Magic Dragon


There is indeed something magical about puff pastry’s exponential rise and versatility, but it’s no mystery.

 
As thin, thin sheets of butter (which is approximately 82% fat, protein, and other solids and therefore around 18% water), which are trapped between flour particles, are heated in a hot oven, the water evaporates quickly, causing the steam to lift the flour and create lovely, flaky layers.  

 

Puff pastry can be a beast to handle; much depends on the temperature of your butter and dough.
 
It is certainly a surmountable challenge; however, for less-experienced bakers, it can be extremely frustrating and time consuming.
Traditional puff pastry is made with a yeasted dough, which is laminated with a butter block.  
It takes a long time, and it can be hard to get just right.
 
Which is precisely why I decided to do this picture series/tutorial about blitz puff pastry.  
This recipe and technique is invaluable.  Definitely tuck it away in your brain for future uses.
It’s faster, easier, and, at least in my own experience, more idiot-proof reliable.
 

Flaky pastry enhances any dessert (Like… Duh?).

Turnovers?  Killer with this dough.  I made orange-chocolate ricotta turnovers which were a hit.
Vol-au-vent?  This dough is faster than traditional puff, and rises essentially as high.
Brie en croute?  Hello, the faster this gets into my mouth, the better.  Blitz pastry it is.
Anything en papillote?  Heck, why not?

 

Croissants?  Bear claws?  Elephant ears or palmiers?  Pain au chocolat? But of course… Recipes below.
The scraps never go to waste, either.  Just like with pie dough, if they are sprinkled with some cinnamon sugar and baked off, they become lovely little nuggets of sparkly, spicy gold.
The time you’ll save is worth the 1/8 inch loss of height that traditional puff gives you.

Still with me?  Salivating yet?

Let’s get started!


For the basic dough,

you’ll need to assemble:
16 ounces of cold unsalted butter
10 ounces of flour
10 ounces of ice cold water
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of sea salt

The tools you’ll need are:
a large, clean surface, like a well-scrubbed counter
a large bowl
a rolling pin
a bench scraper (not 100% necessary, but crazy helpful)
 Christmas-themed cling wrap (100% necessary)

 

Whisk your flour, salt, and sugar together in the large bowl with a fork.  
Break up any clumps.  
Dump all your cold butter onto the flour.  Toss to coat.

 

 

With clean hands, roughly flatten all of the cubes of butter.  
They do not have to be perfect sheets; that will happen in the next step.  They should just be roughly flat.

 

This is what your dough should look like thus far.  It’s not much of a dough, yet.  Just a bunch of flour-coated, flattened butter cubes.  (Yum…?)
Next up is the fraisage.  
Dump the contents of your bowl out onto your clean surface.  
Using the heel of your hand, gather the dough, then push forward and down firmly, so that your butter is smeared along the flour and other bits and bobs on the counter.  (Just kidding.  Because your counter is super clean, right?  Right?! Right!)
Continue to do so until virtually all of the butter has been sheeted even further and thinner than before.  
Your dough should not yet be cohesive, but rather shaggy and ugly.
 

This is what your dough should now look like.  
Make a well in the center and pour in some water.  
Knead lightly with your hands, using a bench scraper to help fold the dough over itself.  
Continue to add water until your dough just barely comes together in a shaggy mess.  
Do not add so much that it becomes slimy, but add enough that it is no longer crumbly.  
This is a variable amount; you may need slightly more or less than 10 ounces of water.  That’s okay.  Ingredients and environments differ, and that’s what affects this measurement.

Finished adding water.  Cohesive, still shaggy, but stays together.

Next, roll out your dough to about a 3/4- 1 inch thickness, in the shape of a rough rectangle (not triangle, which is what I just wrote).  

Fold your dough in thirds, like a business letter.  
Wrap in plastic and stick in the fridge for 15 minutes.

 

After your dough has chilled out, take it out and roll it into another rectangle.  
You can see the dimensions of mine in the above picture; it should be 1/2 inch thick and the rectangle should be relatively even in size.

Next, do a double book turn.  Visually divide your rectangle in half, then divide each half into two.  You are going to fold it in quarters, but first fold the outer flaps in, to meet the center, then fold the flaps created by that fold onto each other, like a book.
Christina Tosi describes it by putting her arms out straight, folding in at the elbows, then folding the elbows together.  
After one double book turn, stick the dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.  

Do two more double book turns, rolling the dough out to 1/2 inch thick between each one.
After your third double book turn, your dough is ready to be used!  
You did it! Now you can make all sorts of delicacies with it!

In general, to use your puff pastry, you will need to roll it out to a tiny bit more than 1/8 inch thickness.  
When you cut it, never twist your cutters or knife- just like making biscuits.  
If you do so, the layers of flour may fuse together on one side, causing uneven rising.
Don’t re-roll scraps.  Just try to minimize them.

Blitz Puff Pastry
proportions from the godly Stella Parks, technique is my own, bastardized from many sources, including Christina Tosi
ingredients:
16 ounces cold cubed butter
10 ounces ice water
10 ounces flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
directions:
  1. Whisk your flour, salt, and sugar together in the large bowl with a fork.  Break up any clumps.  Dump all your cold butter onto the flour.  Toss to coat.
  2. With clean hands, roughly flatten all of the cubes of butter.  They do not have to be perfect sheets; that will happen in the next step.  They should just be roughly flat.
  3. Dump the contents of your bowl out onto your clean surface.  Using the heel of your hand, gather the dough, then push forward and down firmly, so that your butter is smeared along the flour and other bits and bobs on the counter.
  4. Continue to do so until virtually all of the butter has been sheeted even further and thinner than before.  Your dough should not yet be cohesive.
  5. Roll out your dough to about a 3/4- 1 inch thickness, in the shape of a rough rectangle.
  6. Fold your dough in thirds, like a business letter.  
  7. Wrap in plastic and stick in the fridge for 15 minutes.
  8. After your dough has chilled out, take it out and roll it into another rectangle; it should be 1/2 inch thick and the rectangle should be relatively even in size.
  9. Next, do a double book turn.  Visually divide your rectangle in half, then divide each half into two.  You are going to fold it in quarters, but first fold the outer flaps in, to meet the center, then fold the flaps created by that fold onto each other, like a book.  Christina Tosi describes it by putting her arms out straight, folding in at the elbows, then folding the elbows together.  
  10. After one double book turn, stick the dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.  
  11. Do two more double book turns, rolling the dough out to 1/2 inch thick between each one.  After your third double book turn, your dough is ready to be used.
  12.  In general, to use your puff pastry, you will need to roll it out to a tiny bit more than 1/8 inch thickness, before cutting it into desired shapes.  
Notes and ideas for use:
This puff can be used just like a regular puff pastry dough.  It is versatile and adapts to any shape.  Bake it at 375 degrees F, on good insulated pans.  If your pans are flimsy, use two stacked together.  The baking times I have provided are for very miniature pastries; if you make larger ones, the baking time will go up accordingly.  Puff pastry is very easy to change baking times with, because the only test of doneness is the color of the crust.  The pastries should be tanned and deep gold when you pull them out.  If you change the size, simply check the color of your pastries often after going past the times noted here and you will not have dried out or burned products, I promise.
Palmiers: 
Cut long strips of dough, about 3/16 of an inch wide and 5 or more inches long, and brush them with a little melted butter.  Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top, and roll from each end to create a swirl shape.  Bake until golden and sugar is caramelized, about 8 minutes depending on the size of your cookies.  Check early and often; sugar burns quickly.  If you cut the strips 3/4 of an inch wide, and roll from just one end, you can stick them in a mini muffin tin and make mini cinnamon rolls.
Croissants:
Cut isosceles triangles, about 3.5 inches wide and 6 inches high, and cut a small, 1/4 inch slit at the base.  Roll up the triangle starting at the wide end, shaping into a crescent once the dough is all rolled up.  Brush with egg wash (1 egg plus 1 teaspoon water), bake for about 14 minutes, until tanned; timing varies a lot with puff pastry depending on the size of your pastries, but it is easy to check doneness by color, as that is the main factor.
Bear Claws:
Mix 1/3 cup almond paste with 1 egg white, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and 1/4 cup powdered sugar until smooth.  Cut strips of pastry 2 inches wide and as long as possible, and fill with a thin coating of filling.  Roll, starting from the long sides, to make long filled logs.  Pinch the edges to seal, and flatten the logs.  Cut into 4 inch long pieces, and make notches 1/3 of the way into the dough to make “claws.”  Shape into crescents, with the claws pointing out, and brush with egg wash.  Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top and bake for 15 minutes, or until almond filling is crisp and tops of claws are tanned and golden.
Pain au Chocolat
Cut rectangles of dough 3 inches by 4.5 inches.  Place a few bittersweet chocolate chips on the shorter edge, and fold over once.  Where the fold has met the main part of the dough, tuck a few more bittersweet chocolate chips.  Fold over again, then place seam side down on a sheet tray.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, if desired.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Moelleux

Have you ever had dduk?

 (More commonly known in the Western world by its Japanese name, mochi.)

Dduk are rice cakes.
They can be sweet or savory, baked or pan-fried or shaped or steamed.
They come in all sorts of pretty colors and delicious flavors.
Some come with sweet adzuki bean filling, some rolled in sesame seeds or honey or dried beans.
They are made with glutinous rice flour (A misnomer, as it is gluten-free.), which is the flour which comes from sticky, short grained rice.
Dduk are soft, squishy, with a pleasantly chewy texture.  There is no other food I have encountered with quite the same mouthfeel as “mochi”.
They are velvety but marvelously toothsome: a real joy to bite into!
They are, in short, delectable!
Sorry to shout, I’m just so excited!
And so happy to be sharing these adorable little confections with you!

Mochi!!!

Dduk/mochi are very easy to make.  Hello, bonus!  Even if they were incredibly hard to prepare, I don’t think I could stay away.

They can even be made in the microwave, a method that is tried and true and super quick.  I have encountered many problems in the past using this method, however, because the mixture is so hot when it comes out of the microwave that it burns your hands when you try to shape it, and if you let it cool, it will be stuck in place forever.
It is entirely possible to use the microwave to make less-than-perfect mochi, but I wanted some clean photos and non-burned hands, thankyouverymuch.

So this time, when inspiration struck me to make a coconut-flavored version, I knew I had to try a different method of cooking the batter.
I discovered, after some online perusing, that they can be easily baked up and then cut into perfect little cubes: just the uniformity I was previously lacking.
It is the simplest recipe; mix three ingredients together, pour into a greased pan, and bake for one hour.  The coconut flavor really shines in these dduk, and although I didn’t dye them, they turned out a lovely cream color.

Go make these!  They’re so easy!  And delicious!
Wait!  Why did I eat all of mine so quickly?!
Oh! I am sad.  And mochi-less.
Now to remedy that…
[insert cheesy Japanese emoji here] (^.^)y

Coconut Dduk
ingredients:
300 grams of sugar
240 grams of glutinous rice flour (found at most grocery stores, and at all Asian markets)
1 can of coconut milk, plus enough water or milk to bring to 2 full cups of liquid
cornstarch, for dusting (have plenty on hand!)
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9 by 13 or similarly sized pan.
Stir your sugar and flour together, then add in your liquid and mix vigorously to combine.  The mixture should be nice and smooth.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour.
Take the dduk out of the oven and allow to cool for just a few minutes; then use a knife, spatula, and determination to pull the entire cake out of the pan.  It will be extremely sticky and it is likely that you will have to do a lot of prying to get it out of the pan in one piece.
Place it on a clean surface which has been dusted with cornstarch.
Cut the dduk however you would like; take note that the edges are extremely crispy and chewy, as is the bottom.
I cut my dduk into rectangles, then trimmed the bottom edge off to make soft, squishy squares.  My mother and I ate all of the crispy edges- I personally love them, but people with delicate dental work will not.
Toss the finished pieces in a little cornstarch, and enjoy!

Please Sir

Can I have s’more, sir?
No recipe for this cake, today.  
 
I’ve been writing up blog posts for the past 2 hours and I’m getting lazy.
(Tutorial for something time-consuming exciting coming soon… Stay tuned!)
 
I made this cake for a good friend’s 18th (eep!) birthday.
 
It consisted of three dark chocolate cake layers, sandwiching milk chocolate ganache, toasted marshmallows, and an adapted graham crust/crumb from Milk Bar.
I frosted it with a nutella buttercream, and topped it off with more of the same: a mountain of toasted marshmallows, graham crumbs, and a drizzle of ganache.
 
A wonderfully childish cake, reminiscent of campfires, to welcome her into adult life.
Youth may not last forever, but immaturity the affinity for s’mores does!
 
I used my dad’s giant industrial blow torch to toast the lil’ marshmallows.  Poor guys didn’t stand a chance.  Flames and fire ravaged their ranks, I’m afraid to say.  
 
I hope she enjoyed it.  
I certainly enjoyed making it.
Happy 18th, S!  Love you!

Je Te Kiffe


Ah, mes amours: je suis si content que vous êtes ici avec moi.

Vous savez que je vous adore bien.

Our nation’s most lovey-dovey holiday is right around the bend.  Now, I’m sure that many Valentine’s Day-bashing memes and rants will soon be populating the internet, but this post is not for that.
 
“Be mine”


I adore Valentine’s day; not because I celebrate it with anyone in particular or do anything special- I just love the idea.

A day to celebrate love.


We could all use a little lot more of that in our lives.

Valentine’s day is a day to rejoice and be grateful for all of the loving people you have in your life- it is a day to count your blessings and remind yourself of your gratitude for them.
(I love you, my dear readers, and I am ever grateful for you!)

Conversation hearts are iconic of elementary school valentine exchanges.  Personally, I hate them.  They don’t taste good; they’re not chocolate; they say weird things like “SEXY,” which are not appropriate for grade schoolers, etc.   Anyways, they’re just meh.
Oh! But look!
Here are some sweet little conversation heart cookies, written in French.  They have sugar AND butter, and are accordingly delicious, they say exactly what you want, and they’re cute to boot.


I made these with a simple sugar cookie dough, like here, here, or here (Ohmagah.  Those cookies.  I can’t even.  SO stinking perfect.  I hate love envy them so.), and frosted them with even simpler royal icing.  
I didn’t yet have my #1 tip, and my #4 was way too large (see the last photo in the series), so I had to write with a toothpick to get the right size.  It was a real headache, let me tell you.

I’m still trying to perfect my decorated cookies.  It’s becoming an obsession!
I love how beautiful they can be.  Mine are not there yet.  One day, though; one day.

Je vous kiffe, mes chéris!

Morning Lullabies

 
“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
-Roald Dahl
Short and sweet for today.  
 
These bars are absolutely killer.  The nutella, raspberry jam, and brown butter shortbread and crumb combine into a not-too-sweet and nibbly treat.  
 
What’s more, they can be made super quickly (and with one bowl and one spoon.  No mixer nonsense here.).  
 
I whipped these up last night because I had had a long, hard day and was inspired by the Bonne Maman raspberry jam in my fridge.
 
Waking up to them in the morning?  Best. Breakfast. Ever. Laaaaa! 
 
 
Those cookies you see were a bit of an experiment.  I ground my own pistachio flour (Pistache. Pistache. Pistache.), then combined it with honey into crunchy (and shippable) butter cookies drizzled with chocolate.  I also made some salted honey-pistachio butter with the extra chunky bits of pistachio flour.  Love!
 
I’ll be back soon with some ideas for lovey-dovey baked goods.
And some slightly more involved posts.  Perhaps.
 
 
Nutella, Raspberry, and Brown Butter Bars
ingredients:
480 g flour
2 sticks butter, melted and browned
50 g sugar
40 g cream 
6 g kosher salt
good quality raspberry preserves (or any other fruit); I used about 2/3 of a jar of Bonne Maman
150 g nutella, heated gently until it is liquidy and easily spread
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  
Stir the flour, sugar, and salt together in a bowl.  
Pour in the browned butter and cream and stir until crumbs come together.  
Press half of the batch into a greased 9X7 pan (These would also work in an 8×8, I’m willing to bet).  
Spread the liquid nutella evenly over the crust, then dollop jam over.  I used just shy of a cup of preserves, which was pretty conservative.  If you want more fruity flavor, just add more jam.  Either way, don’t spread the nutella or the jam all the way to the edges of the bars.  Rather, leave about a 1/4 inch empty space around the edges.  Once the jam dollops are smoothed over the nutella, sprinkle the rest of the crumbs on top.  
Bake for 35-40 minutes (a note: the bars will look pale golden when done, but they are difficult to judge.  Grab a relatively large crumb from the top and pinch to see if it is crumbly and thoroughly baked.  If so, pull the bars out.  I used a convection oven, so my bars were done around 33 minutes.  If your oven runs colder, do the crumb test to be sure.)  
Allow to cool completely, then slice into squares.
 

Did Someone Say…

 
…donuts?!? (er… doughnuts?)
Why, yes, I done did.  
 
Three types of donuts, in fact: brown-butter maple bacon, Vietnamese coffee (cinnamon+coffee), and cherry-chocolate.

 
Now, I’ve always been leery of frying.  It’s a lot of hot, burbling oil, which makes me nervous.
 
I’ve sustained many burns in the kitchen over the years, and ones from oil splatters are the second worse, trumped only by sugar burns.
But… and this is an important but… I’ve wanted to make real donuts for ages.  
 
I finally decided to man up and get down with deep frying, with my dearest stomach readers in mind.
These donuts are miraculously puffy and soft little pillows of dough wrapped in just-barely crispy edges and sweet, sticky glaze.  
 
I decided to make a decidedly clichéd maple-bacon donut, using my absolute favorite glaze of all-time… brown-butter/maple/cider.  Ohmagah.  Once all the donuts were glazed, I couldn’t help myself.  Sneak a dip, lick, repeat.  Until the bowl was almost gone and my teeth were beginning to ache.  So worth it, people.  So worth it.
 
The second type I made was a chocolate-crémeux filled, cherry-glazed and pink heart adorned donut.  I wanted it to be pink and include chocolate because, well, firstly, who doesn’t love cherry-chocolate, and secondly, for a Valentine’s baking article for my school newspaper.  
 
I couldn’t just leave the poor little donut holes wallow in their teeny-tininess, could I?  So I fried those lil guys up and chucked them into a bowl of coffee glaze and from there, a bowl of crunchy cinnamon sugar.
 
 
A successful morning, I’d say.  I made the dough the night before and stuck it in my fridge, and the alluring smell of donuts filled my entire house by 11:00 the next morning, rousing any and all late sleepers.  They were all gone by the next morning.
 
Yeast-Raised Doughnuts
recipe from the wonderfully decadent Pioneer Woman, Ree
ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon (1/2 a regular package) yeast
1 egg
5 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
vegetable oil or shortening, for frying
directions:
Add sugar and yeast to warm milk and allow to proof for 5 minutes.  Whisk the egg and butter together quickly to ensure that the egg doesn’t scramble.  Add the egg/butter mixture and the yeast/milk mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer (with a dough hook) and mix together.  Once mixed, add the flour in in 1/4 cup increments until all the flour is gone; add the salt sometime in the middle of adding the flour (not at the very beginning or the very end).  Knead the dough on medium-low speed for 5 minutes, then turn the mixer off, scrape the bowl, and turn the mixer on medium-high for 30 seconds.  Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl, toss to coat, and press plastic wrap directly onto its surface.  Place in the fridge overnight (or 8 hours).  
The next morning, take the dough out and place it on a lightly floured surface.  Roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness, and working quickly, cut out as many rounds as you can.  If the dough gets too warm and begins to shrink back, stick it back in the fridge for 10 minutes.  Cut holes out of the rounds, unless you want to fill the donuts.  Place all your rounds and holes onto a parchment lined baking sheet, cover lightly with a dish towel, and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until the doughnuts are visibly puffy and look fluffy.
Heat 3 inches of vegetable oil in a heavy, large pot (I used my dutch oven) until it reaches 375 degrees F.  
Gently place the donuts in the oil and cook for 1 minute on each side.  Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels, and dab/blot/roll the donut around to remove as much oil as possible.  Let cool slightly before glazing. 
Remember to keep checking your oil’s temperature; do not let it get over 380 or below 365.  375 is the ideal temperature.
 
I used this glaze for the maple-bacon donuts, and topped them off with freshly cooked bacon.
 
For the Vietnamese Coffee donuts:
ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
pinch salt
splash of vanilla extract
1 heaping tablespoon instant espresso
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed to thin
3/4 cup sugar plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, for rolling
directions:
Dissolve the espresso into the milk.  Stir in the vanilla and salt, then whisk in the powdered sugar.  If the glaze is too thick, thin it with more milk.  As your donuts (or donut holes) cool, dunk them in the glaze, then quickly roll them in the cinnamon sugar.  You may want to wait for a few minutes after glazing to roll in the sugar, if your glaze is thin and drippy.  

Let Them Eat Cake


Hey y’all!
I hope you guys had a wonderful slew of holiday celebrations.
I’m here to give you some marvelous news: the good times keep on rollin’. 
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
 
Today is Epiphany, the celebratory feast of the last day of the twelve days of Christmas.  In the past, upcoming religious observances like Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Easter Sunday, were announced on Epiphany, when calendars were not readily available.
 
In France, today, Epiphany is often celebrated with one of two special cakes: un gâteau des rois or une galette des rois.  
 
The gâteau des rois (literally, cake of kings- indeed, this is where the New Orleans King Cake, which is eaten to signal the beginning of Lent, originated) is traditional in Provence, and consists of a brioche ring topped with crunchy pearl sugar and candied or dried fruit.  
 
The galette is a much slightly more indulgent affair, traditionally comprised of two rounds of buttery puff pastry sandwiching a layer of sweet almond frangipane. 
 
 
Now, keeping in mind the holiday feasts which have just passed, I chose to make un gâteau des rois, because brioche has about one tenth of the butter and far less sugar than puff pastry, and I used part whole wheat flour for an small but appreciated health boost.
So there you go!  You can have your cake, and eat it too.  Even if you’re in an early-January post-resolutions funk.  Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

 


Gâteau des rois avec les kumquats confits
recipe lightly adapted from Tartelette
Ingredients:
75 mL (1/3 cup) milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
1 heaping teaspoon instant yeast
75 grams (3 tablespoons) sugar
1 small egg or 1/2 a large one (beat it and either weigh it and divide in two, or just eyeball it.  If you have jumbo eggs, a yolk will do just fine.  And if you cannot be bothered, just throw the whole egg in.  What I’m trying to say is that such a small amount of egg makes little difference here.)
small pinch sea salt (use 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon orange juice, or orange blossom water
140 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) flour (I used half white-whole wheat and half all-purpose)
35 g (2.5 tablespoons) butter, softened
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon cream or milk, for egg wash
3 tablespoons jelly or preserves (I used a mix of meyer lemon and apricot)
Honeyed kumquats (see below)
Large pearl sugar (I used Belgian and Swedish)
Directions:
Measure out the warm milk in a glass measuring cup or bowl.  Stir the yeast and sugar in gently.  Let foam up for 5 or so minutes, then pour into the bowl of a stand mixer or just a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the egg, sea salt, and orange juice and mix until all combined.  Begin to add in flour (if you aren’t using a stand mixer, use a wooden spoon and gather all of your kneading strength and courage), until all is combined.  Knead for 1 minute, then begin to add in the butter, piece by piece, waiting until the previous piece is incorporated before adding the next.  Now, knead for at least 8 minutes.  It is a wet dough, so be aware.  Once the 8 minutes are up, the dough should be barely sticky and supple, and smell like sweet butter and yeast.  Either place in a lightly oiled bowl with plastic wrap pressed right onto the surface, and allow to age and mature overnight in the fridge (this will make for better flavor), or continue right on.  Divide the dough into 8 equal weight chunks- mine were 51 grams each and were approximately 1/4 cup in size.  Roll the chunks into smooth balls, (put a dried bean in the middle of one) and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment.  Make a circle of balls, then place a jelly jar in the middle of the ring.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Allow the brioche to rise until doubled in size and very puffy, about 1 hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.  Fill the jelly jar with water, so it does not crack in the oven, then brush the dough with the egg wash and bake until the internal temperature is 190 degrees F, or the dough is shiny and deep golden.  Remove from oven and let cool, then carefully remove the jelly jar.
Heat up the jam until liquid, and strain out any large pieces of fruit, if using preserves or jelly.  Brush hot glaze all over brioche, then sprinkle on pearl sugar and place the candied kumquats on each little bun.  Enjoy!

Honeyed Kumquats
ingredients:
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 pint fresh kumquats, washed and cut into thin rounds
directions:
place the honey, sugar, and water in a heavy, medium sized pot and bring to a boil.  Once the syrup reached 234 degrees F, place all the kumquat slices in and allow them to cook for 8-10 minutes, until translucent.  (If you double the recipe, do this in two stages so as not to overcrowd the pan.)  Remove from syrup with a slotted spoon, and place on a sheet of parchment until needed.