First, I would like to begin by thanking Brian for delivering such an excellent title for this blog posting. We were riding the train to work Thursday morning, and I was talking about the baked goods I hoped to accomplish this weekend when the title practically jumped out of his mouth. The subject of yeast had come up and I decided after last week’s successful doughnut excursion to forage ahead into the land of brioche. Was this plan fraught without concern or worry? Oh no.
The brioche idea was planted in my head while reading the October Bon Appetit. Dorie Greenspan has written an article on how easy making brioche can be.
http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/10/brioche_made_easy I learned how to make this dough while attending the French Culinary Institute, but have not attempted it since…mainly because of the yeast fears I wrote about previously. Making the yeasty oly koeks worked out fine, but will the magical yeast work again??? It requires practice to get good at something…and yeast is no exception, but buttery brioche is so worth the effort. I immensely enjoyed the rolls we made in school, and the leftover dough we used as a crust for a cheesecake topped with seasonal fruits…it was delicious!!!
Apple picking season runs from mid September through the end of October, and next week is Halloween. The “apple dessert” baking pressure is on, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t make something apple-y soon. Thus, I decided to stop fighting Mother Nature and just go to the local farmer’s market and get my apples…like a normal person.
But what does this apple obsession have to do with brioche? Well, nothing really, but the other semi-eventful thing that happened this week was our humorously torturous adventure to see a play called “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein”. As the name hopefully implies, it was a comedy starring a drag queen as a transvestite monster created by the legendary Dr. Frankenstein. In this case, Dr. Frankenstein is affiliated with the Nazi party in 1945 and is trying to find a body in which to attach the preserved head of Adolph Hitler. With it being so close to Halloween, seeing this show seemed like a good idea, but as it often happens the reality of the show didn’t quite live up to the concept. Putting all that aside, I started thinking about putting things together that aren’t necessary considered a pair…like the head of one person and the body parts of another, or such as an apple tatin and brioche.
I’ve decided there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all I would like, and what better way to combine modern science and two things I love than to create a sensual, yeast laden, sugary/tart apple brioche tatin? Wait for it, wait for it…”IT’S ALIVE!!!!” (Because yeast is a living thing and it really works with today’s theme). Much like Dr. Frankenstein himself, I took my powers for good and created a spark of life resembling a very tall traditional apple tatin…about six inches in heels to be exact.
This process brought me back to my very first day of class at FCI. I was a nervous wreck and had never before taken a baking class. I was dressed in my chef whites and was standing with 19 other people prepared to embark on our first mission: the traditional French apple tatin. Though slightly rattled, my partner and I managed to create a simple pate brisee dough and roll it out into the prescribed tart rings. I will admit I made a few mistakes, but all were correctible and the outcome ended up being quite delicious. I was proud of myself and knew I had to keep making more and more pastry. That’s what happens when you find the spark.
Unlike Dr. Frankenstein, my brioche/tart creation did not come after me with a vengeance, trying to destroy my whole life and take away every bit of happiness I once possessed (thankfully). Maybe it’s because I celebrate it’s beauty, fawning over it and treating it with gentle respect, whispering sweet nothings to the yeast in the hopes of a rising worthy of the Gods. If Dr. Frankenstein had done that with his monster things might have turned out differently. The creature might not have been a monster at all, but a friend. It’s all about honoring our creations, and I like to honor mine by eating them. It’s just who I am.
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