R khooks

Dulce de leche brioche buns

The season of all things open air is in full fling in Paris. With Paris beach (don’t laugh , it’s quite cool with palm trees and some sand. It’s not a bad attempt), cinema, concerts, dancing along the Seine and of course the most important the PICNICS.

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for a long time. Helen over @ Tartelette made them a while ago and they just sounded delicious. A picnic with friends seemed a great opportunity to try this out.

Last year when I studied @ Le Cordon Bleu we made regular Brioche. It all got a bit messy while kneading the butter as it was extremely hot. 40°c with the ovens on full blast and wearing a nasty chefs uniform. We added extra salt to the recipes with the sweat dripping off our foreheads. Nice! With a stand mixer and the dough hook attachment you can avoid the melting-butter-kneading problem.

‘Let them eat Brioche’ as the famous Marie Antoniette said.

Dulce de leche brioche buns

adapted from Tartelette and Le Cordon Bleu Pâtisserie manual.

250g flour
6g salt
25 sugar
3 eggs
1 sachet of instant dried yeast or 11g of fresh compact yeast
120ml of warm milk
125g of cold butter, cubed

250g cream cheese
250g dulce de leche

makes 12 buns

Mix the warm (not hot otherwise you will ‘kill’ the yeast) milk with the yeast and set aside. In a bowl add flour, make a well in the centre of the bowl. Add eggs and yeast into the ‘well’. Slowly combine. Once combined add salt and sugar. Knead for about 15-20 minutes or until the dough is elastic (like chewing gum). Add half of the cubed butter, continue to knead until incorporated into the dough (this can become messy, you need to work fast if you’re doing this by hand as your hands will melt the butter) then add the rest and continue to knead until you have a smooth elastic dough.

Leave to prove for 1 hour in a clingfilm covered bowl. Knock back and roll out dough into a rectangle. Spread cream cheese then dulce de leche (this part is a bit messy) leaving 1 inch border. Roll into a long sausage and cut into 12 parts. Place each brioche bun into a greased muffin tin. Wrap and leave to rise overnight in the fridge.

The day after take brioche out of fridge and leave to rise a bit while the oven is pre heating to 180°c. Put in oven, reduce heat to 160°c. Bake 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.