March 18, 2008

Brioche Raisin Snails

This week’s TWD recipe is Brioche Raisin Snails, was chosen by Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Since this recipe had three components – my initial plan was to make each component separately and then assemble and bake on Sunday morning. Well that didn’t happen. I would up making the dough around 11pm on Sat night and making the cream and raisins Sunday morning and baking them Sunday afternoon.

As ususal regardless of how simple a recipe is, whenever I have timeline and I don’t follow it – things go wrong, for example:

  • Dough: I had some trouble with the dough. Mainly the part where the dough has to go into the refrigerator. The thermostat on my fridge was broken so anything I put in there freezes – even though it is on level “1”. Every time I took it out to slap it down – it was semi frozen. But I went thru with all the steps anyway. When it was time for the 2nd rising – they didn’t rise much.
  • Custard: Wow. I had a lot of trouble with this. I could tell that there were some “pieces and that I would have to pass it thru a sieve, but I was shocked at the amount of “scrambled eggs” that were left over when I was done. Even then my mixture was not completely silky, it was kind of grainy. Not sure why as I have made custards/puddings etc before. I think next time I will use my hand held mixer in one had to get the constant whisking while I am pouring in other liquids. To me it was kind of like patting my head while rubbing my stomach. Hard.
  • Raisins: I didn’t have a problem with the raisins. I just ignited the raisins with a lit skewer to keep my hands from being scorched. It was kinda cool.

I have to admit I was skeptical when I first read the recipe. But then something happened. While I was cutting the log into 1” pieces, some of the pastry cream+cinnamon sugar+raisins oozed out of the end. So I decided to taste it. SOOOO DELICIOUS!! I could have eaten a cup of it by itself. I immediately made an extra batch of raisins and made another log and put it in the freezer to bake another time.

I baked the first batch for 25 minutes, but I felt they were too brown, so the 2nd batch I baked for 20 minutes. Perfect. Once they came out of the oven, i couldn’t wait i had to eat one (two) right away. They were so good. So good that I didn’t realize until later that i totally forgot to put the glaze on.

I took these to my Moms house for Palm Sunday dinner and they were a hit. Everyone loved them.

I tried one this morning and they still tasted good but the dough was a little dry – probably because of the issues with my dough. I got a new fridge yesterday – so I am going to try this dough again. I will also add a little more pastry cream as it seemed like it soaked into the dough and the flavor really got lost in the background. I would also add more cinnamon sugar.

Problems aside these are a delicious treat and the recipe (all three components) are keepers!

For printable version of the recipe click here

Click here to check out other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.

Last week: Russian Grandmothers Apple Pie-Cake

Next week: Caramel Topped Flan

15 comments:

Di said...

I'm glad that your snails turned out well after all the difficulties you had. Enjoy your new fridge!

CB said...

I laughed at the "pat your hand rub your tummy" reference! Great analogy.
Clara

Gretchen Noelle said...

Sorry you had so many difficulties. glad you replaced the fridge, that would have been a pain! Hope you get to do them again so you can *really* enjoy them!

noskos said...

In the end they turned out beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

Given your obstacles, everything turned out wonderful! My husband also said he wished there was more pastry cream in them.

Anonymous said...

Glad it all turned out okay! I hope it goes much smoother next time. They look great!

Judy said...

It will be interesting to see how they turn out using your new refrigerator.

Natalie said...

Great job on them, even if you ran into problems!

Julius said...

I get lumps in my pastry cream if my whisk doesn't scrape the sides and corners of my pan.

Your snails look great! Wouldn't have known you ran into problems at all.

Rachel said...

Sorry the for the fridge trials. The snails look great, to me!

Jaime said...

great job! i made a double batch of these and am so glad i did :) i love your comment about patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time - i did have a little trouble w/that step too! i think the little bits are from not whisking enough or not continuously while it is cooking?

Donna said...

They turned out great even after all your troubles! I had some extra cream left over and drizzled the extra rum over it! YUM!

Anonymous said...

You badass! I can't believe you went through all that and STILL turned out the snails. Hell yeah!

Madam Chow said...

Good job - too bad about your problems, but it's great that they turned out well.

Peabody said...

Oh my, so glad those turned out after all that you went through.

 
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