Brioche

I’ve been surprised by the number of shoppers unfamiliar with brioche at farmers’ markets. I admit brioche certainly wasn’t a staple in my household growing up nor is it sold in many bakeries in the US. I was introduced to the buttery bread whilst working at a bakery during high school summers.

This was long before I was as interested in food as I am today, and it was simply a summer job to earn some pocket money and keep me occupied. I saw most of the treats in the shop as 'off limits' since I was more interested in things like running and staying skinny.

Brioche wasn’t sold daily at the bakery and customers always seemed excited on the days it appeared in the display case. The owner baked small, individual loaves instead of the typical large ones, and many customers mistook them for muffins. On one particularly slow day when there did happen to be brioche, there were a few small loaves left at the end of the day. Needless to say, the owner sent me home with these loaves.

My Mom was ecstatic to see the small breads tumbling around in the bottom of my bag when I arrived home. She immediately lifted one out and dove right in, crumbs tumbling down all around her. I shrugged at her and went off to do other things. However, later at dinner there were slices of the bread on the table, and curiosity was killing me. What was this brioche all about?!?

YUM, is all I have to say. Once you brioche you won’t go back!









Brioche is a bread commonly seen in France. It’s unique for two reasons- it’s ingredients and its shape.

Brioche is similar to most breads in that it contains the basic ingredients necessary in bread making – flour, salt, yeast and water. What brioche also has is one stick of butter and three eggs per loaf, neither of which are found in your typical loaf of white or whole wheat bread. This creates a very dense yet silky dough.

Despite the added calories and decadence, brioche isn’t as heavy as you may think. Brioche dough rises in the refrigerator for roughly 12 hours after preperation then rises for another three to four hours before baking. This results in an airy and light loaf.

Another alluring quality of brioche is its shape. Brioche is typically baked in a mold similar to a muffin or cupcake paper – round bottom with flared, fluted sides. It’s typically made as one large loaf. At first it can look like an atomic muffin or something, but it really is magnificent.

Baking brioche is really very simple when you weigh the amount of work against the end-product. I’ve tried various brioche recipes, and the best by far is in The Barefoot Contessa in Paris by Ina Garten. (Actually, everything in her book is amazing, so I’d definitely recommend this book as well as all her cookbooks.)

My only addition to Garten’s recipe is cover the loaves with aluminum foil after 20 min to prevent the top from burning. Also, if you bake the brioche in the traditional fluted pan, add about 10 extra minutes to ensure the loaf bakes all the way through.

Happy Brioching!!!

Bonjour!!

Fall is certainly in the air in Stowe, Vt. The leaves are starting to explode in bright shades of yellow, orange and fiery red, and on cold enough nights streams of smoke snake from chimneys into the crisp air. After such a hot and humid summer, I'm welcoming the Fall with cozy sweaters and a head full of baking ideas for pumpkin and cinnamon. Yum!




The arrival of fall was also a shocking reminder that I have neglected to update anyone on Le Petit Lapin all summer. Now that markets are winding down, I'm slotting off some time for this blog.

This summer I sold at the Barre, Waterbury and Stowe Mountain Resort Farmers' Markets. Barre and Waterbury are the 'grocer' type of market meaning they attract locals looking for fresh vegetables to cook up for dinner. The market at the mountain is a 'grazer' market in that it attracts tourists interested in snagging local jam, maple syrup or crafts to bring back home.

All three markets turned out well for me. I developed a small local following at the Barre and Waterbury markets. It was fun talking with the same customers each week and introducing new products to keep interest high. Financially speaking, the market at the mountain was far more successful due to the larger amount of customers, especially children, as well as the nature of the market. I sold many bags of cookies intended for car rides home or mid-hike snacks. Needless to say, I enjoyed all three markets and thank my repeated customers for their loyal support.

In addition to selling at markets, I am currently selling cakes and fruit tarts to a coffee shop in town. From this outlet, I attracted the attention of a local chef when he sampled my lemon curd cake in the coffee shop. I am just starting to supply his restaurant with cakes and hope to expand my partnership with him in the future. I have another local business owner interested in buying my fruit tarts to serve at her tea garden next summer. Lastly, I have some happy non-local customers to whom I am shipping my granola. (Unfortunately I was unable to find a safe way to ship my fruit tarts as also requested).

So, what's the plan for the fall and winter?

I'm currently looking into more shops and restaurants to supply my cakes and fruit tarts with, as well as retail stores to sell my granola. I've applied to winter farmers' markets in both Waterbury and Burlington. I'm also putting together dessert catering menus for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hopefully things will continue to go well as I expand Le Petit Lapin.

So, there's your update on Le Petit Lapin. I should now have more time to post pics and recipes, so watch this space for some ideas on fall baking! Next few entries....personal orange-pecan pies, brioche, chocolate truffles and french macaroons !!!

At Long last!

At long last, an entry!

Before I dive into the trials and triumphs of Le Petit Lapin, it’s about time to reflect on my recent trip to England and France, to visit Sam. I spent one week in Peterborough, UK, followed by a week and a half in Nice and a weekend in London.

We accomplished a lot of different things over a short period of time. There's really too much to go into all details, so instead I thought I would share some photos highlighting different parts of the trip....

Sam and I had a Royal Champagne Tea for two at the Orangery in Kensington Palace gardens.



We also enjoyed many foil wrapped picnics of jam sammies and bananas on park benches.





We roamed the infamous fruit, flower and vegetable markets lining the Cours Saleya in Nice buying vegetables, cheese and meat to cook for dinner. We also enjoyed the one euro sparkling rose from Monoprix.








We lounged on Paloma Beach, a beach frequented by the likes of Jack Nickelson and Tom Cruise (as well as a lot of old, fat Italian men in Speedos).










We went hiking in Saint Etinee-de-Tinee to burn off all the cheese and make up for all the beach lounging.







I sat around in Peterborough, UK, while Sam went to work (this was far too much fun to take pictures to document).

I fell asleep on the couch every night while Sam did the dishes. Coincidence??




We walked the grand prix circuit in Monaco, counted expensive cars and shopped at Hermes Monaco (and after Hermes we sat in the grass and ate more foil wrapped sammies. Prioritizing).















We took pictures of men in thongs. Tee-hee-hee.




Sam sat in the shade while I lounged in the sun, as per usual.






We took a day trip to Italy.



It was charming, hahaha.






And that's about it I suppose. Time for another vacation yet??

Bonjour!!

It's been a while since my last post as I've been traveling in England and France these past four weeks. I just arrived home and am heading to Vermont to prepare all last minute loose ends before Le Petit Lapin goes into business next week (assuming I pass the health inspection tomorrow)!!!!

More posts and pictures to follow as soon as I'm settled in up North.

I like to run up the hill by my house, a mile and a half of constant, steep incline. It’s hard work pushing up the hill and sometimes I need to walk a small stretch, but something draws me up that hill, motivating me to plod on until I reach the top.

In the summer, a particular stretch at the top smells like blueberries and cream. I don’t know what it is, but it’s the most delicious aroma and the perfect reward for trudging up the hill. The sweet scent is accompanied by cow fields on both sides of the road and breathtaking views of the town framed by the neighboring hills and mountains. No matter the weather, this scent is always lingering and the views never fail to impress me.

I got my first whiff of the blueberries and cream this past Monday, and it was absolutely glorious.

And that was Monday. A beautiful day in the mid-sixties with warm sunshine and refreshing breezes. A day filled with long slow runs, fetch with Thor, and lounging in the sun. If I had guests, there would have been a game of croquet and pitcher of Pimms.

Clearly too good to be true.

It was snowing on Tuesday. It accumulated to five inches and resulted in a temporary power loss. Seriously? How is it that I go to bed after a day of warmth and sunshine and wake up to a snowstorm the next day? The only saving grace was that it was light, fluffy snow, the type that coats the landscape in such a way that even the ugliest of oil tanks or port-a-potties looks snug and cozy under the white blanket.

Despite my annoyance, I did suit up and play in the snow with Thor.

(He's looking for his brain.)

Apricot Rosemary Sandwich Cookies

To be completely honest, I hadn’t read any sort of food blog until four months ago. It all started when I was given a laptop at work. There was a link on the internet toolbar called 'butternut squash'. I spent my first month wondering where this link led, but I never dared to follow where it may lead. You never know what butternut squash could be a euphemism for. A month later when I was given my desk (yes, I was sitting at a table in the sec’s office for one month), I finally had enough privacy to to click the link during a spare minute.

No porn. Just a link to a butternut squash recipe in a food blog. Yum! I searched the blog a bit and ended up on the ‘blogs I follow’ page, and I sent the link to myself. Later that night, I perused the various blogs. I had no idea there was such a wealth of professional-level food blogs written by ‘non-chef’, normal people. I spent the following weeks surfing through blogs, and copying all the recipes I was eager to try.

I have one favorite blog in particular. The author is a French woman living in the US who creates some of the most beautiful and delicious looking pastries, cakes and cookies I have ever seen. In addition to creating exquisite food, her photographs and food styling are better than most food magazines. Besides the wish to reach into my computer screen and eat all her creations, I want to bake every single recipe on her blog. For some reason I never did. Her recipes generally call for ingredients I simply don't have and will never use in another recipe. And if it's not an ingredient, it's a pan I don't own and would never use again.

In my quest to find interesting cookie recipes, I scanned her entire blog a few weeks ago and came across a Rosemary Apricot Sandwich cookie recipe. Minus having fresh rosemary or cornmeal (neither of which is too exotic to discount their purchase) I had all the ingredients for the recipe as well as the baking equipment. I was intrigued by the flavor combination and decided to give it a go.

It was a fairly simple recipe to follow. The only consideration was my lack of cookie cutters as I hadn't brought them to VT yet. So I used a glass to cut the cookies out, and I used the screw lid from my Sig Bottle for the hole in the tops. This slowed the process down quite a bit since neither have a sharp edge like of a cookie cutter which slices cleanly through dough.


The end product was a delicious cookie. The rosemary and apricot jam taste fabulous together and it's a combination that's different from anything I've ever had before in a cookie. The cookies stayed fresh for about four days and stored easily, which is perfect for baking for markets.

Yum!

Lawyers and Logos.

Hello hello!

I have been fairly busy this past week. I met with a lawyer who is helping me create an actual trademarked business, complete with federal and state tax numbers. He also pointed me in the direction for purchasing liability insurance, so if someone becomes sick from one of my cookies or bangs their head on my tent, I'll be protected.

I've also been working on finding the perfect madeline recipe. I thought I was all set with the version I was baking, but then I looked in the cookbook Simply French, which has a very different recipe. I tried the different recipe and they are a lot tastier, but they won't rise properly and as a result are not very pretty. So I need to work on the madelines. I'll post about them as soon as I perfect the recipe (and have a freezer full of frozen madelines).

And this brings me to the best part of my recent work, the logo. My mom is a really talented artist, and she agreed to draw the logo. The name Le Petit Lapin was actually created around my idea for the logo. When my mom was in college she drew really beautiful illustrations on note cards she sent to my dad when they were dating. They were very much in the style of Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter- fairy tale in the country. A lot of the cards included little bunnies, and I immediately fell in love with the idea of a bunny baking a cake. And because I am obsessed with all things french, especially french pastries, I decided on the name Le Petit Lapin Patisserie.

And so, without further ado, I bring you the first rough draft of the logo. The bunny needs to be tweaked a bit (she's a bit rotund) and I'm changing some of the colors, but it's a start and I really love it.



Let me know if you have any suggestions!