something else (painting my nails a different color, a new blog to read) and the baking gets put off till another day. 

I've been feeling nostalgic of late. You see, my best friends are studying overseas, which means having to go shopping by myself and also the fact that I'm going to be heading overseas myself in a few months time. I don't think I need to mention that seeing someone-who-I've-had-a-crush-on-but-haven't-seen-or-talked-to-in-a-year sort of (okay, a lot) turned my world upside down. My friends, well, we're in constant contact so it feels like they're still beside me giving sarcastically funny comments and make lame jokes every day, even though there is that bratty time-zone thing, which means while I'm brushing my teeth and pulling on my pajamas, they're spooning cereal from a bowl and reading the morning paper. 

As for that guy ? I really don't know. I'm not exactly someone who believes in Prince Charmings, not because I am a cynic but because I would prefer to be the one on a horse and battling dragons. Not that I'd actually want to marry a guy who gets himself kidnapped by dragons in the first place.. But I digress. I think it's time to wish him the best, thank him for everything he's taught me and let him go, while I'll just go with the flow and see where the future takes me.

About these buns. They're supposed to be cookie-topped brioches, filled with some passion fruit mousseline. And while I did tweak the recipe a liiiittle bit, I followed it as written and while the filling did turn out brilliantly, and my buns did color beautifully, they were bigger than I expected and sort of fused together during the rising period. And while they don't look anywhere as lovely or polished, I might add, as the ones in the book, they're quite fun to make and very, very fun to eat. What's not to like about a buttery bun with a cookie on top ? 

Brioche Satine

(Adapted from Pastries by Pierre Herme)

Makes 9 buns

Passion fruit cream:

1 gelatin sheet

1 egg

55g sugar

50g passion fruit purée

62g unsalted butter

Brioche dough:

250g all purpose flour, sifted

35g superfine sugar

50g whole milk

10g active dry yeast

2 eggs 

87g unsalted butter

7g sea salt

Short crust dough:

40g unsalted butter

A pinch of salt

25g icing sugar

5g almond flour

1 egg yolk

67g all purpose flour

Glaze:

1 egg

A pinch of sugar

A pinch of salt

Passion fruit and orange mousseline cream:

60g unsalted butter, softened 

1 recipe passion fruit cream

30g diced candied peel

1. Make the passion fruit cream first. Soak the gelatin in cold water. Combine the egg, sugar and passion fruit purée in a bowl set over simmering water and cook, whisking, till it reaches 185F or 85C. Drain the gelatin and squeeze out excess water, then add it to the egg mixture and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool until 140F or 60C. Add the butter all at once and pour the mixture into a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into a bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the surface of the creamy and refrigerate (can be done one day in advance).

2. Make the brioche dough next. In a stand mixer, put the flour with the sugar, salt, milk, yeast and half the eggs. Mix with a dough hook until the eggs and milk have been worked in. Add the remaining eggs and beat until mixed in. Add the butter and beat until incorporated. It'll look like a gloomy mess at first, but keep the mixer going and the butter will be worked in eventually. Place in a buttered bowl and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

3. To make the short crust dough, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and ground almonds. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the yolk and mix to form a soft dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and flatten slightly, the refrigerate for 2 hours.

4. Sprinkle a work surface with flour, the roll out the short crust dough. Use a 2 3/4 inch cookie cutter and cut out 9 rounds of dough. Place the round on a lined baking sheet so they don't stick, then refrigerate until needed.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the brioche dough into 9 pieces, then shape them into balls. Arrange the dough balls on the baking sheet, but don't put them too close together or they'll fuse together like mine. Let them rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours at room temperature. In the meantime, preheat a convection oven to 200C.

6. Make the glaze. In a bowl, whisk together the egg with a pinch of sugar and salt. Brush the tops of the dough balls with the glaze. Remove the shortcrust rounds from the refrigerator and place one of top of each glazed bun. Bake the brioches for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely before filling.

7. To make the mousseline, beat the butter until creamy then beat in the passion fruit cream. Add the diced peel, then beat just to combined. Put the mousseline into a pastry bag fitted with a plain #6 pastry tip. Push the pastry tip into the base of each bun about halfway up, and fill the centre with cream. When the buns are full, you can feel it as the pastry tip will be pushed out of the buns. Or you can do what I did and stick the point of a chopstick into the sides of the buns, then wiggle it around to make more room. Be careful not the pierce the sides ! Put the pastry tip into the hole you made with the chopstick and fill up the buns. You can more filling in them this way. These are best eaten on the same day, but you can store them airtight for up to 2 days.