Welcome to my kitchen where simplicity and tradition often blend to offer flavors and aromas that vividly evoke a memory or past experience. For me, it is often like this. My memories are more often, if not almost always, linked to the scents and colors that, like a hurricane, push me backward into the past, to my childhood memories. Today I present to you the Rustic Brioche with Potatoes, enriched with tasty cheeses and cold cuts. The recipe is old; my sister-in-law Stella gave it to me. She often made it when my husband Franco and I, as fiancés, were having dinner at her house to spend the evening together laughing and playing. I remember the inviting smell of freshly baked brioche, spreading throughout the house enveloping us in a warm and tasty embrace, conquering both the palate and the heart.
Before we dive into preparation, let me tell you a bit about what’s behind this recipe. The potatoes give softness to the dough, while the various cheeses, pecorino cheese and provolone, provide a slightly aromatic and slightly spicy flavor. Finally, the cold cuts, with their richness of flavors, complete the picture, offering an explosion of taste in every bite.
I am thrilled to share this Neapolitan delight and guide you step by step in its creation. Get ready to impress your guests and delight yourself with every bite of this unique rustic brioche with potatoes.
Without further ado, let’s get to work and transform simple ingredients into a culinary masterpiece. Ready to start?
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 50 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
Below are the ingredients for the brioche dough
- 25 oz flour (or manitoba flour)
- 11 oz potatoes, peeled, cooked, boiled
- 3.5 oz milk
- 3.5 oz butter (alternatively extra virgin olive oil)
- 0.9 oz compressed yeast
- 0.5 oz fine salt
- to taste pepper
- 4 eggs (whole)
- 2 oz grated Parmesan cheese (or Grana Padano)
- 2 oz grated Pecorino Romano
- 7 oz provolone cheese
- 5.3 oz mortadella with pistachios
- 5.3 oz cooked ham
Tools
To prepare the rustic brioche with potatoes, you can choose to use a stand mixer or knead by hand in a bowl. For example, this time I kneaded by hand, and I’ll tell you that the dough came out really smooth and elastic.
But the tools you cannot do without are:
- 1 Potato masher
- 1 Bundt pan 10 in
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Brush
- 1 Plastic wrap
How to prepare the rustic brioche with potatoes
Start your brioche preparation with the pre-dough: in a bowl, mix 100 g (3.5 oz) of flour taken from the total, the yeast, and 100 g (3.5 oz) of milk. Mix all the ingredients and form a fairly sticky ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 40 – 50 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.
Now proceed with cooking the potatoes: immerse them whole and with the peel in water (add salt, it will prevent the potatoes from breaking), and let them cook for about 20-30 minutes (depending on their size). Check the degree of cooking by pricking them with a toothpick.
Once cooked, let them cool, peel them, and mash them with a potato masher, then set aside.
When the pre-dough is ready, add the remaining flour, melted butter using a bain-marie (or in the microwave using the defrost mode), or alternatively the extra virgin olive oil, the eggs, grated Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses, salt, and pepper.
Finish the preparation of your brioche: knead all the ingredients well until you obtain a smooth and elastic dough that detaches from the sides of the stand mixer or the work surface. At this point, add the previously diced cold cuts and cheese and continue kneading until they are well distributed. Shape it into a sausage form and place it in a pan that you have previously buttered and floured using the silicone brush.
Let the brioche rise in a warm place (82°F) or in the turned-off oven with the light on until the dough has doubled in volume (this will take about 3 hours).
Bake the brioche in the lower part of the oven in static mode at 356°F for 45 minutes, taking care to cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil if it browns too much. Always do the toothpick test to check the cooking of your brioche.
Once baked, let it cool before removing the brioche from the mold. Place the serving plate on top of the mold and flip it over.
You can serve your brioche on a decorative serving plate or on a rustic cutting board for a more appealing look that invites you to indulge!
If you prefer, you can replace the cold cuts with excellent Neapolitan salami, providing an even more distinct flavor.
You can store your rustic brioche with potatoes for 3-4 days covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator, or you can freeze it in slices so you can only defrost the amount you desire.
