Camembert Brioche

You may have noticed that I seem to bake a lot of sweet things - cake, cupcakes and biscuits. But sometimes, it's nice to do a savoury bake. Savoury bakes I have pulled off successfully in the past include quiches (one day I will tell you the traumatic story of the first quiche), aubergine filled flatbreads, rosemary and raisin bread and sundried tomato focaccia. 

So, this week, I have mixed it up a bit by making something from the Great British Bake Off recipe book that is a bit of both - brioche filled with hot gooey camembert. It looks like this:

Camembert Brioche

You will need:

375g white bread flour

1 tsp crushed sea salt flakes

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

4 tbsp cold milk

4 large eggs

175g unsalted butter

1 350g Camembert cheese (one of the round ones in a little box)

about 5 tbsp (75ml) of chutney or some kind of sauce or paste that will compliment the cheese (I used red pepper pesto)

1 beaten egg

1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl, then make a well in the middle and pour in the milk and eggs. Stir until combined and turn onto a floured surface and knead until elastic (about 10 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, cut the butter into small cubes and mix it into the dough, either by squeezing it into the dough or using an electric mixer. If squeezing it in by hand knead afterwards to fully incorporate butter.

3. Put the dough back in the mixing bowl and leave somewhere warm for 1-2 hours until doubled in size. 

3. Knock back the dough and cut off a quarter of it and set aside. Roll the rest out to a round about 10cm larger than the cheese. Spread the top of the cheese with a thick layer of chutney or whatever you're using. Invert it in the middle of the dough round.

 4. Trim 1cm from the edge of the dough round and add it to the reserved quarter. Knead together and roll it out to about 14cm across, trimming into a neat round by using a small plate as a guide.

5. Brush the cheese and the outer 1cm of the dough rough with the beaten egg. Lift up the dough and wrap over the cheese.

6. Use more beaten egg to stick the dough down, then place the smaller round on top and smooth down to seal. Turn the cheese brioche upside down onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to rise for 30 minutes. While the dough is proving, preheat the oven to 190C.

7. If you wish, score a pattern on the dough before placing it in the oven. Brush it lightly with beaten egg and bake for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven, brush with egg again and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 45 minutes before serving, or, cool to room temperature so the cheese re-solidifies.

Tatty-bye bakelings.

Ellie

xxx