October's Kitchen of the Month was Elizabeth, of Blog from OUR Kitchen. Elizabeth asked us to make:
Pompe à l'huile: Provençal Olive Oil Brioche,
a festive bread from the Provence region of France. It's typically served at the meal before midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The bread itself is large and round, and delicately sweetened with orange zest and orange flower water. Some versions add some crushed aniseed, which is what I chose to do. The resulting bread was very floral, with undertones of citrus and aniseed.
I didn't have any issues with the dough; it came together very nicely. There were different ways to score the top, so I made six slashes around the loaf.
This is now one of my favorite sweet breads and would definitely be a tasty treat around the holidays, especially toasted and buttered.
Typically, each of the Babes personalizes their versions of the recipe, so be sure and visit their websites to see what they did.
Go to Elizabeth's website to read her story and see the recipe she used.
Here's a copy of the recipe I used from Jamie Schler (Life's a Feast).
Pompe à l’huile
⅖ cup (80
grams) sugar
2 ½ teaspoons
(8 grams) active dry yeast
½ cup (120 ml)
warm water
2 cups (270
grams) all-purpose flour, more for kneading
⅛ teaspoon
salt
Finely grated
zest of 1 medium- to large-orange
⅜ cup (100 ml)
good quality olive oil
2 tablespoons
orange flower water
Measure out the
sugar; remove 1 teaspoon of the sugar and place it with the yeast in
a small bowl. Add the warm water and let the yeast activate for 15
minutes until a thick head of foam forms.
Place the flour
in a large mixing bowl with the salt, the orange zest, and the rest
of the sugar. Using your hands, blend the dry ingredients together,
breaking up the clumps of orange zest until the zest is evenly
distributed in the flour. Make a well in the center.
Once the yeast
has been activated, pour the mixture into the well in the flour. Add
the olive oil and the orange flower water. Using a wooden spoon, stir
until the ingredients are well blended and a dough pulls together. If
the dough is too loose and wet, stir in another 1 - 2 tablespoons of
flour.
Scrape the dough
out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until
the dough is smooth. Place this dough into a lightly oiled bowl,
turning the dough to barely coat with the oil, cover the bowl with
plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 2 hours; it
will have risen but not doubled in size.
Knead the dough
on a floured work surface for just a couple of minutes until smooth.
Roll the dough out to a 9 to 9 ½ -inch (23- to 24-cm) circle ½
-inch (1-cm) thick. Carefully lift the circle of dough and place on a
parchment-lined baking sheet; reshape if necessary. Make 8 or 10
evenly spaced slashes in the dough from about an inch from the center
and stopping about an inch from the outer edge. Cover loosely with a
piece of plastic wrap and the clean kitchen towel and let rest for 1
hour. It will rise just slightly.
Preheat the oven
to 375°F (190°C).
Brush the pompe
à l’huile all over with a light layer of olive oil then place
in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes until risen and a
deep golden all over.
Remove from the
oven and slide off the baking sheet onto a cooling rack and
immediately brush all over with a light layer of olive oil. Allow to
cool until warm.
Dust with
powdered sugar and serve, passing around the galette and letting each
guest rip off their own wedge.
