Ingredients

• 5 Cox’s apples (must be tart/sour)
• 150 g butter (room temperature)
• 250 g castor sugar
• puff pastry (22 cm round/3mm thick)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200?C
2. Roll out the pastry approx. 3mm thick and cut into a circle big enough to cover the base of a frying pan with a 2cm overlap to allow for a ‘crust’.
3. Peel, core and cut the apples in half.
4. Lightly cover the base of frying pan with butter and sprinkle liberally with the castor sugar.
5. Arrange the apple halves in a circular fashion (with the cut side face down) and place on a medium to low heat until a very light caramel is obtained.
6. Carefully cover with the pastry round and tuck in the edges, bake at 200 C for approximately 15 minutes until the pastry has risen and turned golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and, with a knife, ensure the pastry has not stuck to the sides and the caramel is fully formed.
8. Turn upside down onto a serving plate, the pastry is served as the base and the apples should be sitting on it all wonderfully caramelised and arranged. So before lifting the pan ensure the apples are not stuck to the pan, if they are, gently prise them off with a palate knife.

It should be noted that whenever handling caramel be careful as it’s very, very hot and sticky!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 tins of pear halves (need 8 halves in total) and juice
• 8 vanilla ice cream balls
• 200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp sour cream

Method

1. Open tins of pears (that’s the hard bit).
2. Place two half pears in each of the dish.
3. Cut the chocolate in small squares and put them in a small heavy saucepan with 4 spoons of the pear juice.
4. Melt the whole over a low heat, stirring non-stop with a wooden spoon until smooth. The chocolate must not stick to the pan!
5. When the chocolate is ready, quickly put 2 balls of vanilla ice-cream on each pear.
6. Add the sour cream to the chocolate and pour it evenly on top of ice-cream in each dish.
7. Serve immediately.

Marie Antoinette, history tells us, said before her death “Let them eat cake”. In fact it was “Let them eat brioche”.

It was most likely that the English misinterpreted brioche as cake, as those familar with brioche know that it is very high in eggs and butter with a little sugar, and so has a cake-like texture.

If you are going to make brioche, you have to do it right, with lots of butter and eggs. (In France they make two types: rich man’s and poor man’s brioche-the difference being the amount of butter and eggs.)

Source: All you want to know about brioche recipes (All you want to know about brioche recipes by Dean Brettschneider)

The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, and this bread is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe. It is often served as a pastry or as the basis of a dessert, with many local variations in added ingredients, fillings and toppings. It is also used with savoury preparations, particularly with foie gras, and is used in some meat dishes.

Source: Wikipedia (Brioche on Wikipedia)

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 250 gr [9 oz] plain flour
• 125 gr [4.5 oz] unsalted warm butter
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp warm milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 20 g (2/3 oz) yeast
• 1 pinch salt

Method

1. Mix the yeast with the warm milk.
2. Put the flour in a bowl and dig a well in the middle.
3. In the well put the milk, yeast, eggs, soft butter, sugar and salt.
4. Whisk with a wooden spoon, work until you obtain an homogeneous and “elastic” mixture. You need to do this at least 20 minutes (some mixers have a kneading function which you can use).
5. Pour the paste in a buttered and floured brioche tin.
6. Leave for 2 hours at rooms temperature; it should double in volume.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 260 C (500 F) for 10 minutes, then at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.
8. Take out from tin right away and let cool down on a cooling tray.

In theory, that should make a pretty nice brioche but I’ve yet to try it out! I’ll certainly update this page once everything has gone smoothly and my belly is full of yummy brioche.