Catching my breath. Time to bake.

After two days of recovery from two weeks of non stop work, I finally had the energy to tackle one of my baking challenges. Brioche.

Here's what I've learned: croissants are hard, brioche is not. It's just time consuming.

I am very grateful to friends that have found critical baking products that are in short supply - like yeast and flour - and shared them with me. With new found energy and plenty of supplies, I tackled brioche.

I am not a baker. OK, maybe I am an aspiring baker. Baking is very precise. Ingredients have to be measured carefully. Temperature is very important. Yeast needs to be treated with respect. My cooking style is, well, a bit more "fluid."

Brioche is eggs, butter, flour, warm milk, yeast and salt. And a lot of mixing with a dough hook. My 1970s Kitchen Aid got a good workout with this effort.

Side bar on the Kitchen Aid. My mother was a fabulous cook. She was a patron of Williams Sonoma when Chuck was still in the store. The Kitchen Aid mixer was not on everyone's counter as it is now. Sure we had a stand mixer. But, a Kitchen Aid was a coveted tool. One appeared in 1978 - I'm certain my father bought it for her. She loved that mixer more than her luggage or her shoes. She had a lot of shoes.

My mother always placed a cold compress on the Kitchen Aid when she used it - now it gets the freezer pack. She's old but incredibly reliable and I plan to take good care of her.

Back to the Brioche.

The dough rose like a champ. Almost overflowing out of the bowl. So I decided to transfer it to a large rectangular plastic storage container and it deflated. Oops. Into the fridge it went overnight, and I just hoped for the best.

I awoke at bakers hours (3 am) to form my loaves and get a second rise out of them. The goal of course was to have this bread for breakfast.

Not terribly pretty, but the dough was quite cold and didn't smooth out as I expected. I hoped for a good rise and then maybe something a bit more stunning. My loaves were far from perfect but damn delicious. I think I learned a thing or two from this first attempt so I will give it a go again and see how it all turns out.