A Recipe from Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery Vol. 2 (1967)

About the Recipe

My son Maxx has been reading a book called The Bakery Dragon. It’s about a little dragon who is not great at stealing gold, but after getting stranded with a baker in her bakery during a storm, discovers that he’s very good at baking gold. So what does Maxx say to me this morning? “Mommy, I want to make some gold!” Into the stacks we went to find the perfect golden bread recipe.

This was actually my first time making a brioche, outside of a challah loaf here and there. The dough is so sweet and buttery delicious. This was actually a fairly simple recipe, especially if you learn from some of my mistakes:

• Let your butter get soft and your eggs come to room temperature. The butter is meant to melt down after you pour the hot milk over it. Mine… did not. And I spent about 10 extra minutes at the microwave slowly melting my butter down 10 seconds at a time.
• Don’t rush to get your butter to melt. You’ll lose some of the tenderness to the bread if you just melt the butter down all at once. Take your time.
• I only used about 5 1/2 cups of flour all told. Don’t forget that the water content in your butter and milk, the size of your eggs, even your elevation will change how much you need. Go one cup at a time and slow to a few tablespoons as you get closer to dough texture.
• I highly recommend beating and kneading this dough by hand. I use a wooden spoon to beat and my own two hands to knead to the right texture. I swear it comes out better. And you’ll get to know what dough feels like when it’s ready to prove.
• Check your oven for a Proof setting. It makes a massive difference in rise.

These little buns were so yummy coming out of the oven with just a little bit of good butter. Can’t wait to have one with breakfast!

About the book

I inherited my grandma’s entire Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery. It’s a 12-volume set published 1966-67, created by the editors of Woman’s Day Magazine. It’s in alphabetical order, and Volume 2 goes from Beef Cook Book to Canapes. I’ve tried a few recipes from various volumes, and it was clearly well used by my grandma. Definitely a winner of a set with delightful photos to boot!

The Recipe!

Ingredients:
2 packages active dry yeast or 2 cakes compressed yeast
1/4 cup water*
3/4 cup milk, scalded
1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
6 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
5 eggs (room temperature)

Directions:
Sprinkle or crumble yeast into water. *Use very warm water (105*F to 115*F) for dry yeast; use lukewarm (80*F to 90*F) for compressed. Let stand a few minutes; then stir until dissolved.

Pour hot milk over butter, sugar, and salt; cool to lukewarm. Add 2 cups flour and beat well. Add yeast and beat. Cover and let rise until bubbly. Stir down.

Add 4 eggs and beat well. Add enough more flour to make a soft dough. Turn out on floured pastry cloth or board and knead until smooth and satiny. Put into greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down and divide dough into 24 small pieces. From each piece, cut a small piece. Shape large pieces into balls and put into well-greased 2 3/4-inch muffin cups. Shape small pieces in balls. Make indentation in center of each large ball by pressing with thumb. Press small balls into indentations.

Let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Mix 1 egg and 1 T water. Brush rolls with mixture.

Bake in preheated moderate oven (375*F) for 15 minutes. To freeze, wrap in foil. Reheat, wrapped, in slow oven (300*F).