Apple and Caramel Stuffed Brioche

Sun, 29 September 2019

In this recipe we are making individual brioche muffins so will require a deep muffin tray.

Makes 12

 

Ingredients: Brioche Dough

450g strong white flour

5g salt

50g sugar

265g milk

10g yeast

1 egg

Zest of 1 orange

100g softened butter

 

Method Brioche Dough

1.            Mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Rub in the softened butter with your fingertips. The flour should resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the orange zest to the flour.
2.            Warm your milk gently to take off the chill if using milk direct from the fridge. The temperature you would give a baby a bottle is ideal. Crumble the yeast into the milk so that it dissolves and pour the yeasted milk into the flour. Add the egg. Bring the dough together with your hands or with a dough scraper. This is quite a soft, supple dough. If it feels a little wet and stinky don't panic, just stay with it and be persistent. Resist the temptation to add extra flour
3.            Turn the dough out on to a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes until the windowpane effect has been achieved. If you have a kitchen mixer feel free to use it using the dough knock attachment.
4.            Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove at room temperature for 90 minutes. If you find that your do is a little cold and proving slowly just allow more time for the dough to double in size.
5.            While the dough is proving make the caramel sauce and prepare the apples

 

Method: To shape the dough

1.            Once the dough has proved fully. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knock back the dough. Portion the dough to 75g pieces (should produce 12). Roll each portion of dough round and place to one side leaving the dough to rest for 5 minutes. This allows the gluten within the dough to relax allowing final shaping of the dough to be easier.
2.            After the dough has been allowed to rest flatten each rolled piece of dough slightly. You want to make a little pocket which will be filled with apple compote. Spoon a generous portion of the apple compote into the centre of the dough. Stretch out the side of the dough and pinch together to encase the apple compote within the centre of the dough. Prepare the muffin tray by brushing with melted butter and a light dusting of flour. This will prevent the dough from sticking. Place each filled piece of brioche into the muffin tray seam side fancying down.

Allow to prove for 60 minutes at room temperature.

3.            Preheat the oven to 200c. Once the dough has filled the muffin tray, brush lightly with egg wash and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
4.            Remove from the filled brioche from the muffin tray allow to cool slightly. As the brioche cools warm the caramel sauce. Serve with a generous serving of warm caramel sauce

 

Caramel Sauce Ingredients

125ml whipping cream

50 ml water

150g caster sugar

40g unsalted butter

 

Caramel Sauce Method

1.            Pour the cream into a saucepan and warm gently. Place the sugar and water into a separate saucepan on a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
2.            Once the sugar has dissolved do not stir the sugar and cook to a light golden caramel colour. 
3.            Off the heat pour in the warm cream and stir, careful as the mix may bubble up. Return the saucepan to the heat and continue stirring until smooth.
4.            Remove from the heat, cool slightly and whisk in the butter. The caramel sauce can be set to one side and warmed just before serving. The caramel sauce can be made in advance and will keep in a fridge for a week.

 

Caramelised Apple Compote Ingredients

2 medium apples (cooking apples will work fine) peeled, cored and diced

1 cinnamon stick

1 clove

40g brown sugar

50g butter diced

 

Caramelised Apple Compote Method

1.            Using a heavy base saucepan on a medium heat add the apples and sugar. Cook the apples in the sugar on a gentle heat for 5 mins. The apples will slowly start to break down. Add the butter, cinnamon stick and clove to the apples and continue cooking on a low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
2.            As the apples cook down the sugar and butter will caramelise giving a lovely sweetness to the apples.
3.            When the apples have cooked out fully, are soft and caramelised remove the cinnamon stick and clove. Allow the apples to cool fully before using.