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.
A 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 b
est 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.
“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.”
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.
Off the to the bread machine I went.
I guess he did know what he was talking about. 🙂 Enough said.
It took three rounds of mixing in the bread machine but the dough finally came together making this lovely round ball.
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.
Half 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.
In the end they were edible.
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
Hope the kitchen aid is back in action soon! I’m thinking about replacing mine soon- it is over worked!
Right now it is laying in 3 big pieces in my husband’s shop … yikes!
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.
The KA is in the shop! Cross your fingers for me 🙂
Pulled pork sounds delicious! Sorry these didn’t work for you, but now I can’t wait to make the pecan sticky buns!
Just saying the words pecan sticky buns sends me to the kitchen! ha!
next time I make brioche dough, I am definitely going to make those pecan sticky buns!
You won’t be sorry!
So sorry about your kitchen aid!! The pockets looked like they turned out beautifully anyway 🙂
Thanks for the condolences, the pockets were pretty good, but not as flaky as they should have been!
I bet the bbq pulled pork was delicious! Sounds so good. I hope you get your KA back soon.
The BBQ pulled pork was an excellent choice and a surprise at our dinner table. I always like when I can actually surprise the folk!
Oh dear – that. is a bummer.
Hopefully, your repairman will get all working in good order soon.
BBQ pork = mmmmmmmm
The Chief has the whole thing torn apart, a new gidget ordered through Amazon — now just to put it back together in the right order …
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!
What color is Stella? I think I got my cobalt blue mixer about 1996 … but can’t quite remember!
I was nervous about this because my KA is an Artisan. So glad the bread machine worked. I don’t think my dough ever got as nice and smooth as yours but it still made nice buns.
Your KA is an Artisan? I haven’t heard of that before, guess I better get to Googling! Thanks for stopping by my blog.
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.
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! 🙂
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!
Thanks, we did like the filling! Isn’t it fun baking together and seeing how the same recipe looks on dinner tables around the world?
lol! I know what you mean too well!
The Chief is very good at tearing things apart and so he has my KA down in the shop. However, he isn’t quite as good at putting them back together! 🙂 I’ll keep you posted …
Oh no! Not the KitchenAid!
I feel for you, I would be so lost without mine. They do look wonderful though 🙂