Beignets from Brioche Dough

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, (who is a fellow Daring Baker), is one of the best books I have ever owned. I have already made several of the breads with great results. The theory behind the book is to make an easy, no knead, no fuss dough. Put it in the fridge and pull it out when you want to bake it with only a 5 minute prep + rising time. And yes, it does only take 5 minutes to have artisan bread.

Brioche is my most recent creation. The recipe in the book makes enough dough for 5 loaves of bread. I made a delicious loaf of this fortified bread and it was splendid. Rich buttery, flaky bread was a given with this easy method.

I divided the dough into 5 portions
I rolled one portion into a rectangle and then cut it into pieces.
this was super easy. I didn't even have to look at the book.
I fried them 3 at a time in my wok.
Then I liberally applied powdered sugar to them.
Voilà Beignets. Just like that!

Get started with this Brioche dough (approx 4 loaves)

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (I used Instant SAF yeast)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
8 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups Yikes 3 sticks of butter, melted
7 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
egg wash

1.Mix the yeast (see step two for SAF yeast), salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter with the water in a 5 quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2. If using SAF instant yeast withhold the yeast in the first step and whisk it into the flour now. Then mix in the remaining ingredients quickly using a sturdy wooden spoon. The dough will be loose,but will firm up when chilled; don't try to work it before chilling. (you may notice lumps in the dough but they will disappear in the finished products.)

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses or flattens on top. Approx 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used as soon as it's chilled after the initial rise. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days. Beyond 5 days, freeze the dough in 1 pound portions for up to 4 weeks. When using the dough allow it to thaw in the fridge for 24 hours, then allow the usual rest and rise times.

5.Defrost the dough overnight in the refrigerator if frozen. On a baking day, grease a 9x4x3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball, by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6. Elongate into an oval and place in the prepared pan. Allow to rest for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

7. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 F. If you are not using a stone in the oven, 5 minutes is adequate.

8. Using a pastry brush, brush the top crust with egg wash.

9. Place the bread near the center of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a medium golden brown. Due to the fat in the dough, brioche will not for a hard, crackling crust.

10. Allow to cool before slicing or eating.

I have two buckets of bread in the refrigerator right now

Bran Enriched White Bread and Boule' bread. Enough for about 10 loaves.

More to come.

Edward and Bella

Spoilers in this post!

Okay, several weeks have passed since the release of the book, and I would like to get your responses. Please vote at my new poll, up at the top right of the blog.

I really liked the first 2/3 of the book. This was full of the wonderful romance and sweet fluff of the like, that girls love to read. I loved that Edward and Bella had such a wonderful honeymoon. He couldn't get enough of her, and she was more than happy to oblige. Obviously the sex was great enough to break the furniture! What girl doesn't dream of that happening right? I even loved the part where Bella suspects something is going on in her body that is totally foreign. But a vampire hybrid? Wow! Talk about the pregnancy from hell. I always worried that Bella wanted to jump into her vampire life too soon. I asked myself, what about babies? Every women at one point thinks about motherhood. How could Bella deny this part of herself? Even Christina, who swears she is adopting Japanese babies, has confessed that she wonders what it would be like to carry a baby to term.
So Bella, disregards all reason to save her mortality and chooses to incubate a half vampire baby. She goes through the most miserable pregnancy imaginable. Pain, broken, ribs, stretch marks from hell, bruises a linebacker couldn't imagine, and the unthinkable.....drinking blood to nourish herself and the fetus. During all of this mess, Edward is inconsolable with guilt and grief that his beloved is going to die because of his manly lusts.
I loved the creepy "Alien" like birth scene of Bella and Edward's baby too. I had no idea Stephanie Meyer had such a creepy imagination as to write such a sick, sick scenario. But it kinda makes sense. This baby has to get out to save itself. Her mother cannot carry her any longer and now it is survival of the fittest. Baby wins out, and baby chews it's way out. Okay, baby gets help chewing its way out of Bella by Edward, her father(But I can't think about that too much or I'll throw up a little in my mouth). Bella's spine is broken, she is losing massive amounts of blood, the pain sends her into shock and she is dying. Edward has no choice but to turn her into a vampire. He injects his own venom into her heart and and proceeds to bite her and lick her all over. Yes, all over. He is desperate to save her, and he knows the only way is to make her like him. Bella endures an excruciating 3 days of transformation while her body slowly kills itself off and accepts its new vampire self. Wait is this a Young Adult Book?!?!

I loved that Bella who eventually is a vampire turns into this sexy enchantress, whom Edward can't keep his hands off of. Now they can really proceed to "trip the light fantastic". They are madly, passionately, head over heels obsessed with each other, and then Voila! The baby can communicate with them, she sleeps through the night, she never cry's, she can even probably change her own diapers, if she needs to,(she is half human after all). So now the newlywed vampires can spend the entire night( remember they don't need sleep) sexing each other up in ways I have problems comprehending. I have one question..."Where do I sign up for this gig?"

The last third of the book was excruciating for me to get through. I don't care about all of these characters she introduces in some sort of editorial, get possible sequels, type of frenzy. I could care less about the Volturi, and their power issues, and I was not convinced that they were really going to do vanquish the Cullins or their friends. I don't think Stephanie Meyer is done with this money making vampire train yet, not by a long shot. So gentle readers you can expect to see much more of this series. I am certain! Bella and Edward will show up with child and Jacob in tow as background characters in many of her future books. I suspect there will be prequels as well. I would like to learn more about Alice and Jasper, Rosalee and Emmit, and Carlisle and Esme. Stephanie Meyer left the book wide, wide open for a whole series of the Jacob and Renesmee story line as well.

So, as I close this post of how the Vampire Kingdom Turns, I hope you are intrigued to vote at my post. Let me know if my review of the book has been fair, and really, what did you think of the book.