Caramel and Cinnamon Brioche Scrolls

½ cup milk warmed slightly

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tsps instant yeast

3 egg yolks

250g flour  (high grade preferable)

¼ tsp salt

75g butter softened -  not melted

Filling

2 tablespoons of melted butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 tsps ground cinnamon

Step 1

Combine the milk and sugar in a small bowl.  Sprinkle on the yeast and stir to mix.  Leave to stand for a few minutes until the yeast is foamy, stir in the egg yolks. If it does not go foamy the yeast may be too old.

Step 2

Place the liquid ingredients in the large bowl of an electric mixer e.g. Kenwood, with dough hook, and then add flour and salt. I think you could probably bung it in a bread maker on dough cycle too but I have never tried this and I am not sure how you would add the butter – maybe all at the start.  

Turn the mixer on very slowly otherwise you will wear a face full of flour. Mix for 15 minutes, at this stage the dough should be starting to slap against the side of the mixer. Start incorporating the very soft butter small square at a time.  Scrape the sides of the mixer if needed.  Eventually (it does take a while and looks very weird at the start) the butter will incorporate right through (I know it seems a lot of butter – I never said these were healthy) and the dough will be smooth and shiny and come away from the sides of the bowl.

Step 3

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or leave in mixer bowl with a spray of oil added and some cling film on the top with a tea towel over that.  Let rise in a warm draught free spot for 2 hours or so.  Have patience it will start to rise eventually but not as much as normal bread due to all the butter and egg yolks.  

Step 4

Knock back the dough and knead briefly. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle shape.  

20cm by 28cm.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle the sugar cinnamon mixture on top. Again it seems a lot of sugar but it melts away. Leave the sugar slightly away from one edge and then roll it up like a sponge roll towards the end with no sugar.  Cut into 4cm pieces and place in lightly greased muffin tins, brush with left over butter.  Leave to rise again for about 20 minutes. They are meant to rise slightly at this point but they never seem to change much.  Then bake in preheated oven for 15- 20 minutes until light brown.

Hints

These may sound a bit fiddly but you can make the dough the night before and store it in the fridge after the first rising. This means on a Saturday or Sunday morning you can take out your chilled dough (which is now very easy to roll out) and brush with melted butter, sugar and cinnamon.   This way you can impress the family with some home cooked brioche for brunch in less than an hour.  Don’t forget to put them somewhere warm for 20 minutes to get them back to room temperature.

You can make larger ones in Texas muffin tins.

I think this recipe works out to seven brioches but you can adjust the sizes slightly to make more if you roll out a little thinner.

I double to recipe and store half in the fridge for the next day. You would need quite a large mixer for this. 
Cheers Paula