Brioche Feuilletée

What a dream it would be to visit Poilâne one day!

Until then I revel in the cookbook given to me for Christmas by my mother-in-law. Trying to recreate these recipes can be fun but not without its challenges. Apolloina makes French baking approachable but I still hold my breath when I work with dough— a bit apprehensive of injuring or mishandling it at any stage of the process. Always unsure the efforts will turn out right.

I am most intrigued in trying to master Poilâne’s brioches recipes. When done properly, brioche is wonderfully buttery and light. The perfect breakfast or addition to dinner in the form of rolls or buns.

Since Poilâne’s brioche recipe makes two loaves, I used one portion of the dough for dinner rolls and the other to try at a feuilletée.

The warm spices make this a lovely breakfast toast. Happily, I was able to achieve an ideal texture but my laminating technique needs work. Properly laminating this pretty loaf — rolling out the dough much more thin than I did— would have created a more even bite throughout a slice. Most of my filling sat at the top of each slice leaving one end of the bread somewhat plain and the other end deliciously sweet and gingery.

Still, with a cup of coffee or milk, the family enjoyed it all the same.