I can’t remember spending such a tranquil morning as I did yesterday and I have not felt so calm and well-balanced in a long time.
On Sundays I usually get up early in the morning and go for a run or go out for walk. This is my favorite time of the week. I live downtown which I do like but sometimes this is very hectic and I long for calmness. But Sunday mornings are different because the downtown area is asleep. There are just a few cars on the road, all stores are closed and there is a silence in the air which is beautiful and the entire week I am looking forward to Sunday mornings. 
After I crawled out of bed yesterday morning I went straight to the kitchen and prepared a brioche dough. After I realized that the dough has to rest for more than two hours I decided to go out for a walk and on my way home to make a little detour to the bakery in order to buy a croissant for my breakfast and save the brioche for my Sunday lunch.
When I came back home, I enjoyed my French breakfast, finished reading the book “Little man, what now?” by Hans Fallada and then it was time to prepare my brioche nanterre.

Morning walk in my neighborhood. 
     
Reading Time. 
It was the first time that I made a brioche nanterre (I usually make brioches in small moulds, my recipe is here and here) and what can I say more than that I was more than thrilled with this brioche loaf. I am an uber-critical person but the result of this brioche loaf was perfection - a word that I do not use very often. The outside was a light crust and the inside was flaky and not too dense but moist at the same time. It was pure bliss eating a slice of this brioche nanterre and I will make another loaf this week.
Makes one Brioche loaf (23 cm x 10 cm / 9 x 4 inches)

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
  • 2 ½ teaspoons of dried yeast
  • 4 tablespoons fine granulated sugar
  • 250 g all purpose flour (the recipe calls for strong bread flour but I used all-purpose flour), plus for kneading the dough
  • ½ teaspoon fleur de sel
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 225 g unsalted butter, room-temperature
  • 1 egg 

DIRECTIONS

  • Pour water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the dried yeast into the water and let it rest in a warm and draft-free place for five minutes.
  • Combine flour, sugar and fleur de sel in a big bowl. Add the yeast and mix well.
  • Add one egg at a time and mix until the dough is smooth and comes away from the side of the bowl. I did not use a kitchen machine but I used a wooden spoon. The recipe recommends beating the dough for 10 minutes on high speed with a kitchen machine. I usually stay away from a kitchen machine when I make yeast dough because I find it taste much better and it is worth the time and work. But do feel free to use a kitchen machine.
  • Add the softened butter to the dough gradually and beat for another 5 minutes or mix with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth and glossy.
  • Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough for 2 hours at room-temperature. The dough should be doubled in size.
  • Prepare a well-floured surface. Take the dough out of the bowl and divide the dough into four pieces. Be prepared that the dough is very sticky and you need a lot of flour for your hands and the work surface. Knead each piece into a ball.
  • Grease a loaf form. Place the four balls into the pan. Cover the form with a kitchen towel and let it rest for another 30 minutes at room-temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
  • Cut a cross with a scissors into each yeast ball and brush the surface of the brioche nanterre with a light beaten egg.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the surface has a golden color. Be careful that the brioche is not too long in the oven; otherwise the bread will become dry which is, of course, a nightmare.
  • Enjoy the brioche while it is still warm with some butter, confiture de framboises and bowl of café au lait. 
The recipe is adapted from the book "Sweet Paris" by Michael Paul. 
I wrote about this wonderful book here.