This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Savory Brioche Pockets (pp 421-422) – one I will admit to not properly reading all the way through before embarking on it. At 8pm on a Saturday night. After having hosted cooking classes for nearly 80 people in the previous two days. So, yeah, I am cutting myself some slack here.
I figured it was ok that I didn’t have most of the ingredients for the filling since I would be filling it the following day. So I started getting the ingredients organised. And realised I didn’t have any all-purpose flour. What??? I mean what self-respecting baker/ cook/ food blogger doesn’t have flour? I had cake and pastry flour and whole wheat so figured I’d go with the whole wheat. Having made brioche only once before (with astounding luck!), I was not entirely sure that it was going to work out to substitute whole wheat for all-purpose flour but with nearly 3 hours of rising to get done before I could go to bed, I just got started. I figured it would be a learning experience, right?
The dough was a lot tougher than I remember the bubble top brioche dough but I carried on. It actually rose pretty nicely during its first rise at room temperature. Close to midnight that night, I put the dough to rest in the fridge overnight.
The next morning I retrieved said dough from the fridge and rolled it out. It was a little tough to get started but once I worked it a little, it rolled out beautifully. Of course, as I was rolling this out at 8.30am still in my pajamas (hey – it was Sunday!), I suddenly remembered that I didn’t have the right fillings (potatoes, onions and goat cheese) so I rummaged about in the fridge to find fillings for both sweet and savoury pockets – pesto and tomatoes for the savoury and cream cheese and strawberry jam for the sweet.
I let them sit for 20 minutes before baking them – they were supposed to rise and be “puffy” but mine went nowhere.
Result?
An excellent snack for Mr Neil and my mum who were already outside gardening at that point – both of them pronounced it a little thick on the dough around the edges but it certainly tasted good. The savoury one tasted a little like a fancy pizza pocket (sorry, Julia!).
Would I make these again? Probably not though I am curious to see how they would turn out with regular all-purpose flour – would they be puffier? Probably. But really, I’m not fussed either way. They did re-heat pretty well the following day in a microwave so they lost some of their crispiness but the dough/ pastry was pretty tender and tasty still.
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia was hosted by Carrie of Loaves and Stitches and you can find the recipe on her blog. Tuesdays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs except if we happen to be the host for the week, rather, we prefer if you purchase Baking with Julia for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking along at Tuesdays with Dorie. Go on, you know you want to.
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Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter
Mardi, your dishes are rarely less than perfect; so sorry the WW impeded the rising process. But glad they were still tasty. Bill raved about these…whew!
Aw it’s ok, they tasted ok so that’s what counts!
I reckon the proof of the pudding is in the eating! I think that faced with the same choice of flours, I would have picked the same.
It wasn’t bad, just not how it should have been.
I now am curious to make a partially whole wheat brioche. I always use pastry and bread flour (50/50) for brioche, and all pastry flour if I run out of the other. And these can be stuffed with anything really, I heart yours, they sound delicious Mardi!
I’d like to try these with regular flour!
You deserve a break, Mardi!
These look lovely. I’ve got to try them.
Mardi, you are just too awesome 🙂
I really want a jam filled one now…
Aw thanks!
Okay, first off your cooking class for the kids looked amazing! I love seeing kids get involved with cooking.
Secondly, I love the look of your brioche with the whole wheat flour. I can imagine a sweet filling with the whole wheat brioche….with a little course sugar sprinkled on top.
The sweet and whole wheat worked well I think!
Kudos to you for making do with what you had on hand! I would have just said forghedaboutit! I love the rustic look yours has; and as long as they taste good! Job well done!
Thanks – I like to try to improvise – I always learn a lot!
I think they worked out quite nicely, considering the whole wheat flour is a lot heavier than all purpose. I love your ideas for fillings, too.
Now you need a weekend of relaxing kitchen projects (or maybe just a nice glass of wine)!
Always need relaxing projects. Always need wine.
Good ideas for the fillings!