Phew, it's all over and not without palpitations. As predicted, today we had to do our 6 hour brioche. Bother. Mine was heading for a train crash right from the word go. I did my initial mixing at a smidgen too high a speed (unawares), causing the dough to heat up so that when I added my butter, everything went greasy. Then, when I was knocking the dough back on my work surface I managed to roll it in some very strong powdered food colouring which I must have spilt when practising my paintbrush writing. The dough ended up with large dark brown/orange streaks and spots all over it. Was in a big rage.
Fortunately wile the dough was proving, I cooked my Pithiviers which came out nicely and shows the tricky decor I mentioned which is done with a paring knife. At around 10 o'clock you can see where someone slammed the poor thing into the oven and nearly sent me into orbit.
I then managed to burn yesterday's pear tart due to everyone fannying around with the oven. This did not help feelings of good fortune. My dough was taking an extremely long time to rise and I was now getting concerned that not only would it be multi-coloured and greasy but also just rubbish.
What joy, then, to slip them into the oven and return to find them looking glorious. They turned out really well and a lot better than deserved and all was a great relief. The little ones all had upright heads and the loaf did not deflate at all... I did not over-raz the little pains-au-lait which is so easy and the couronne, while lacking a huge deal of finesse, was deffo my best yet. Phew.
For my lunch, I bought these:
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