Foodie Fears
- By Em
- 07/10/2012
- No Comments
Like all people, I fear food. Some people fear sugar, some people fear beef fat, some people fear dairy, and I fear butter.
There is nothing wrong with butter per se and I fully use and acknowledge its use (I don’t particularly believe in a lot of butter substitutes), but somehow watching it go into dishes physically pains me and tasting something drenched in butter simply does not do it for me.
I thought about it and realized, taste buds change, people mature, some things are just delicious so, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to try butter in something that I already love.
So, I decided to make the most decadent, buttery-tasting food that I know I potentially eat: brioche. I love bread and there is little that can detract from the deliciousness that is bread.
… then I looked up a recipe, the butter leaped through the screen and killed me which is why you should never try and confront your fears because they are probably justified.
Kidding, I kid, but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to pull out more than a stick of butter.
Brioche traditionally is a very rich bread since it tends to have a lot of egg in addition to butter. This version still tastes relatively “rich” because of the coconut milk, but it lacks the greasiness that I don’t particularly enjoy. I would definitely read through the recipe first as there is a bit of a rise time! Perfect for a plan ahead meal, not as great if you want to eat in twenty minutes.
Without further ado, I present a version of Brioche!
Coconut Brioche
(slightly adapted from Have Cake Will Travel – a rather genius blog)
1/2 cup water
1 TBSP cornstarch
3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk at room temperature
4 TBSP granulated sugar
1/2 TSP fine sea salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP instant yeast
4 TBSP room temp butter
Directions:
Whisk water and cornstarch on medium heat until it forms a milky-white slightly gelatinous substance. Set it aside to cool. Mix cornstarch mixture, coconut milk, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Add in the flour and yeast and mix. Finally, mix in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough should be rather sticky/wet and you should really not want to have to roll it out. Luckily, you don’t have to! Cover and put the dough in the refrigerator for 6-18 hours.
When the dough has finished rising, dump the dough (using silicone spatula or spoon to help) into a loaf pan (it’s recommended that you use a 8×4, but I only had an 8×13 so I use the handy trick of using aluminum foil to block off part of the pan), cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 1.5-2 hours until it is almost doubled in size. I threw some chopped almonds on top for a garnish and some more flavor!
Bake for 10 minutes at 400 F and then another 20 at 350 F. I would watch it as my oven times may not be the same as yours!
