I don’t need no stinkin’ Kitchen Aid!
It seems that everyone and their momma has a Kitchen Aid mixer these days. That is, everyone except me. A particularly frustrating predicament to be in, particularly when there are are so many recipes for things such as delicious, butter brioches out there. They mean that a person like me can do nothing but sit on the sidelines, gnashing my teeth and sulking at my inability to create these morsels.
Now, I’d been staring at this recipe for pains aux raisins in The Cook’s Book for as long as I’d had the book, whimpering sadly as I read and reread the instructions that asked for a mixer with a dough hook. ARGH! Such delicious scroll-ness out of my grasp, how dare it exist??
There must have been something in the air on Sunday, as I don’t know what it was but I just snapped. NO! I declared - I would not let the lack of a mixer stand in the way of me and this Pâte à Brioche Feuilletée, a dough which my cookbook promised would taste like a brioche, but have the crispness and lightness of a croissant (and has enough calories to take the place of both, no doubt!)
I decided to use the plastic dough blade that came with my food processor in place of a mixer and dough hook, and to my disbelief it actually worked! I had a pliable, buttery dough that felt as soft as a lover’s embrace in my hands, and held just as many promises as a kiss. I’d like to think that I’d finally reached sweet dough nirvana - a place where croissants walk hand in hand and brioches skip merrily along butter-lined paths.
This is not a quick dough, in fact it will take you approximately three hours to make the dough alone (and a few extra hours to make the actual pains aux raisins) but the taste is definitely worth the hard slog. And an added bonus, the proofed scrolls can be frozen for up to a month, so you’ll be able to space out the calorie-rush over a few weeks, as well as hopefully being able to share them with a few friends and family alike 
Pâte à Brioche Feuilletée
(from The Cook’s Book)
Ingredients
25g instant dried yeast
3 large eggs, very cold
750g strong plain white flour(white bread flour)
50g caster sugar
10g salt
40g full-fat milk powder
310mL ice water
300g unsalted butter, chilled
1. Place yeast, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, milk powder and water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook OR into a food processor fitted with the plastic dough blade (NOT the metal one) and mix together till the dough is well combined and smooth.
2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place in the freezer to cool.
3. While the dough is cooling in the freezer, lightly cream the butter till soft (be sure not to aerated it too much). When the butter is soft, remove the dough from the freezer and turn it onto a floured surface and roll it out into a rectangle 3x as long as it is wide.
4. Place HALF the butter on the bottom edge of the dough, then use the palm of your hand to gently and evenly push the butter over the bottom two-thirds of the dough. Don’t worry if the butter melts - it’s meant to melt, this is why you’re using your hand. The heat from your hand will soften and melt the butter so it ’spreads’ with more ease.
5. Fold the dough into thirds - folding down the top unbuttered third towards the middle first, then the buttered third on top of that (like a business letter). Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes, them refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll it out and spread with the remaining butter as before, then fold into thirds and chill in the freezer and refrigerator as before.
You can use this dough to make some divine pains aux raisins it turns the divine dough into a sublime pastry!
Technorati Tags: Pâte à Brioche Feuilletée, pastry, dough, sweet bread, dessert, croissants, brioche, pains aux raisins, scrolls, buns, recipe
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Comments
Anh Ellie, although I am still in love with my new KA, I agree that it is not entirely neccessary…
Your pains aux raisins is fabulous!
peabody These look delightful. But you really should get a Kitchen Aid mixer…I use mine so much I own 2!
Ellie Kat - It’s not a hook, just a plastic blade that looks very similar to the metal ones just about half as long (and plastic!) 
if you don’t have it, check and see whether you can buy it seperately, it should not be more than a few dollars (and much cheaper than buying a KA!)
Anh - Hehehe, thanks hon Don’t get me wrong, I would loooove to have a KA in my kitchen too 
Peabody - They retail for about AU $700 here so it’s a bit out of my grasp at the moment :/ it’s definitely an investment I’m looking at making sometime in the future
Kova I am so glad someone finally said it! I am part of the no-Kitchen Aid club! I love making dough with my hands… and recently wrote about it on my blog due to a fantastic article in Food & Wine about the Power of Touch during cooking. These look delicious - I may have to make them for my breakfast soon!
Deborah I always complain about not having a stand mixer - so much that my husband offered to get me one for HIS birthday!! I actually just had an entry on my blog asking which mixer is best, just so I know what to save up for, and the Kitchen Aid won hands down. But, as luck would have it, I don’t have a food processor either. Maybe I just need to pull out the credit card and go crazy!!
Deborah Dowd These rolls look so delicious, I am almost willing to pull out my KA and evote he 3 hours to make them happen. Almost. Maybe the next rainy day….
Kalyn Ellie, I don’t have a KitchenAid either! (I do have to confess though, that I have practically every other kitchen gadget a girl could want except one of these.) You certainly are managing nicely without one. In my kitchen, a food processor is much more of a necessity.
Tanna Just tell you it can’t be done and stand back! These are real beauties and so is your writing!
neil What’s with all the appliance worship? Do you know how they made these in the old days, do you knead me to tell you?
Ellie Kova - Maybe we should start a club with badges and stuff!! Thanks for directing me to the article, it was a really interesting read
Deborah - LOL! That’s sweet of him I think that the food processor would be a great investment, I know I definitely loooove mine!
Deborah Dowd - They’re a great activity for a rainy afternoon
Bea - Thanks hon
Kalyn - I agree, I absolutely adore my food processor and I use it a lot more than I’d use a stand mixer Most of my mixing needs are amply met by my little handheld beastie!
Tanna - Awww shucks, I try my best
Neil - LOL! Do you want the crown for prince of puns now or later?
Amelita (Squishy) I know you don’t need one, but once you have one, you can’t live without one. I am a bad girl as I have just become obsessed with the KA range. I just ordered the blender, food processor and the toaster. Yes I know, I am addicted. Love this post!
Bron Oh phuey! I don’t have won either hun, and my food proccesor is too small and my blender leaks like terribly!
But am I complaining?! Well hell yeah of course I am hehe, these look divine, can I have 3?
ata Hi ellie
Ive tried your recipe, without the mixer or food processor, I asked my husband to whisk the dough and it work!!
However, since I do not know back then that I could make my own frangipani, the taste is a bit different from yours I think
Just wondering, I do have food processors, and it has a metal hook. Why do you suggest not to use metal hook?my food processor got plastic (I dont think its hook, because its way too small for a hook), a metal hook and a whisk (I suppose thats the name) I am quite new with cooking. so forgive me if I dont know most of the cooking appliances.
At the moment, I really want to make another one, but my husband gave up already, he said it s tiring to whisk the dough (he whisked for about 30 mnt) with a big wooden spoon. So Im wondering if I could use my metal hook.
thanks
Ellie Ata - Food processors don’t come with hooks…if you’re referring to the blades, the reason to use plastic and not metal is that plastic will push and ‘knead’ the dough while metal will just cut through it instead of kneading it.
I don’t have one (kitchen aid) either. I am impressed by these brioche though, and I wish my food processor had that hook thingy. Way to go!