Brie in Brioche by Richard Bertinet.

For the brioche dough:

100g Full-Fat Milk
2 Medium Eggs
250g Strong White Bread Flour, plus extra for dusting

10g Fresh Yeast
- for dry active yeast you generally need to use half the quantity of fresh yeast stated in the recipe 5g 
- for instant yeast you need to use 1/4 of the quantity of fresh yeast:2-3g

30g Caster Sugar
5g Fine Sea Salt
25g Cold Unsalted Butter
500g Ripe Brie
1 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and finely sliced
A few small sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
1 Tbsp Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dash of pernod - anise-flavored liqueur from France (optional)

For the glaze:
1 Eggs
A Pinch of Fine Sea Salt

Start the dough:
-For this recipe, you will want the oven fully saturated in heat with no flame presence.

-Put the milk and eggs into the bowl of a food mixer, then add the flour. 

Break up the fresh yeast and add to one side of the bowl. 

Add the sugar and salt on the other side of the bowl. 

Break the butter into pieces on top.

- Mix on a slow speed for 4 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and continue to mix for about 12-15 minutes until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

-Lightly flour the work surface and a clean bowl. 

Use a scraper to turn the dough onto the work surface.

-Form the dough into a ball and leave to rest in the bowl for about 1-2 hour until just under double in size.

-When the dough has rested, lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough into a rough circle.

-Place a large baking ring (about 20-30cm diameter) on top of a baking tray, then press in a large sheet of baking parchment.

-Lower the dough into the paper and use your fingertips to gently press it down in the centre and outwards into the shape of the ring so that you create an indent big enough to hold the brie while forming a rim around the outside of the cheese.

Start the brie:
-Put in the brie and score the surface with a sharp knife in a criss-cross fashion. 

Push the slices of garlic into the cuts that you have made, along with the sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme. 

Drizzle the whole thing with the olive oil. 

We like to sprinkle over a tablespoon of Pernod too, but that is up to you!

-Cover with a large freezer bag and leave to prove for about 45 minutes-2 hours. 

During this time the rim of the dough will almost double in size.

- Beat the eggs with the salt for the glaze and brush the rim of the dough with the egg glaze and transfer the tray to the oven (220C/200C Fan/Gas 7) or the wood fire oven.

Baking your brioche:
-You’ll be baking the brioche for around 40 minutes but it’s important to check regularly during the bake - adjust the closure of the door slightly through to control temperature until the cheese has melted and rim of the brioche is a dark golden brown. 

If you light up the parchment paper carefully, you should be able to see through it to check that the base of the brioche is also dark golden brown.

-Remove from the oven and holding the baking parchment, lift the brioche from the ring onto a board and invite everyone to tuck in while it is still warm.

- Serve with toast, potatoes and meats to dip into the cheese. 

Once the cheese has gone, fill the centre with a green salad.

Caramelised Apple and calvados Brioche.

Recipe from Crumb: Show the dough who's boss by Richard Bertinet!

Masterclass with Richard Bertinet

Tim Hayward learns a new technique for handling dough in a bread-making masterclass with Richard Bertinet

My bread from Richard Bertinet's book Crust.

Here's how to get your starter started.
Stage 1
50 g spelt flour
150 g white bread flour
40 g honey
100 g water (at about 100 degrees; Bertinet calls this "blood temperature")

Mix ingredients into a compact dough; cover and let rest in a warm place for at least 36 hours.

Stage 2
Refreshing the starter
170 g starter
15 g spelt flour
140 g white bread flour
75 g water ("blood temperature")

Mix into a tight dough and let rest for 24 hours at warm room temperature (about 24C/75F).

Stage 3
Discard half of Stage 2 dough and refresh remaining 200 g with:
400 g white bread flour
200 g water ("blood temperature")

Mix to a thick dough.
Let rest for 4 hours in a warm place, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days.
The starter is ready when it smells slightly fermented and is a little stringy.
Each time you use the starter, feed it by adding 2 parts bread flour to 1 part water.
If you go a week without baking, discard some of starter and feed it to keep it alive.

Stage 4
To make 1 large loaves:
307 g white bread flour
42 g spelt flour
209 g starter
312 g water ("blood temperature")
10 g salt

Using your hands or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, work starter into flours.
Add water and mix.
Add salt and keep working dough until glutens activate.
You can tell when this happens, because the dough will come together into a ball.

Transfer dough to a dry, lightly floured surface and fold into center to form a ball.
Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let rest for 1 hour.

Tip dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold into center to form another ball,
shape into ball and place in a well-floured basket or lightly oiled bowl.
Cover with kitchen towels and let rest at room temperature overnight to rise.

Stage 5
Baking the bread

Tip dough ball out onto a dry surface and turn over.
Score top.

Bake at 230C/450F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 200C/400F and bake until loaves sound hollow when tapped with your fingertips, about 1 hour (???!).




Recipe adapted from:
- Starting a Starter for Winter Sourdough Bread | Bon Appétit

Brioche – a recipe from Crust by Richard Bertinet.

- Bread and buns: The foolproof baking guide | Weekend | The Times
Rum and sultana brioches

Chicken with fennel and herbs from French chef and baker Richard Bertinet.

- French Memories from French chef and baker Richard Bertinet
This is all about baking a whole meal in one dish, which you can bring from the oven to the table.
I love the aniseedy flavour of fennel.

For 4-6
Ingredients
125g butter
1 corn-fed chicken
2 large fennel bulbs
4 large tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
16-20 small new potatoes
few sprigs of chervil, parsley, rosemary
and thyme
sea salt and freshly groud black pepper
1 large or 2 small unwaxed lemons
2 whole star anise
125 dry white wine
6 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Take the butter out of the fridge to let it soften.
- If you have bought a whole chicken, joint it into 10 pieces so you end up with 4 breast pieces (on the bone), 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs and 2 wings.
- Cut the fennel bulbs in half lengthways to give 2 identical halves (as if you had opened out the fennel like a book) and cut each piece lengthways into 4.
- Halve the tomatoes.
- Crush the garlic cloves with the back of a knife.
- Wash the otatoes.
- Finely chop the chervil and parsley; leave the rosemary and thyme sprigs whole.

Method
- Layer the tomatoes, cut-side up, in a very big roasting dish.
Lay the fennel on top, followed by the garlic cloves and a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme.
Put into the oven for about 20–30 minutes to start them cooking.

- If the butter isn’t soft enough, bash it with a rolling pin! Mix all of the chopped herbs into it.

- Put the chicken pieces into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the herb butter and really massage it well into the chicken.

- Take the roasting dish out of the oven and put the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables.
Cut the lemon(s) in half and squeeze the juice over.
Tuck the squeezed halves in amongst the chicken.

- If using whole star anise, crush them in a pestle and mortar (or use the end of a rolling pin to crush them on a chopping board).
Sprinkle the star anise over the chicken and put the potatoes on top, so that they can brown.
- Pour over the wine and olive oil and put in the oven for 30–45 minutes.
Halfway through take the dish out and turn the chicken over.
The potatoes will tumble underneath, but that is fine.
At the end of the cooking time, check that the largest piece of chicken breast and the biggest thigh are cooked by inserting a sharp knife into the meat.
The juices should run clear.

Tapenade from French chef and baker Richard Bertinet.

- French Memories from French chef and baker Richard Bertinet
I like to use Kalamata olives for this, but you can use any good-quality black olives.
The tuna and anchovies give a really deep ‘meaty’ flavour, but if you want to do a vegetarian version you can leave them out and just add some more olives and capers instead.

Makes enough to fill 2 medium (250ml) jars
Ingredients
Kilner jars
300g black olives
75g tinned anchovy fi llets, in oil
75g tinned tuna, in oil
150g capers, in vinegar
1⁄2 lemon
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preparation
- Drain the olives, anchovies, tuna and capers.
If you are using Kalamata olives they will usually be in oil – if this is good-quality oil, use a few tablespoons in the tapenade in place of the olive oil.

- Stone the olives: with a small, sharp knife make three incisions in each olive from end to end – keep the cuts at equal distances – then pull away the three similar-sized segments from the stone, without tearing or bruising the fruit.

- Juice the lemon.

Method
Put the olives in a food processor and make good use of your pulse button to chop them quite roughly.
Add the rest of the ingredients and keep pulsing in short bursts until you get a coarse paste.
I like tapenade to be quite coarse, but some people prefer it smoother, in which case just process it a little more. It really is up to you.
You shouldn’t need to add any salt because the anchovies should make it salty enough.