Christmas Morning & Brioche!

Christmas.

I love it.

I'm only nervous for when I start my own family. I fear that my house will look like a Winter Wonderland ever year, well, maybe just for one year, which isn't even a bad thing, until I realize how much work it is putting up Christmas Cheer and then taking it all down.

But all in all, Christmas and I love each other dearly. I love all of the baking, Christmas tunes, twinkly lights, happiness, movies (aka The Griswold's)...

Merry Christmas to me!!

And now for the brioche. Or as I purposely & wrongly pronounce it- (bree-o-chee)!

I'm oddly obsessed with all french foods (mainly desserts) at the moment... macarons, brioche, mille feuille... you name it, I want to bake it. I saw a delicious looking bread braid on Pinterest and rest assured, Rémi workin' @ da pâtisserie. Or the kitchen. At her house.

Here's what you'll need:
-1 2/3 cup flour
-4 1/2 tablespoons butter (and extra for the baking dish)
-2 eggs
-1 tablespoon dry yeast
-1/3 cup warm milk
-1 pinch of salt (unless you use salted butter)
-nonstick spray

Start with a nice big beautiful bodacious bowl. Then throw in your flour!

Man oh man. Here we go. Next comes the yeast!

 

 

It's quite ironic how I measured the yeast packet into my measuring spoon and it basically fit... so if you use a packet, don't worry about measuring- throw it in!

Now we have to make a bit of a basin after stirring the flour and yeast about.

Wow! Did a meteor hit!? Look at that crater! Let's add milk.

Stunning. Next, I threw in all of the other ingredients. Most people would probably use a stand mixer, but REMI DOESN'T HAVE A STAND MIXER. I just used my hands. The dough was more tacky than your aunt's Christmas sweater.

After playing patty cakes for what seemed like 45 minutes to my upper body, I momentarily lost my Christmas Joy and said "WHATEVER YOU PERSNICKITY DUMB PIECE OF BREAD STUPID THING YOU BIG IDIOT" and threw the dough into a Pam'd bowl.

Then I put a dish cloth over Mr. B and let him take a nap. A rather long siesta to be frank. 2 hours!!

Look at him all cozy in there! I did unfortunately have to wake him up...

The brioche went back on to the parchment paper to be rolled out.

You want to roll it into a large rectangle! It'd be like you're making cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon roll brioche... May need to try that in 2026 when I have a stand mixer!

Next comes the Nutella. Spread it ALL OVER!

The lovely part is that it can be super-de-duper messy looking.

Next we roll, roll, roll the bread, gently... into a cylinder? I'll work on that song.

Make sure to give the edge a nice big pinch!

Now comes the fun part. RIP THE BREAD TO SHREDS!

Just kidding, cut 3 strips so that we can braid them.

By the way, this step works best when you have on Christmas pajamas, and you also want to smash your gut onto the counter to keep the parchment paper in place.

Then you braid it, or just throw it around, or just do whatever with it.

This was a bit challenging... the crime scene shows there may have been some fowl play judging by the Nutella spattered ground. We'll keep moving though.

Spread some butter into a baking dish.

Add then we reverse snake-charm the braided bread into the baking dish.

I refrigerated the brioche over night, although once you let it rest 10 minutes after playing with it, you can bake it. 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then drop the heat down to 350 degrees and bake it for another 20 minutes. I think next time I'll shorten the baking time because I prefer my bread a bit more... rawish.

It sure was yummy :)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! And I hope you befriend Mr. Brioche also!

Beef Bourguignon

Tu aime le boeuf à la Bourguignonne? Oui? Moi aussi!

I've made beef bourguignon once before, and since we were at Disney World for Thanksgiving, we had my aunt over today and I made it again! Nothing better than family time and a yummy lunch. Well, bopping around the kitchen saying the word "beef bourguignon" with an accent is actually rather amusing as well.

I got the recipe from Ina Garten on Food Network, but adapted it a bit.

You will need:
-olive oil
-1/2 a pound of bacon (applewood smoked if you want to be fancy)
-a 2 1/2 pound chuck roast
-salt & pepper
-ghost pepper salt (if you haven't heard of it, check it out here, so delicious but not imperative)
-1 pound of carrots
-2 yellow onions
-3 cloves of garlic (or 1 1/2 tablespoons of minced garlic in a jar, we rarely have whole garlic)
-1 bottle of Merlot
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-1 can of beef broth
-1 teaspoon of dried thyme
-2 tablespoons of butter
-3 tablespoons of cornstarch
-1 pound of mushrooms
-a loaf of sour dough for serving

Are you scared of the ingredient list?

RAWR!

You will likely need a special trip to the grocery store unless you keep a fully stocked pantry/kitchen, but that's okay! This is such a great recipe so it's worth it.

First you whip out your dutch oven that is hiding behind all of your pots and pans in the cabinet. Apologize for the abandonment, and make a promise to be more friendly in the future. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees, please! Throw a bit of olive oil in the bottom and get it warming up while you cut your bacon. Just cut your bacon in quarter inch pieces and throw it in.

Let those piggies cook away (for around 10 minutes), and get started on your slab o' meat.

You'll want to cut it into 1 inch pieces, or bigger... I basically just cut it. So, CUT THE MEAT. By the time you're done with that, your bacon should be done as well. Remove your bacon from the pot, sans the grease, and put it on a plate.

Now throw in your beef!

Be sure to cook it in batches so that the pan isn't crowded and the meat can brown evenly. Once the meat is browned, it comes out of the pot to hang out with the bacon.

Once all of the meat has been browned, we cry.

Because we slice 2 onions.

And 1 pound of carrots.

All of your veggies want to be about the same size.

The onions and carrots, along with salt and pepper, hop into the bubbling bacon grease.

How cozy!

Cook this for about 10 minutes and add your 2 cloves (or the alternative) of garlic. Cut it tiny, please :) Save the remaining clove for the sour dough later.

Then throw in your mushrooms, the whole bottle of Merlot, and a can of beef broth. Don't forget to include the beef and bacon to the party!

Add the tomato paste, thyme, ghost pepper salt, and probably some more salt and pepper for fun.

Bring the pot to a simmer, lid your pot, and into the oven it goes for 1 hour!

When approximately 58 minutes have gone by, you'll want to think about moseying over to the fridge to get your 2 tablespoons of butter, and hit the pantry for 3 tablespoons of cornstarch. I just microwave the butter until it's a bit squishy, add the cornstarch, and smash the two together with a fork. Then take your pot out of the oven, and add in the cornstarch mixture. This will simmer on the stove for around 10 minutes.

In the mean time, slice up a loaf of sour dough, or be easy and buy pre-sliced bread, and throw it in the oven to crisp! This is where the lone garlic clove comes in handy. Once the bread comes out of the oven, it gets a generous garlic massage like so.

So very fragrant your bread will be!

Grab a bowl, ladle some deliciousness into it, bury a slice of bread, and dig in.

Enjoy :)