TWD: Brioche Raisin Snails

In my life, I have had issues with overachieving and perfectionism. The desire for me to be perfect drives me to do things over and over until I get them right. But the overachiever makes me do strange things sometimes.

Do any of you remember dittos? Before we got copied handouts in school, they handed out dittos – blurry, blue printed copies. I didn’t ever like that they were not clear, sometimes they were smudged because so many people had used the ditto machine and the ink stuck to the roll and left a mark on my paper.

Anyways, I would take my ditto home and I would head upstairs to the typewriter. Yes, the typewriter. I would proceed to type out the entire contents of the ditto, including the lines for me to later fill in. The next day, I would proudly turn in my clean, black, freshly typed homework to the teacher. You see, overachiever.

That side of me came out this week after making the brioche dough. My hands felt elbow deep in runny, buttery dough, er, batter. I couldn’t help but wonder over and over how the no-knead brioche dough would have faired against Dorie’s brioche dough. Since I knew I would have extra pastry cream and really wanted some without raisins, I opted to make the batch of no-knead brioche dough.

Which did I like better? Let me tell you about the recipes first…

Brioche Dough
From Baking From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan

1 1/2 tablespoons of active dry yeast
1/3 cup of warm water
1/3 cup of warm whole milk
4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup of sugar
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm

1. Combine the yeast, water and milk in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt and mix with your hands until the flour is completely moistened. Add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Continue to mix with your hands for about 5 minutes. Begin to add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, mixing until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. The dough will be very batter-like and at this point you could choose to use a hand mixer with hooks on medium, beating for about 15 minutes or until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

2. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, about an hour.

3. Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

Rum Raisins
From Baking From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan

1 cup moist, plump raisins
3 tablespoons dark rum

1. Put the raisins in a small saucepan, cover them with hot water and let them steep for about 4 minutes, until they are plumped.

2. Drain the raisins, return them to the saucepan and, stirring constantly, warm them over low heat. When the raisins are very hot, pull the pan from the heat and pour over the rum. Standing back, ignite the rum. Stir until the flames go out, then cover and set aside. (The raisins and rum and be kept in a covered jar for up to 1 day.)

Pastry Cream
From Baking From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan

2 cups of whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of cornstarch, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 1/2 tablespoons of butter, cut into bits, at room temperature

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

2. Whisk the egg yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended in a medium saucepan. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk to temper the yolks. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

3. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are full incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold.

Note: This method seems strange and very risky. If I made this same recipe again, I would likely thicken the milk, sugar and cornstarch together then add the yolks after taking it off the heat. I strained the mixture before adding the butter, but I wonder how another recipe would match up against this one.

Brioche Raisin Snails
From Baking From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan
Makes about 12

1/2 recipe for Golden Brioche Loaves (make the full recipe & use half after refrigerating overnight)
1/2 recipe of Pastry Cream
Rum Raisins
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1. Roll the dough into a rectangle about 12 inches wide and 16 inches long, on a lightly floured surface, keeping the short end toward you. Spread the pastry cream across the dough, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Scatter the raisins over the pastry cream and sprinkle the raisins and cream with the sugar and cinnamon.

2. Starting with the side nearest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. Trim both ends, then cut the log into rounds about 1 inch thick. Put the snails on the baking sheet coated with cooking spray, leaving some puff space between them.

3. Lightly cover the snails with wax paper and set the baking sheet in a warm place until the snails have doubled in volume--they'll be puffy and soft--about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

4. When the snails have almost fully risen, preheat the oven to 375F. Remove the wax paper, and bake the snails for about 25 minutes or until they are puffed and richly browned. Using a metal spatula, transfer the snails onto a cooling rack.

Baker’s Note: I preferred the no-knead brioche dough because it was softer and seemed to have more flavor than the other. I would try other methods with the pastry cream since I was a bit unhappy with the results. The raisins held none of the rum flavor in the final snails. While I love the idea, I highly preferred the no-knead brioche dough without raisins!

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Brioche Raisin Snails are being served up for Tuesdays With Dorie. This weeks TWD recipe was chosen by Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Enjoy more Brioche Raisin Snails by visiting the blogroll at the Tuesdays With Dorie website.