Beautiful Brioche

When I visited Slash-M in Sweden in 2018, he bought some brioche moulds for me when we visited a small store selling cooking and baking tools and gadgets. Admittedly brioche moulds are merely containers that hold and shape the pieces of dough. The moulds do not enhance the flavour of the bread but they certainly make the ensaymada pretty. Slash-M did not HAVE to get them for me, but I am certainly glad that he did. These moulds will always be special to me.

At the time, I had tried several ensaymada recipes with varying success. I had made some revisions to my grandmother's ensaymada recipe and was pretty pleased with the results. My main issue was that the recipe uses eight egg yolks, leaving me with egg whites that usually end up as meringue or some other sweet dessert. Last year, my sister-in-law SI shared her recipe with me and they turned out great. I would have made ensaymada using her recipe more often but the recipe requires some boiled potatoes and is quite involved. I don't always have potatoes on hand plus this ensaymada baker rookie could spend the whole day trying to come up with the ensaymada.

The other week, I chanced upon this link in youtube. The recipe seemed straight-forward enough and the comments were quire encouraging. The plus side to this recipe is that is uses 4 eggs and an egg yolk, which in my mind leaves me with a single odd egg white that can easily be added to someone's fried egg or scrambled egg for breakfast.

They turned out nice and soft. It was a "choose your own (toppings) adventure" because I was not able to prepare the usual ensaymada toppings ahead. MyGirl put some butter and sugar over hers. RD placed some grated cheese. When I got around to serving some to MacGyver's friends that came over, they got the full experience of both butter/sugar mixture plus grated cheese.

Thank you, Kuya Gil for this wonderful ensaymada recipe. I will try your other recipes soon.

Hey, Slash-M, I think this recipe will give more oven time to the brioche moulds. Thanks again!

Classic Ensaymada Recipe

Ingredients: 480 g all-purpose flour ( 3 1/2 c) 11 g instant yeast (1 T) 77 g granulated sugar (7 T) 10 g fine sea salt (1/2 T) 4 whole eggs, cold 1 egg yolk, cold 82 g cold whole milk 216 g unsalted butter, cut into ½ in cubes, room temp for 15-20 min Ensaymada Buttercream Frosting 4 tbsp unsalted butter 3 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.

Add eggs and milk. Mix 5-6 mins on low Add butter pieces a few pieces at a time, allowing butter to get incorporated into the dough. Stop and scrape down several times. Continue mixing for about 15 minutes, scraping down sides every so often. Do several stretch and folds on the dough. (I did this inside the bowl, though instructions indicated pat, stretch and fold on worksurface.) Cover and let rise 1 hour or until double in size. Do another set of pat, stretch and fold. Refrigerate overnight. Transfer to lightly floured surface. Flatten and roll into a baton shape. Divide into 12 equal pieces. Shape dough (roll into long strip then shape into coil) Place on lightly buttered mould. Cover and allow to rise 1 1/2 hours or until double in size. Place on baking tray. Bake in preheated 325 oven for 17-18 minutes. Immediately brush with melted butter. Remove ensaymada from moulds and allow to cool on rack. Mix together 4T butter, 3T sugar and 1/2 t vanilla extract. Frost cooled ensaymada. Top with grated cheese.