Well, we are back on planet normal after our indulgent week in Vietnam, most of which we spent lolling around a fabulous resort which I’ll share with you later. Back here in real life the absence of a vast and sumptuous breakfast buffet was immediately noted and sullenly commented on by The Bloke. I’m incredibly lazy around the house and often lack the motivation to cook a meal, but I always seem to miss baking when I go away. As a result, it is usually the first thing I do in the kitchen upon my return from travels so, while dinner might be a bit slow in appearing, cake, cookies or bread reliably appear pretty quickly.
As far as bountiful breakfast buffets go, in our house they generally just don’t. Given my lack of interest in early morning cooking and my apparent inability to bully anyone else in the house into it, if we are in the mood for a slap-up feed we generally take ourselves out somewhere local and get someone else to cook for us. However, we currently have a most unusual problem for this time of the year. Our hens seem to have paid no attention at all to the fact that it is winter time and freezing (quite literally up here in the Adelaide Hills). We have six hens, one of whom is ancient and probably not laying at all, and have been averaging 4-5 eggs a day all through this ridiculous weather.
In an effort to use as many eggs up as I can, The Bloke has lucked out and, while not exactly offering him the resort selection he prefers, breakfast the other day was notably flasher than usual with an egg-rich, gorgeously warm and oven-fresh loaf of Honey Orange Brioche. Now you just know I’m most unlikely to knock myself out over a fiddly recipe – and you’d be right. Bread baking is simple and rewarding and this loaf is no exception. Just remember that flours vary from batch to batch so you may have to adjust the liquid levels a little.
This dough is as simple as you’d expect from me and can be made by hand, by using the dough hook in a stand mixer or even on the dough setting in a bread machine. I made it the evening before, allowing it to slow-prove in the fridge (do put a dinner plate over the bowl in the fridge or it will just expand everywhere) and baked it fresh in the morning. I would have added some candied orange peel to this if I could find it, but it seems impossible to buy these days. I guess I’ll have to make some myself, but that’s another project. This is as easy as they come, but very impressive to serve and utterly divine to eat – I’d urge you to give it a go.
Honey Orange Brioche
Ingredients
- 1 sachet dried yeast
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 175 mls warm milk
- 475 gms bread flour
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 125 gms softened butter
- 3 eggs
- zest of 2 oranges
- egg wash for glazing.
Instructions
- Combine yeast, honey and warm milk. Whisk with a fork to mix well and set aside for 10 minutes, until the yeast activates and foam is seen on the surface.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (but not the orange zest) in the order given and mix on very low speed (to stop it all flying out of the bowl) with the dough hook on your stand mixer to combine. Once combined, increase speed to that suggested for kneading and knead for 5-6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Add the orange zest and mix until it is well combined in the dough.
- If making by hand, combine all ingredients except the orange rind and mix with a wooden spoon until blended and sticky.
- Turn on to a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, adding the orange zest at the end when the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a large bowl.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and stand in warm place until it has doubled.
- Punch the dough down, cover the bowl again with wrap and place a dinner plate over the bowl. Refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning preheat oven to 180C. Grease a round spring-form cake pan.
- Punch the dough down again and knead by hand for 2-3 minutes until smooth.
- Divide the dough into 7 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place 1 of the dough balls in the centre of the cake pan and the remaining 6 around the central one.
- Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and place in a warm spot until doubled in size (about an hour or so).
- Remove wrap and brush dough with egg wash.
- Place on centre rack in oven and bake until golden and well risen - 25-30 minutes.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and eat immediately!
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So easy and so good. Looks – and sounds – amazing. Have you tried making this dough in the Thermie? x
I love to cook but like you, only to my own schedule. I don’t call it lazy though. Neither of us is lazy but we choose which activities to pursue based purely on our own desires.
I love this brioche!
That dough looks amazing — as does the end result, I’m just a bit obsessed with dough ;). And your recipe is a little less scary on the butter side than my previous brioche adventures (where I swear you keep on adding butter until you can’t add any more — then you add some more anyway!).
This looks awesome indeed! How bizarre about your chickens, they must be very happy hens to be laying in such miserable cold weather. I do love a good breakfast buffet, especially in Asia- yummo 🙂 Glad you had a nice break, but I bet you wish it was longer! Xox
So envious that you have chickens, especially good layers (we simple don’t have the yard)…. love this recipe, Amanda!
Welcome back, Amanda! I would love your problem of too many eggs from your very own chickens. And your brioche looks so wonderful xx
Welcome home! And I wouldn’t be complaining about waking up to a great looking breakfast like that in the morning!
Looks delicious Amanda. I love brioche and this one sounds fairly achievable even for me, so definitely worth a try. Hope the hens calm down so you get a break from the baking.
Oh my lord Amanda…this goes straight to my must-bake list. Thank you, this looks incredible!
I’ve got my own laying hens too and the urge to make this divine brioche… there’s no stopping me.
This looks and sounds beautiful!!!! Honey brioche, what a perfect combination!
OMGoodness I haven’ made brioche in a long time & this honey orange version looks divine.
I’m sitting here waiting until I can take a lunch break and I am salivating at the look of your brioche! I can almost taste this divine looking result!
I’m catching up in reverse… Hope ya had a wonderful holiday lovely one. 🙂
Yep, I’ll take a loaf or three of this honey briche. #yarm Although, your recipe has a lot less butter than any I have prepared before…. Is this a good thing?
I just have this in the mixer now, and the dough looks very very wet…. is this supposed to be a super wet dough?
Hoping once it rises it will stiffen up a bit. I am not sure how I will form the 7 rolls!
Hi Mel – my dough wasn’t particularly wet, but flours can be quite idiosyncratic and will vary in their properties depending upon the brand, weather etc. I’d suggest adding a little more. The dough is soft, but not wet.