What’s cooking today: Cinnamon brioche loaf

This is a basic artisan bread adapted to create a brioche-style tasty bread for the breakfast table, or a warm afternoon snack.

I was given this recipe by journalist Louzel Lombard Steyn who then ran bread-making classes with her mother, Elani Lombard, owner of True Living Old Karoo Deli in Cradock.

Both of them are Karoo cooking royalty and, as I love making bread, I hung on their every word during that cooking class in the Covid period.

Come back here this Good Friday for our air fryer version of a hot cross buns recipe, but keep this in mind too as an Easter Weekend treat.

Ingredients

500g white bread flour

425g warm water

10g yeast

10g salt

Sugar and cinnamon to taste

Method

To create the artisan bread, dissolve the yeast in the water and leave to process for 10 minutes. Mix the flour and salt together, then add the water and yeast. Place the dough on a floured board and fold until elastic, but do not overmix. Cover and place in a warm place for 45 minutes to prove. Fold again and ...

That’s where the recipe diverges from artisan bread. You do indeed fold again but place in a warm place to prove for a second time, about 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Place the dough on a floured board and fold and, with the palm of your hand, flatten it out (a rolling pin works too but I like working with the dough!). Sprinkle the dough liberally with cinnamon and sugar. Cut the flattened dough downwards into six sections and roll each one. Place the six dough rolls into a standard-size bread tin and place in the oven at 220C for 10 minutes to brown and then turn down the oven to 200C for a further 30 minutes.

The result is an attractive loaf that looks professional and belies its humble beginnings as a basic bread dough.

Instead of the cinnamon and sugar, you can fill the rolls with jam or anything else you fancy. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.