Welcome to my kitchen where simplicity and tradition often blend to offer flavors and aromas and to vividly evoke a memory or a past experience. For me it’s often like that. My memories are many times, if not almost always, linked to the scents and colors that, like a hurricane, push me back into the past, to my childhood memories. Today I propose the Rustic Brioche with Potatoes, enriched with tasty cheeses and cold cuts. The recipe is an old one; my sister-in-law Stella gave it to me. She used to prepare it often when my husband Franco and I, while dating, were invited to her home for dinner to spend the evening together laughing and playing. I remember the inviting smell of the brioche just out of the oven, which spread throughout the house and wrapped us in an embrace of warmth and taste, conquering both palate and heart.
Before we dive into the preparation, let me tell you a little about what’s behind this recipe. The potatoes give softness to the dough, while the various cheeses — Parmigiano, Pecorino, and provola/provolone — provide a slightly aromatic and mildly piquant flavor. The cold cuts, finally, with their richness of flavors, complete the picture, delivering an explosion of taste with every bite.
I am excited to share this Neapolitan delight and to guide you step by step in its creation. Get ready to amaze your guests and delight yourselves with every bite of this unique rustic brioche with potatoes.
Without further ado, let’s get to work and transform simple ingredients into a gastronomic masterpiece. Ready to begin?
If, like me, you love pizza or savory pastries, I also recommend you take a look at
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 50 Minutes
- Cooking time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients and quantities for the brioche dough for a 10 in pan
- 5 3/4 cups flour (or Manitoba flour)
- 11 oz potatoes, peeled, cooked, boiled
- 3.4 fl oz milk
- 7 tbsp butter (or substitute with extra virgin olive oil)
- 0.9 oz compressed fresh yeast
- 1 tbsp fine salt
- to taste pepper
- 4 eggs (whole)
- 2.1 oz grated Parmigiano (or Grana Padano)
- 2.1 oz grated Pecorino Romano
- 7 oz provola (or provolone)
- 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 will tell you that the dough turned out really smooth and elastic.
However, 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
First of all, cook the potatoes: immerse them whole and with the skin on in water (add some salt — it will help prevent the potatoes from breaking) and let them cook for about 20–30 minutes (depending on size). Check doneness by piercing with a skewer. Once cooked, let them cool slightly, peel them and mash them with a potato masher, then set aside.
Begin the preparation of your brioche with the starter: in a bowl mix 100 g of flour taken from the total, the yeast and 100 g of milk. Mix all the ingredients together and form a fairly sticky ball, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 40–50 minutes or until small bubbles appear on the surface.
When the starter is ready, add the remaining flour, the mashed potatoes, the butter melted in a bain-marie (or in the microwave using the defrost setting), or alternatively the extra virgin olive oil, the eggs, the grated Parmigiano and Pecorino, the salt and pepper.
Finish preparing your brioche: knead all the ingredients well until you obtain a smooth and elastic dough that pulls away from the sides of the mixer or from the work surface. At this point add the chopped cold cuts and cheese and continue kneading until they are well distributed. Shape the dough into a log 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 (79–82°F) or in a switched-off oven with the light on until the dough has doubled in volume (this will take about 3 hours).
Bake the brioche on the lower rack of the oven in static mode at 356°F for about 45 minutes (bearing in mind that every oven is different), taking care to cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil if it browns too much. Always do the skewer test to check the baking of your brioche.
Once removed from the oven, let it cool before taking the brioche out of the pan. Place the serving plate on top of the pan and invert it, tapping a little on the inverted pan.
You can serve your brioche on a decorative serving plate or on a rustic cutting board for a more appealing look that invites tasting!
If you prefer, you can replace the cold cuts with an excellent Neapolitan salami to give an even more pronounced flavor.
You can store your rustic brioche with potatoes for 3–4 days wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator, or you can freeze it in slices so you can defrost only the quantity you need.
