Zucchini Bread

This was my first try at zucchini bread. I found the recipe in The Recipe Club, a book about a friendship between 2 women over the span of over 40 years. Their story is intertwined with great recipes that they shared during their life.

Ingredients:

- Butter or shortening for greasing pans,
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups peeled, grated raw zucchini
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup raisins (I did without)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 9x5x3-inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until light and foamy.

Mix in the sugar, oil, zucchini, and vanilla.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, stirring until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and raisins.

Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
Let cool 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Pain d'epices.

Pain d'epices can be translated as "spice-bread". It is a traditional French bread full of flavors and its main ingredients are rye flour, honey and spices. It is very dense and flavorful so one usually eats it by the very thin slice. Some like it by itself while others enjoy it with a bit of butter or jam. I love it with apricot preserves! This bread can be kept (in a dry cool spot) for more than a week and it actually gets better with time, as the flavors meld together.

I followed David Lebovitz' recipe and it came out great!

Brioche.

Making Brioche has been my biggest baking endeavor to date. It is a very time consuming process but the result is oh so worth it! This sweet and buttery bread is to die for! Brioche is something that reminds me of my childhood. It is very common to have a brioche for breakfast in France, just like croissants and pains au chocolat (chocolate croissants). Brioche and cafe au lait (coffee and milk) go very well together. I love dipping my brioche in it!

I know there are going to be too many pictures but I don't want to leave anything out for those who are going to make this. I know that, for me, seeing lots of pictures along with a recipe helps me visualize the process better and makes it a lot easier!

The recipe is from Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan. The stand-mixer is courtesy of Maia!

The first step is to make the sponge. For this, you will need:
- 1/3 cup warm whole milk

- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

- 1 large egg
- 2 cups all purpose flour

Put the milk, yeast, egg, and 1 cup of the flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Mix the ingredients together with a rubber spatula, mixing just until everything is blended.

Sprinkle over the remaining cup of flour to cover the sponge.

Set the sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes. After this time, the flour coating will crack, your indication that everything is moving along properly.

The dough:

- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 cups (approximately) all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Add the sugar, salt, eggs, and 1 cup of the flour to the sponge.

Set the bowl into the mixer, attach the dough hook, and mix on low speed for a minute or two, just until the ingredients look as if they're about to come together.

Still mixing, sprinkle in 1/2 cup more flour. When the flour in incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 15 minutes, stopping to scrape down the hook and bowl as needed.

During this mixing period, the dough should come together, wrap itself round the hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If, after 7 to 10 minutes, you don't have a cohesive, slapping dough, add up to 3 Tbsp more flour. Continue to beat, giving the dough a full 15 minutes in the mixer.

In order to incorporate the butter into the dough, you must work the butter until it is the same consistency as the dough. I used the back of a large spoon. When it's ready, the butter will be smooth, soft, and still cool. Not oily or greasy.

With the mixer on medium-low, add the butter a few tbsp at a time. This is the point at which you'll think you made a huge mistake because the dough that you worked so hard to make smooth will fall apart. Carry on.

When all of the butter has been added, raise the mixer speed to medium-high for a minute, then reduce the speed to medim and beat the dough for 5 minutes or until you once again hear the dough slapping the sides of the bowl. Clean the sides of the bowl frequently as you work, if it looks as though the dough is not coming together after 2 to 3 minutes, add up to 1 Tbsp more flour.

First rise: Transfer the dough into a very large buttered bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Second Rise and Chilling: Deflate the dough by placing your fingers under it, lifting a section of dough, and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Work your way around the circumference of the dough, lifting and realeasing.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight or at least 4 to 6 hours.

This is what my dough looked like in the morning:

Your dough is now ready to be used in any brioche recipe. I decided to make into 2 braided loaves and I used the directions from the King Arthur baking blog. Scroll down to about the middle of the page for the braided loaf version and follow the directions. They omitted the oven temperature/time. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting with foil after 15 to 20 minutes.

This is how much my loaves rose after 2 hours 45 minutes. They could have used another half an hour or so, I am sure, but I was getting too impatient!