It’s official! You can no longer find brewer’s yeast! Well, unless I manage to line up at nine in the morning at the opening of supermarkets to grab, this is the vain hope, a few cubes with the new arrivals of the day. But I wouldn’t bet that this trick would guarantee me a sure success! Instead, you need to be creative and experiment. Oh dear, my last experiment to make bread with an alternative yeast found in the most unknown depths of my pantry, failed miserably! The taste was great, too bad it didn’t rise properly and instantly became excellent breadcrumbs. This second experiment, however, was a great success, so much so that I didn’t even believe it myself, so the surprise of rediscovering this braid so soft and fragrant, cheered up my day quite a bit! And I now want to cheer it up for you. If you don’t have fresh brewer’s yeast supplies, nor obviously Sourdough, well, this recipe is for you! I used what I had at home, combining half baking powder, a pinch of baking soda, and cream of tartar, a naturally obtained yeast from grapes. Despite the disastrous predictions, the result was extremely amazing. I filled this braid with a truly delicious orange cream, a product purchased some time ago during a food fair event. But you can fill it with whatever your imagination suggests or, better yet, with whatever your pantry provides. It will be a perfect leavened sweet for your breakfasts, for a snack accompanied by good tea, or as a dessert at the end of a meal with a shot of liqueur as my husband did!

CURIOSITY: Did you know that cream of tartar is naturally present in grapes and deposits when the wine is left to rest in tanks? It is purified without the addition of chemical additives, becoming a white powder that has always been used to make cakes.

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 3 Hours
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 8
Cooking methods: Electric oven
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients for the dough

550 g All-purpose flour
80 g Brown sugar
1 cup Milk
1 Egg
3.5 tbsp Vegetable oil
2.5 tsp Baking powder
2.5 tsp Cream of tartar
1 pinch Baking soda
1 pinch Salt
to taste Orange cream
to taste Powdered sugar
2 tsp Butter

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine the milk with the sugar, oil, egg, sifted baking powders, baking soda, and a pinch of salt (fig. 1).
Mix with a hand whisk, then add the flour all at once (fig. 2).
First work with a wooden spoon, then transfer to the work surface and knead by hand until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough (fig. 3).
Let it rest for 2 hours covered with a cloth, then take back the dough and, with the help of a little flour, roll it out with your fingertips to form a rectangle (fig. 4).
Make three cuts of the same width for the longer side of the rectangle (fig. 5).
Spread the orange cream on each strip, leaving at least 0.5 inches of edges (fig. 6).
Seal by pinching the edges of each strip (fig. 7).
Braid the three strips and seal the final end as well (fig. 8).
Transfer the dough to a well-oiled 9×5 inch mold, then brush the surface with melted butter and let it rest for another hour (fig. 9).
Bake in a preheated oven at 356°F for about 30 minutes, then brown only the surface for another 5 minutes. Turn off, take out of the oven, and let cool slightly (fig. 10).
Unmold and serve with powdered sugar.
You can serve it sliced with a few teaspoons of cream.
And voilà… your brioche braid with orange cream is ready to be enjoyed!
Enjoy from La Cucina di FeFè!