September 2, 2009

Craquelin (B&P20)


Baking & Pastry Project #20 - Cracquelin

What do you do with a growing 13 year old? Well...actually not that much.

Our son would get up in the morning, eat off and on for about an hour. Then he'd sit down to read a book and fall asleep. Or he'd be playing Sins of a Solar Empire on his laptop and fall asleep with his head on his elbow. He was sleeping at night...well, except for those periods when he'd get up and wipe out the left over pizza or roast chicken.

He just about slept through August.

On Friday, he woke up full of energy. He barreled into the kitchen and announced that he felt different, not like himself at all. I went over to give him a hug and discovered I had to look up to see his eyes. This calls for a new height check. He's two inches taller than he was when we measured him in July.

He's now 5'7" and taller than me.

One night while my husband and I were trading bad narcolepsy jokes, I made this loaf of craquelin. It turned out beautifully, although it had a large air pocket in the middle. As the bread cooled the X collapsed into the center of the air pocket.

This loaf wasn't our favorite. None of us enjoyed the craquelin bread, although we all liked the crusty brioche on the outside. We weren't crazy about the not quite dissolved sugar cubes in the bread. Each of us took our slices apart and devouring the brioche crust. The remainder of the brioche crust was consumed in the wee hours of the morning by our rapidly growing son.

Recipe

Craquelin

284 g Brioche Dough
70 g Sugar Cubes
5 g Lemon Zest, grated

Brioche

516 g Brioche Dough


Craquelin Dough

In a large bowl, mix the brioche dough along with the sugar cubes and lemon zest. Work the dough just until the sugar cubes are incorporated. Shape the dough into a ball.


Brioche Dough

Mix the brioche dough according to the recipe found here.


Putting It Together

1. Coat the inside of a panettone wrapper with vegetable shortening. Then coat the shortening with rice flour, tap it around the bottom and sides. Tap the excess out of the wrapper.

2. Sprinkle sweet rice flour over a sheet of parchment paper. Roll the brioche dough into a 6 "/15 cm circle. Then wrap it around the craquelin dough ball. Gather the edges together at the bottom to form a boule. Place the loaf seam side down into the prepared panettone wrapper.

3. Allow the dough to rise in a warm location for 2 to 3 hours. After it has finished rising score the top of the loaf with a knife into an X.

4. Place a bowl of water in an oven proof pan or bowl into the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/191 degrees Celsius. Place the bread into the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a rack before serving.


2 comments:

Karen Baking Soda said...

Leave it to the French(?) to come up with a beautiful name for our Dutch sugar loaf. Sorry to hear you didn't like it, it sure looks great.
We add a hint of cinnamon to the sugar cubes and some ginger syrup in the dough. Original Dutch recipe is baked by the Bread Baking Babes last year September. I want such a crackely crust!

Lauren said...

Your son sounds just like my brother! Except my brother couldn't move too well because his ligaments didn't grow as fast as his bones were...

Regardless, the craquelin looks lovely - I've never heard of it before, but it sounds really good.