Homemade Sourdough Raisin Brioche

Christmas is 8 sleeps away! I was trying to make a Christmas bread using sourdough levain and this was how this recipe came about. But I was hesitant to go all out, as it required me to use different kinds of dried fruits and candied citrus which I am not willing to forgo if the bake did not turn out right. After all, it is my first try in making a panettone.

Panettone uses a brioche recipe and I went along making the brioche dough with the mature sourdough yeast that I fed the day before, I was amazed at how much butter the dough can adsorb and the structure of the bread stayed manageable even though the dough was very soft and sticky. Things were looking good at this point and I decided to add some raisins and turn it into a raisin brioche. With a short chill in the fridge, the dough could be rolled out to uniform thickness using a rolling pin.

The next day, after the dough have risen to the occasion, I took steps to make the bread to look like a 'panettone'. With a brush of egg white to the top of the dough and a generous sprinkling of pearl sugar...voila! 

It baked out to be a gorgeous looking 'panettone' raisin brioche. I was pleasantly surprise how the 'panettone' brioche turned out, tall (16cm) with a good mushroom bloom on top. 

The crust is crunchy and sweet while the crumb is rich, moist and tender.

 

Sourdough Raisin Brioche

(yield 1 x 16.5cm tube pan brioche)

450g organic bread flour

90g mature levain (start feeding the day before)

67g sugar

1 Tbsp organic honey

91g filtered water

3 eggs

170g butter @ room temperature

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

20g raisins

Glace:

1 egg white

pearl sugar

Steps to brioche:

• With a mixer fitted with the dough hook, place the bread flour, water and mature levain and mix at low speed until water is adsorbed by the flour. Add in the eggs, sugar, honey and vanilla and mix till a dough is form. Continue to mix for 5 minutes then add salt. 
• Mix for another 15 minutes until dough have reached window pane stage. 
• While the mixer is running, add in butter, one tablespoon at a time. Add only when the tablespoon of butter before is almost incorporated before adding another.
• After all the butter is added, the dough will be wet and sticky but with the mixer running, the dough will pull away from the sides of the mixing owl. Add in the raisins and mix through.
• Let dough chill in fridge covered in the mixing bowl for 1 hour.
• After 1 hour of chilling, scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a rectangular shape. Then roll the dough onto itself from the longer side to form a tight log.
• Place the log evenly into a tube pan, cover it and place in the fridge to bulk ferment overnight or at least 9 hours. Remove from fridge and leave the tube pan in a warm but draft free environment to proof until top (not sides) of dough reaches the top of pan about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 
• Preheat oven for 30 minutes to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). 
• Very gently brush the top of the dough with beaten egg white and sprinkle generously with pearl sugar.
• Place oven rack so that the middle of the bake is in the middle of the oven.
• Bake for a total of 40 - 45 minutes, but tent the top of the bread 15 minutes into baking. 
• Once the bread is baked, remove it from the oven and place tube pan upside down to cool for at least 3 hours. I turned the pan over a wine bottle to cool.

This recipe can be turned into a panettone with the addition of dried fruits and candied citrus. That will be my next try. 

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