Do You Like Pina Coladas?

So I made this brioche recipe, my invention, using part coconut flour, that I am a little bit proud of. The first time I made it, the round loaves were thick and chewy, not the airy texture expected from a brioche. I made some changes, reducing the proportion of the coconut flour, whose smell brings me back to Thailand when I would start my day with a few crunchy coconut cookies purchased a the Walmart-size C Store down the road. The result: a light brioche with a subtle nutty sweetness.

For my artisan bread final, we had to fill and braid a six-strand brioche. Six! Strands! I rolled out the dough and filled them with a coconut-pineapple pastry cream, which came out like a pina colada, and staired at the mass of dough. I may as well have been weaving a rug. Fortuneately, Alexandra knew exaclty how to fold the braids over and under to get an even loaf..

I feel a little invincible in the realm of bread-making. I still got a B on my final and probably bombed the test, but I get it. But the final's resulting bread defied my initial bitterness over having to devote an extra five minutes in the morning to taking care of the sourdough starter while not even getting good bread from all my trouble. Well, now I have good bread, really good bread. I even kept a teeny-tiny dollop of sourdough starter in my fridge, tucked away if I ever get the inspiration to make bread before I forget about it and the bacteria and yeast run out of food and die.

Tropical Brioche:
Pate Fermentee:
4.2 oz. bread flour
2.7 oz. coconut milk
.1 oz. salt
.01 oz. yeast

Final Dough:
23.4 oz. Bread flour
4.2 oz. coconut flour
.28 oz. vital wheat gluten
5 oz. coconut milk
13.7 oz. eggs
.07 oz. agave nectar
.3 oz. yeast
14 oz. butter (cold)
7 oz. pate fermentee

Yields 77 oz., enough for three large loaves

Prepare the pate fermentee the night before by mixing all the ingredients together and letting it sit, covered in plastic wrap, for 12 to 18 hours.

Mix together all the ingredients minus the butter in a bowl of an electric mixer. Pound the butter with a rolling pin to make it maleable. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time to the dough while still mixing it. Continue until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough can be stretched pretty well without breaking. Place the dough in a bowl to ferment. If the butter is melting, place brioche in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or so to come to temperature. Brioche can actually be retarded overnight in the fridge at this point. Let ferment an hour or so. Form into loaves. Brush with mixture of eggs and salt. Proof another hour. Brush with egg wash again and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown and finished through.