hygge – Appetite 4 Life – food for thought

Soft interior; crunchy exterior

The snow is bucketing it down and strong gusts of wind make it look like we are somewhere in the Arctic – not in a small British town west of London! It is wonderful.

I am guessing the school will text message around noon to say it will close at 1pm and have decided that I want to take full advantage of this! When the children come it will be film, hot chocolate and sweet roll time…Can’t wait!

It is a simple dough and really easy to make; please do not let the word yeast put you off!

The dough for these soft sweet rolls is already made (a bit keen) and the nougat filling is sat next to me on the counter – a few bites already missing….

Sweet Dough Brioche (makes around 12)

200ml milk

1.5 tbs butter

3 tbs sugar

25g fresh yeast (or 1.5 sachets dry)

1 tsp ground cardamom (you can substitute this for cinnamon)

pinch of salt

425g flour

Nougat – lots or 150g (you can substitute with chocolate)

In a small saucepan add milk, butter, sugar and yeast and turn on low heat. You want to make the milk luke warm in order that the butter melts and the sugar dissolved – however not too hot as this will damage the yeast’s ability to rise properly
Give all the ingredients a good stir with a wooden spoon and turn off the heat once the butter is half way melted and the sugar seems dissolved
Pour the mixture into a large bowl
In a separate bowl add the flour, salt and cardamom.
Pour the flour mixture into the milk and combine with either your hands or a wooden spoon. Save a little of the flour until you are sure you will need it all
If it is too sticky and does not form a soft dough ball – add a little extra flour. Conversely, add a little warm milk if you find you have added too much flour and it is too dry
Once combined, knead for 5 minutes and return to the bowl – covered with a clean tea towel
Place the dough ball close to a good heat source (over a radiator, next to tumble dryer….) or in a warm room
Leave the dough until it has doubled in size – takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour depending on what yeast you used and how warm your room is
Once you are happy with the dough, knead it a bit and flatten it out on a floured surface
Place the nougat on the dough – do not be stingy!
Close the dough around the nougat and, using your hands, create little dough balls (sort of like rolling a snow ball)
Place the finished brioche on a lined baking tray and leave under a tea towel to rise for 30 minutes
Just before placing in the pre-heated oven, brush the brioche with milk
Bake in the oven for 12 minutes at 225C – they will be lovely and brown when done (and tapping them underneath should sound hollow)
Once out of the oven brush with melted butter – this gives a nice, subtle salty taste to the brioche
At this point you can sprinkle some sugar on top too….(go on, if you are going to be naughty you may as well go for it).
Enjoy!