After a week-long vacation that went by way too fast, I got back into the baking groove this weekend with my third* bread of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge, buttery rich brioche. The book offers three variations, the rich man’s, middle class and poor man’s, the main difference being the butter content. I opted for a middle-of-the-road approach and was pleased to find my resulting bread plenty rich; I imagine the rich man’s version must truly taste like pastry! I was also surprised at how easy it was to make something I’ve only ever had from a bakery. In fact, the husband declared these just as good as the ones we get at our favorite bakery, so I’d consider that another success. Last night we topped them with my sister-in-law’s fabulous strawberry-rhubarb jam, which was a fantastic treat (and homemade touch to our take-out chicken dinner).

Here’s my step-by-step photo montage … mixing in the butter was the hardest part, as the dough was quite sticky and even though my butter had softened on the counter for more than an hour, I kneaded the dough slightly by hand after removing it from the mixer to smooth a few remaining lumps. I used organic butter and my free-range, farmers market eggs, which added to the sunny yellow color of the bread.

I didn’t buy special brioche pans and just used a muffin pan, which was a little small for my larger rolls. I also regretted not taking out my scale to weight the portions as I divided it, because as you can see, I had a few that were significantly larger than the others. Next time…

* for those keeping track, I haven’t gotten to the bagels of week 3 yet but didn’t want to fall further behind. I’ll get back to them one of these days. And I’m sharing this with Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Follow along at the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge homepage as we bake our way through The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

I had been suffering a serious case of foodblogger envy watching others whip up homemade ice cream treats this summer, so finally broke down and bought the KitchenAid ice cream attachment. I’ve gushed before about the wonderful local ice cream/custard/gelato treats we have available, but I’ve been wanting to experiment with healthier variations. Since the toddler seems to have inherited my family’s ice cream addiction — seriously, he woke up one morning recently requesting, “i skeem? i skeem?” — I wanted to try out some low sugar options. Using the sweet, ripe fruits at market right now makes that easier as they don’t require much added sweetener. For my first attempt, I decided to try a sherbet – the full fruit flavor of gelato, but with 2% milk instead of eggs. So it’s low fat too! I used honey under the theory that it requires less to match the sweetness of regular sugar, and was pleased that this turned out pleasantly sweet even with the tart blackberries. I was worried that the berries might overpower the peach flavor, but it turned out wonderfully balanced. It’s not as creamy as ice cream, but still a luscious summer treat.

Recipe: Peach Berry Sherbet

Ingredients:

• 1 c water
• 1/3 c honey
• 1 c berries (used 2/3c raspberries & 1/3 c blackberries)
• 2.5 cups peaches
• 1 c 2% milk

Instructions: Bring water and honey just to boil in small saucepan over high heat, stir to dissolve honey. Add berries, crushing with back of spoon and reduce to low simmer for 10 m. Remove from heat and strain through fine mesh sieve. Chill while preparing peaches.

Peel and dice peaches. Puree in food processor or blender until smooth, add milk and berry syrup and pulse until blended. Chill for at least 1 hour. Process in ice cream maker as instructed, freeze and enjoy! Makes about 1 qt., 4-6 servings.

Blend peaches, milk and berry syrup in food processor. Chill 1 hour. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Food Miles: This was 100% local! South Mountain Creamery milk 63mi., Toigo Orchards honey 114mi., Papa’s Orchard’s donut peaches 87mi., Harris Orchard’s supersweet peaches 24mi., Westmoreland Berry Farm black & raspberries 71mi. All but the milk (delivered) and Harris peaches were from Alexandria farmers markets — this recipe is being shared with the Farmers Market Report at the new “To Every Meal There is a Season”.