Bread Baking Babes: Pompe à l'huile: Provençal Olive Oil Brioche

 

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.

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth (Kitchen of the Month)

• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen

• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly

• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna

• Bread Experience  - Cathy

• Thyme for Cooking - Katie

• My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna

 

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.