Gruyère Brioche Braided Bread (THB)

It was an usual afternoon that I was at the childcare, picking up my son. The kids were having their afternoon tea and were enjoying their cheese with crackers. Unlike his friends, my son was fussy and didn't want to eat his cheese but eat only the crackers.

Mum: I thought you like cheese...
Boy: No this kind!
Mum: ?
Boy: Gruyère cheese, preferably melted. 
Mum: speechless

I'm asking myself if I'm spoiling my son too much and maybe I did.

We are certainly spoiled with these gruyère brioche braided breads that I have baked. And, I'm guessing that my son is becoming fussy with cheese because of these breads. This bread recipe is from the book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas. It is chosen by Alice from I love. I cook. I bake. for our 22th The Home Bakers bake. All I must say is this recipe is definitely a keeper!

The Home Bakers (THB) is an baking event organised by my friend, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. With a group of gorgeous ladies, we are baking all recipes from the book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas until every recipe from this book has been baked.
 
Yes that you are right that these breads are not coffee cakes at all but for some reasons, this recipe appears to be the book called "Coffee Cakes"! Nevertheless, I'm happy to bake these breads because they are buttery and soft and extremely tasty with pockets full of melted gruyère cheese...

With a high proportion of butter in the bread dough, it is advisable that we need to follow the recipe instruction by chilling the dough for at least 2 hours or more before shaping. 

For me: Instead of kneading in the shredded cheese into bread dough and shaping it into a large braid, I had made smaller breads using a different shaping method to incorporate slices of cheese inside pockets of bread dough. The breads were then shaped to form shapes which looks like braid too.

A basket of delicious gruyère brioche breads

Making the bread dough

Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape them...

This is how I shape my "braided" breads

Ready to bake...

Freshly baked cheesy breads - can't wait to have one of these...

Crispy melted cheese - This is the kind of cheese that my son wants!

Being the rule of this event, only the host of the chosen bake can post the recipe in her blog post. Please visit Alice from I love. I cook. I bake. for the detailed recipe of this bake.

And, here are the notes and modifications that I made for my bake.

My ingredients list (which is two-third amount of the recipe)

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2/3 tbsp caster sugar
100g butter, unsalted
2/3 tsp salt
2 eggs
125 ml warm water
10g milk powder
325g flour (250g bread flour + 75g Italian "OO" flour)
150g Gruyère cheese, sliced into bite sizes

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk

Modifications that I have made from the original: 

Do you know that some enzymes in milk can weaken gluten and prevent the dough from rising? For this reason, some bread recipes prefer to use scalded milk because scalding milk deactivates these enzymes. Whether the bread recipes that I have baked requires scalded milk or not, I prefer to use milk powder for most of my bread baking being a reliable and also convenient option. For this bake, I substituted 85ml of milk (amount required for 2/3 of the recipe) with 12g of milk powder and the 85ml of water. As 40ml of water (amount required for 2/3 of the recipe) was also required for this recipe, the total amount of water required was 125ml.

Instead of using all-purpose flour, I used a combination of bread flour and Italian "OO" flour.

To make bread dough, I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr in the bread-maker and refrigerate the dough overnight.

The amount of cheese that I used was increased to 150g.

Instead of kneading in the shredded cheese into bread dough and shaping it into a large braid, I made smaller breads using a different shaping method to incorporate slices of cheese inside pockets of bread dough.

The bread dough was divided into 8 portions to make 8 smaller breads. Each portion was rolled and shaped and slices to form shapes which looks like braid (see my above pictures).

The breads were baked at 180°C fan forced for 20 min.

 

Happy Baking
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