Daniel Pfyl, senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic's Food Design Institute, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. This month he shows us how to make a brioche scroll.
Brioche scrolls
Dough
100ml water
250ml milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
60g butter, soft, at room temperature
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
600g hard flour
1 tsp bread improver (Surebake)
2¼ tsp instant yeast
Filling
90g butter, melted
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
75g chopped walnuts
Variation
Lemon curd to spread
sprinkle with fresh raspberries and thread coconut
Dough
Use your breadmaker and follow instructions to make dough.
If you do not have a breadmaker follow this method:
1) Combine the milk, water and sugar in a small bowl and then sprinkle yeast over the top and stir to mix.
2) Leave to stand for a few minutes until the yeast is foamy. Stir in eggs.
3) Place the liquid ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
4) Add the flour and then the salt, making sure it does not touch the yeast mix.
5) Turn the mixer on to slow speed and mix for 15 minutes. The dough will make a slapping sound on the side of the bowl when ready.
6) Incorporate the butter little by little into the dough and mix until it is all blended.
Scrape the butter from the sides of the bowl with a spatula if needed.
7) The dough should be shiny and smooth and come away from the sides of the bowl.
Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave to rise in a warm, draught-free place for two hours.
Method
Preheat oven to 180degC.
1) Knock back the dough and knead it briefly. Roll out dough into a 40cm by 40cm rectangle on a lightly floured surface.
2) Brush the surface with half the melted butter.
3) Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over dough. Then sprinkle walnuts over the top.
4) Roll up dough tightly from the longer side to form a scroll.
5) Cut the scroll into 4cm slices (12).
6) Place in lightly greased and floured muffin tins.
7) Brush with the remaining butter and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise again until the brioche are puffy, about 30 minutes.
8) Remove the plastic wrap and bake the brioche in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are light golden brown.
• If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 715, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
Check earlier Cooking 101 columns at www.odt.co.nz and search for ''cooking 101''.
More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com