Lovely (Vegan) Brioche For Everyone!

I wanted to make something special for Monsieur Fish’s birthday (erm, last month…I’m a little behind in the posting department), and I thought the brioche from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice sounded pretty special, indeed.

Reinhart’s book presents three versions : Rich Man’s Brioche, Middle Class Brioche, and Poor Man’s Brioche – what’s with all these men, anyway? Are they making the brioche? Given the obscene amount of non-dairy butter needed for the first two versions, I opted for the leaner poor folks variety*.

Some might find me a bit silly, making brioche here in the patisserie capital of the world (meaning, France), but the thing is, I haven’t enjoyed brioche in years because it’s so not vegan! There is also something magical about hand-crafting goodies for the ones you love. Seems more special.

This recipe was, once again, a pleasant experience and was as easy to veganize as the other Apprentice recipes I’ve made. I just subbed non-dairy butter and Ener-G egg replacer. My biggest problem was with the shaping…I wasn’t really sure of myself and took a bit too much time, which meant that everything was rising all over the place on me! It was a rather hot and humid day I suppose…

I regretted not taking my time in shaping, because they were a little lop-sided out of the oven. The mini-brioches looked like little ladies in tutus, which Guppy thought was fun.

The birthday boy was terribly impressed, despite their goofy appearance, and thought they were delicious! The brioche was indeed light, buttery and flaky – perfect for a lazy Saturday morning birthday breakfast.

These little babies have been submitted to Yeast Spotting! Susan’s delicious weekly round-up of all that is rising on the blogosphere.

*The poor or peasants (as a ridiculous generalisation as it is) tended to live much longer and die of natural causes than the rich who’s fat-clogged arteries choked the life from them, bit by bit. Not suffering the diseases of the affluent : hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, obesity, etc. the “poor” of the previous centuries, though often lacking in basic medical care, were in much better over-all health than many of their peers from the haute bourgeoisie, specifically those in urban centres where animals and their secretions often were featured at the dinner table. Just sayin’.