The Great Cazier Bake Off (Cinnamon Brioche Bread)

Welcome to episode two of the Great Cazier Bake Off. Our 'episodes' take a while to come out, since we have to find a good day that works for all parties involved. Mondays are best for Grandma in Washington, so we try to find a holiday so the girls have it off from school as well. This recipe was trickier because it involved two days with an overnight rise. Let's jump right in and see what happened...

First, the teams. Team one was Ivory and Maleen.

Team two was Daisy and June.

We had our lovely hosts from last time, Pearl and Robyn. They do a great job. Maybe one of these days, they'd like to cook, but for now, we'll enjoy having them run the show.

We had to do things a little differently this time around. We were making Cinnamon Brioche Bread, but brioche bread needs to refrigerate over night. Also, we only have one Bosch mixer. That meant we had to take turns. Team one was first in the kitchen. Time to reveal the ingredients.

Get to work you two. You need to put together a very buttery dough. Literally, once you get the dough mixing, you just keep adding chunks of butter. 

The ball of dough looks pretty small. It's going to rest on the counter for a couple of hours before it goes in the fridge for the night.

Let's get team two in the kitchen now. What sillies. 

It just so happened that they didn't get to the kitchen until much later. It was dark outside and you can even see 'Paul' in the background doing dishes. But nothing says you can't bake at night.

Lots of butter, some stretching, and a few patient moments later, they had a ball of dough as well.

Both doughs rose and were put to bed in the fridge waiting for their moment the following day.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Grandma Dargan did not have a mixer. So she literally kneaded in all that butter by hand. I think there should be a special award bestowed upon her because that is amazing. Her dough also went in the fridge to wait for the morrow. (This picture is from the next day)

Monday dawned sunny and cold, but it was nice and warm inside where the bakers went to work. The little balls of dough were now bigger and ready to be rolled out. 

I've made plenty of cinnamon rolls in my life and I can honestly say, I've never used powder sugar for the filling. That was a new one for me. And we even sifted it all.

It makes the filling very powdery instead of sticky. It still rolled up well fairly well.

The hard part was cutting the roll in half and then twisting the dough. Once you cut it, it seemed to fall apart. But all teams managed okay. And the effect was really pretty with all the exposed layers on top.

June and Daisy's loaf rose faster than the other, so they were first in the oven. 

Tasty and crispy.

Our loaf went in a little later and then there was a minor glitch with the cooking. Our wall oven wasn't closing properly, so for most of the cook time, the oven was actually open just a little. So we ended having to cook ours for longer because it wasn't cooked when the timer dinged. (We were really lucky there was no time limit. We would not have made it.)

Now, the loaves were officially done, but cinnamon bread seems to need cream cheese. Maybe that is a very American thing, but my kitchen...my way. Of course, I got a recipe for everyone so each loafer had the option of glaze. Grandma Dargan declined since some of her peeps don't like cream cheese. (Not even the frosting?) But everyone here decided to give it a whirl. I got some colors to mix it up.

What do you think? It does cover some of the beautiful cinnamon swirls, but I think the taste is greatly enhanced.

Now for the judging. Our resident Tyler Hollywood came to judge the creations. He didn't know which team did which loaf. So everyone waited patiently for the results. (You can tell this is a very professional show by our very clean living room in the background. Hahaha)

Tyler takes his job very seriously. He really thinks about all the elements. June and Daisy did different colors of glaze and the orange and pink ended up looking a little strange, but it still tasted fantastic.

Robyn is making sure to capture all the reactions.

The verdict came in and Team one (Maleen and Ivory) won by just a bit. Ironically, it might have tasted better because it was probably still warm since it came out of the oven last. Look at the pretty swirls throughout the bread.

Both loaves disappeared pretty quickly. They were yummy, and much better than the schichttorte (in my opinion). Washington seemed to like their version as well.

Success everyone! And thanks for participating. Things will be pretty busy with school, but I think we'll have to have another Bake Off during the summer. It is very fun to try new creations.