Brioche Bread, Candied Orange Peels, and Almond Butter

I used a kitchen scale for the first time and it made things boatloads easier. I cannot recommend one enough for anyone who likes to cook/bake. I give major credit to the follow website which was a super helpful guide: https://sourdoughbrandon.com/sourdough-brioche-bread/ I didn’t follow his recipe to a T, but my end result still came out good enough for me!

Brioche Bread: Mixing Bowl #1

• 212 grams bread flour
• 27 grams cane sugar
• 5 grams sea salt

Mixing Bowl #2

• 2 eggs whisked
• 60 grams sourdough starter

Pot #1:

• Warm 1 stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter
• 59 grams whole milk
• 1 packet of active dry yeast (i used this because my sourdough starter was not very active)

Pot #2: Once combine, mix well

• 58 grams of boiling water
• 58 grams bread flour

Nothing should be hot, just warm. Mix everything together in a bowl until a dough ball forms. Let rise overnight in refrigerator. Take out the next morning, and let rise in a warm place. Fold dough several times along the way. Return back into the fridge to make the dough cold again. After 1-2 hours in the fridge, take back out and cut dough into five equal sized chunks. Flatten each chunk out and roll them up. Place in a 9″x5″ loaf pan and let rise for another few hours in a warm place with a moist paper towel covering the pan. The dough should rise above the loaf pan. Preheat oven to 400F, place loaf into oven, then immediately reset oven temp to 350 F. Bake for 45 minutes.

Almond Butter:

Roast raw almonds in a 350F oven until fragrant and skins are looking lightly roasted. Allow to cool, then blend in a food processor with a little safflower oil until you get a smooth consistency. Add sea salt and agave syrup to taste.

Chocolate Covered Orange Peel

Organic cara cara oranges. Before going through this effort, taste the peel of the raw orange. You should like the taste. Slice orange peels into thin strips. Heat half cup water with 3/4 cup cane sugar. Once it is hot, add in the orange peel and boil until very fragrant and orange peels absorb some of the sugar syrup. Allow to cook on a rack overnight. Melt chocolate (I use dairy free dark chocolate) and dip oranges into it.