The Brioche That Killed My Kitchen Aid

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brioche pockets single
It’s Tuesdays with Dorie where a group of bakers and bloggers bake up the same recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking With Julia.   Then we brag, I mean, blog about our results.

TWD Brioche doughA year ago I made my very first attempt at brioche dough.  To say it was a success is an understatement.  (I’m humble like that.)  I used the dough to make PECAN STICKY BUNS that turned out to be the btwd psb singleest I have ever made and quite simply the best I have ever eaten.

Today’s recipe takes the same beautiful and buttery brioche dough and goes the opposite direction creating a savory pocket.  Yum.

I mean, um, not so fast.  While there are several steps to making brioche dough, one of the most important is to beat the dough in a mixer until it pulls together into a tight ball and then add butter until it falls apart.  Yep, falls apart … and it will.  Then the mixing continues until the dough reunites into the most elegant of soft bread doughs.  Checking out my blog post from last year will give you the best idea of how this happens successfully.

For my savory pockets I was about 7 minutes into the 20 minute mixing and beating process when my Kitchen Aid let out a whoop and a holler and ground to a shrieking halt.  “What just happened?” my Chief Culinary Consultant called out from the living room.

kitchen aid“I have no idea” I said, as I began to disassemble the mess of wet, buttery dough from the blades of the Kitchen Aid.  Several attempts later only confirmed that the gears within my 17 year-old Kitchen Aid are stripped out.  As I looked on in disbelief my eyes fell upon the label HEAVY DUTY proudly stamped across the top of my mixer.  Heavy duty?  I hadn’t even begun to mix this brioche!

I cleaned up the mixer and got it ready for the Chief to take to the shop and “fix.”

brioche buttered
In the meantime I had this half-beaten, not nearly flaky enough dough laying on the counter.  No problem for me.  I will just finish this little project by hand.  About this time the “culinary consultant” says, “why don’t you just finish it in the bread machine?” 

“THAT won’t work” I quickly countered. After all, this is brioche.  It takes a lot more mixing than a bread machine can give it.  (I thought a “consultant” would know that.)

Two minutes into kneading by hand and I knew I was in trouble.  I had butter oozing from one end of the counter to the other.  The recipe says that the butter and the dough should stay “cool” as it is mixed together.  I can guarantee there was nothing cool about my hands, my kitchen, and my temperament.

brioche in bread maker
Off the to the bread machine I went.

I guess he did know what he was talking about.  🙂 Enough said.

brioche beautiful
It took three rounds of mixing in the bread machine but the dough finally came together making this lovely round ball.

brioche in plastic
The dough is placed in a large bowl, covered tightly with plastic wrap and left to raise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  At this point I punched it down and re-wrapped it and placed it in the refrigerator over night.

After bringing the dough to room temperature it was ready to make into savory pockets.  Dorie’s recipe calls for a savory filling of cooked potatoes, caramelized onions and fresh asparagus. This combination sounds wonderful to me but not-so-much to my sous-chef dish-washing mom.  So, I opted for freshly made BBQ pulled pork in some of the pockets and a whipped sweet potato in the other.

mosaiccbriocheHalf of the dough I froze for another day.  It will stay for up to a month in the freezer!

The dough is rolled and cut and each little pocket made with a circle of dough on the bottom and a circle of dough on the top.  The edges are meant to be sealed and crimped a bit like pie dough.

It is so warm in the house today the dough rose quicker than I could get it in the oven.  Some of the little pockets stayed together, some popped open.
brioche pocket sweet pot
In the end they were edible.
brioche pocket eat
In the future I am sticking to sticky buns!

You will find the recipe on the blog of our host Carrie of Loaves and Stitches. I follow Carrie’s blog and find it fun and interesting! Nancy Silverton is the contributing baker for Savory Brioche Pockets.

Blessings and Happy Cooking!
Catherine

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25 thoughts on “The Brioche That Killed My Kitchen Aid”

  1. I hope your KitchenAid is back in action soon! It’s good to know that the bread machine will work in a pinch, too. We enjoyed these little pockets a lot.

    Reply
  2. Oh dear, mechanical malfunctions are the worst! I have that same KA (Stella is about 20 now I think) & she pulled through the brioche quite nicely, thank my luckies!

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  3. Pulled pork and sweet potato…genius!!! They look great. Your poor KA. I too have the heavy duty one. And my gal was getting very hot and bothered with this dough….but she survived another beating. Not sure how much longer she is going to last though. Great job, loved the post! You’re the second person here that used a bread machine. I think that is awesome.

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    • For several years we didn’t use the bread machine at all since the KA did such a fine job — plus I like getting my hands in the dough. But alas the bread maker came to the rescue when needed! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Your pockets are beautiful!!! I love your filling, what a great idea! They looks very versatile: can be filled with many different combination of ingredients!

    Reply

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