]]>
]]>
Czech Christmas Braided Brioche
Here is a new recipe made in partnership with Visit Czech Republic. This time we made the Christmas braided bun. Deliciously flavored with lemon, almonds and raisins, it is composed of three layers to be stacked. Don’t panic, everything is explained step by step as usual and even in video!
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- salt a good pinch
- 90 g iced sugar
- 6 g dried yeast (or 20g fresh yeast)
- 225 ml milk
- organic lemon zest
- 5 egg yolks
- 150 g butter at room temperature
- 100 g white almonds
- 100 g dried raisins
For the gilding
- 1 egg (beaten)
- silvered almonds
Instructions
- Put the flour, salt, yeast (which should not touch the salt), powdered sugar and milk in the bowl of your food processor.
- Zest the organic lemon.
- Add the egg yolks, then knead the dough for about 7 minutes to get something homogeneous.
- Add the butter at room temperature.
- Knead again until perfectly incorporated.
- Add the raisins and almonds.
- Mix well.
- The dough is finished.
- Let it grow for 1h30 to 2h in a warm place. After this time, degas the dough by pressing on it, then place a piece of cling film on top. Let stand in a cool place overnight or at least 3-4 hours.
- The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator 2-3 hours before working with it. Divide it into 8 balls of the same size (about 155g).
- Roll them into 30cm long balls. Flour as needed.
- Make a first 4-strand braid.
- For that, you have the video above in the recipe!
- Then make a 3-strand branch with three more strands.
- Lay the 3-strand braid over the 4-strand braid using egg white. Just brush on the 4-stranded one.
- Then make a 2 strand braid with the last ball that you will divide into two small strands. Put it on top of everything. Prick the bun with skewers to stabilize it.
- Allow to grow for 1 hour before brushing with beaten egg.
- Sprinkle with slivered almonds.
- Then bake for 10 minutes at 180°C on a convection oven, then lower to 155°C for another 45 minutes.
- Remove the peaks when the brioche has cooled and enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 6peopleCalories: 715kcalCarbohydrates: 75gProtein: 15gFat: 41gSaturated Fat: 18gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 220mgSodium: 805mgPotassium: 442mgFiber: 6gSugar: 21gVitamin A: 905IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 239mgIron: 4mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Santa's stuffed boots
I went to Strasbourg and loved the pastries. One of them, Christian, offers incredible gingerbread that I rushed to taste. One of them had this exact boot shape. I took some time to redo them from what I remember. I filled these bunches with an almond and walnut paste with Grand Marnier (the alcohol evaporates during cooking to leave a delicious taste). The dough itself is full of irresistible things. Upon arrival, Santa Claus boots that will be ideal to get in the festive mood of the holidays!
Ingredients
- 90 g candied orange peel
- 90 g candied lemon peel
- 150 g chopped almonds
- 90 g nuts
- 45 g hazelnut powder
- 325 g flour
- 5 g potash diluted in 10g water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1/2 teaspoon 4 spices mix
- the zest organic lemon
- the zest organic orange
- 100 g brown vergeoise
- 200 g honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 15 g water
Almond and walnut paste with Grand Marnier
- 80 g nuts
- 150 g almond powder
- 125 g sugar
- 90 g Grand Marnier
- 40 g glucose syrup
Icing
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 40 g water
Decoration
- 300 g tempered chocolate
- 2 candied cherries
- 20 almonds without skin
Instructions
- Put the candied orange and lemon peels in a blender to reduce them to small pieces.
- If you have chopped almonds, blend them to reduce them more finely.
- It looks like a very coarse almond powder.
- Also grind the nuts into a coarse powder.
- Put everything in a container or in the bowl of your food processor.
- Add flour, salt and spices.
- This is the potash. It is really the leavening agent used in gingerbread from the East and Germany. I bought it on a vegan website. I put you the link HERE !
- Pour 5g into a small container and add the 10ml of water. Mix until completely dissolved.
- Add the zest of one orange and one organic lemon to the container.
- Pour the brown vergeoise, honey, liquid vanilla and the 15g of water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. On the picture it looks like butter, but it's really honey that I was offered!
- Pour into the dough and mix until you have a homogeneous paste.
- With everything in it, the dough is already delicious. Well, the potash gives a funny smell that will go away when cooking.
- Set aside. For the almond paste, mix the nuts to obtain a nice powder.
- Mix the almond powder and nuts.
- Add the sugar.
- Pour the Grand Marnier.
- Finish with the glucose syrup.
- Mix well. The smell alone is delicious.
- For the boot, I drew on a cardboard and cut it according to the shape I remembered. You can of course make any shape you want!
- Roll out the dough fairly thinly (5mm thick), making sure you have enough surface area for one bundle.
- Spread a second layer of dough with the same surface.With the blade of a knife, without incising, mark the dough. Put almond-nut paste (the layer is 3-4mm) leaving 1,5cm before the edge of the bundle.
- Place the second layer of rolled out dough.
- Place the stencil on the dough and cut the dough this time.
- And here is a nice boot!
- Do the same for all the dough and almond-nut paste. Place the bundles as they come on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- For the decoration, just like at Christian's, I put half a candied periwinkle and 5 raw almonds.
- Bake at 155°C on fan heat for 27-28 minutes. In fact, the firing depends totally on the size of your subject.
- The boots must be well cooked. The smell during cooking is just crazy.
- For the icing, mix the water and powdered sugar. This one is very fluid. Apply with a brush on the surface.
- Do the same for all the gingerbread.
- Return to the oven, this time at 90°C for 12 minutes (still in a revolving heat).
- For the finishing touch, temper the chocolate you have chosen. For the method, it's HERE!
- Dip the top of the boot to make the cuff or do it with a brush.
- I also brush the entire underside of the boots.
- Let the chocolate set. The boots are ready. Now let it sit for a day or two to allow the fragrances to develop even more! If well packaged, these cakes can be kept for a long time.
Nutrition
Serving: 4stuffed bundlesCalories: 1445kcalCarbohydrates: 230gProtein: 21gFat: 65gSaturated Fat: 22gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 30gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 0.01mgSodium: 1051mgPotassium: 892mgFiber: 16gSugar: 135gVitamin A: 50IUVitamin C: 39mgCalcium: 298mgIron: 8mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!