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Saffron, Honey, and Sesame Brioche Bread by Gio Diaz - Noumenia News Archives



During the last few years, the Sanctuary of Hekate Propylaia has provided for the members a series of workshop recipes for ritual offerings and feasts, either adapted from historical recipes or just plain modern ones that we feel are appropriate for the worship of our beloved Goddess.


Now we're happy to share them with the community. We hope you try them and enjoy them!


This bread is deliciously enriched with eggs, loads of butter, saffron, and honey; almost all historical offering ingredients for our Lady in a modern recipe.


This one takes time (about 2 days!) but it's incredibly special and an excellent addition to a table in a feast of Hekatesia.


You will need:

  • 120 mL warm milk (½ cup)

  • 1 g strands of saffron (to infuse in the milk)

  • 9 g active dry yeast (3 teaspoons)

  • 10 mL honey (1.5 teaspoons)

  • 5 large eggs 

  • 1 yolk from a large egg

  • 60 g granulated white sugar (5 Tablespoons)

  • 500 g All Purpose flour (4 cups)

  • 10 g fine sea salt (1.5 teaspoons)

  • 250 g unsalted butter very soft, roughly divided into four portions (1 cup + 2 Tablespoons)


How to:


We will need to infuse the saffron into the milk as the first step. In a small sauce pot, heat the saffron by itself gently until aromatic. Add the milk and heat it until blood temperature, very warm but not quite hot.


Combine the infused milk, honey, and yeast in a Stand mixer bowl (you can do this by hand but it will take a lot of elbow grease!) 


Set aside for 10 minutes and let the yeast activate.


Add the eggs and yolk to the preparation, whisking gently to combine. 


With a hook attachment on the stand mixer, start mixing in medium-low speed gently and add the sugar, flour, and sea salt. Mix until you get a shaggy dough. Knead this dough for 5 minutes until it’s a bit smoother.


Add your first portion of butter in increments, making sure each bit is combined into the dough before adding the next.


Repeat this process with the remaining 3 portions of butter, kneading for 5 minutes in between each portion, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to form a cohesive dough. 


Once all the butter is incorporated, make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl and knead for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. The bread dough will be ready once it can be picked fairly cleanly from the bowl with the dough hook. It should be soft but not sticky.


Once this is achieved, place the dough on a floured surface and gently form it into a ball. Gently place it back into the bowl and cover with beeswax paper (preferably) or plastic wrap and a clean tea towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about one hour until doubled in size. 


Carefully place the dough in a floured surface again and deflate it by gently pressing down on it and form it into a tight ball again before placing it back in the bowl. Cover it and chill overnight and up to 24 hours.


Now, here we have a choice. 


You can form your bread at this stage, proof it, and bake it or you can let it develop during the night up to 24 hrs. If you need it the same day, the one hour proofing will give you a nice bread, perfectly delicious. For better results, the overnight or 24 hr method is the way to go. 


Remove the dough from the fridge, it will be much less temperamental to work with now after a night’s rest. 


Place it onto a floured surface and deflate it as you did before. Butter and flour your preferred tin or mold for this bread.


At this point, weigh the dough and divide it into two equal portions. Now you have two loaves of brioche dough.


Now would be the time to form your dough.


My favorite way of doing this is to represent the Triad of the Goddess, shaping the dough into a braid. To do this, divide your portion of dough into 3 equal size smaller portions and form them into rectangles with the help of a rolling pin. With the palm of your hands, roll the rectangles into long rolls, like a rope of bread dough. Then braid them in a simple 3 way braid, pinching the ends to make sure they stay put and held together. Tuck both ends of the loaf to get a nice rounded bread.


Place into the desired mold or baking pan or tin and let it proof for another two hours until they get nice and plump. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 Fahrenheit). 

Once they are proofed, apply a small egg wash made with one egg and a tablespoon of water carefully and gently with a pastry brush.


Sprinkle with loads of sesame seeds and bake until golden brown at the top for about 35 to 45 minutes, but keep an eye on them because their high amount of sugar and butter can make them brown very quickly!


We hope this is a nice addition to your Deipnons and Hekatean feasts!


Enjoy! First published in NN Issue 65

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Gio Diaz's satisfaction with a traditional recipe will be in the taste that each piece of the meal gives rich, aromatic flavor while the brioche bread is made with s affron, honey, and sesame. This brings an idea of careful planning and precision of ideas logistics research topics whereby innovation makes an event a success, just like in this creative culinary masterpiece.

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