Berserk for Brioche

Finally, after a rather harrowing month of March, I am on Spring Break! What a glorious holiday it has been with lots of naps, shopping, and an exquisite visit from the parents... and I still have a week left. Thank God for the French!! I apologize for my lack of writing lately. I hope to remedy that in the coming months.

A few weeks back, Pat & I took a bread baking class as Le Pan Quotidian in Soho. It was glorious! Three hours in a gorgeous bakery spent mixing, kneading, patting, and braiding bread. Each of us made 2 challah loaves, brioche rolls, and cinnamon rolls (my favorite). We were tired bakers by the end!

This is not bread for dieters mind you. Both breads have an almost even ratio of fat to flour, making them delicious you see. The brioche, a French bread, is made with butter, eggs, and flour. Again, the French bless us all. Challah (pronounced hall-uh, like the rap song) is a Jewish braided bread that is made with oil, eggs, and flour. This keeps it Kosher because there is no mixing of animals, i.e. the butter and eggs.

Braiding the bread was very fun. Pat had a little harder time, his hair was never long enough as a child. The dough was so rich that I came out of there with a natural moisturizing treatment on my hands. After 2 hours of working with the dough, watching it proof, and rolling cinnamon rolls, all the bread went into a marvelous oven. It came out twenty minutes later where we quickly plopped the steaming creations into paper bags and off we went. I am surprised there weren't people lined up outside because it smelled like heaven! I ate the yummy, rich bread the whole way home on the subway.

Thanks for a wonderful Valentine's present, Pat! I had a blast baking bread!