3. Cinnamon Brioche Knot
Bread is not my forte. If Paul Hollywood were to taste my attempts at bread, at best I'd get an ok response. My bread would not earn me any handshakes. I make a decent focaccia and that's about it. Everything else I either haven't tried or has been average at best. So with my bread making expertise, I decided to make a cinnamon brioche knot. Because why start easy?
When making this, the recipe I followed suggested baking it in a 8" cake tin. My knot was about 8" diameter before it had proved. This should have been my first inkling that I was creating a monster. But rather than let that put me off I just put it in a deep baking tray and hoped for the best.
It. Was. Huge.
This monster was bigger than my head. By a fair amount. 8" diameter? Not a chance. More like 16". I have no idea how this recipe created so much bread. I really don't. I couldn't finish it. Some of it went stale. It was pretty good for a first attempt, it tasted decent and the texture wasn't bad, but the sheer quantity of it. I have no words.
I got this recipe for brioche dough from Artisan Bread in Five, which you can find here.
Ingredients
700g brioche dough, chilled (Artisan Bread in Five link above)
1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp (30g) melted butter
Method
Mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
Roll the dough on a floured surface to a rectangle that is about 1/4" thick.
Brush the dough with the butter and sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar to get an even covering.
Roll the dough into a log, rolling along the long edge.
Chill the log for 20 minutes or so. It's a lot easier to handle when chilled!
Slice the log down the middle, starting about 1/2" from one end, so that it is still attached at the top.
Turn your two halves out so that the cut edges are facing up.
Lift one half over the other and repeat until it is all braided.
Starting with the cut end, start spiralling your log into a circle.
Place in a greased cake tin/baking tray (it's going to get bigger so choose one that it doesn't fill already!)
Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise at room temperature for an hour and a half.
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Allow to cool a bit before serving.
