BRIOCHE THREE WAYS

I love butter.  Well, really who doesn't.  I may not have a Paula Dean level obsession where I top every creation with a giant knob, but in my eyes few things are as delicious.  Any carbohydrate, be it pasta or a biscuit, spaetzle or pancakes, is always better topped with butter.  Now if butter on carbs is always tasty then a butter packed loaf of bread has to be a no-brainer.

Enter Brioche.

Golden brown and so rich your hands have a nice oily sheen after you've inhaled a slice (I like mine toasted with a smear of raspberry jam).  I grabbed my trusty Baking cookbook by Dorie Greenspan and pulled together the simple recipe (p.48 , stand mixer with dough hook a must).  After baking one loaf I decided to use the second half of the batter for another sinful treat, a batch of Honey Pecan Sticky Buns (p.51)!  And since our small household couldn't kill the entire loaf before it going stale ... Four-Star Chocolate Bread Pudding (p.410) came to the rescue.   The waistline may not have been happy but my butter loving stomach sure was!