Brioche with wild garlic pesto

Today I bring a brioche with wild garlic pesto that I'm sure you will love. It's a recipe that's easy to make, that turns out very eye-catching and that is ideal both to accompany any dish, to present with a cheese and charcuterie board, alongside a salad or to enjoy as is by pinching pieces.

This brioche dough wonderfully wraps a pesto made with wild garlic, one of the first herbs that appear when spring blooms and that is found in the shaded areas of some forests. Its season is not very long and the leaves must be cut before the plant flowers so that they retain all their aroma and flavor, which subtly recalls that of garlic.

As alternatives to wild garlic, if you can't find it, we could use some spring garlic or young garlic scapes, 1 clove of garlic or half a teaspoon of garlic powder. But if you like strong garlic flavor, you can add a little more, because it will surely be just as delicious and very aromatic.

If you want to know how to prepare the brioche with garlic pesto, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

For the brioche dough:

• 120 g of warm milk
• 5 g of dry baker's yeast or 10 g of fresh yeast
• 1 large egg
• 40 g of melted butter
• 280 g of flour
• 1 heaped coffee spoon of salt
• 15 g of sugar

For the pesto:

• 50 g of wild garlic*
• 20 of grated Parmesan cheese
• 15 g of local pine nuts
• 1 pinch of fleur de sel
• 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (AOVE)

*Wild garlic grows in spring. This plant's smell and taste subtly resemble garlic. If you can't find it, you can substitute it with 1 clove of dried garlic or with some young garlic or garlic scapes.

For the filling:

• 50 g of smoked pork loin

For brushing the brioche:

• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1 tablespoon of heavy cream
• 1 pinch of salt

Preparation

We prepare the brioche dough:

1. Pour the warm milk into the bowl of the KitchenAid mixer, add the yeast and mix well with the whisk.
2. Add the egg, the melted butter, the salt and the sugar. Mix again with the whisk.
3. Remove the whisk and put on the dough hook. Add the flour and knead with the hook, starting at low speed until well combined and then raise the speed a little to continue kneading.
4. When you see that the dough is homogeneous, continue kneading for another 3–4 minutes until you see that the dough is slightly sticky.
5. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp cloth and let the dough rise for about one hour.
6. Cut the smoked pork loin into small cubes and set aside.

For the wild garlic pesto:

1. Wash, peel and dry the wild garlic stalks and keep only the leaves.
2. Chop the leaves and put them in the bowl of the chopper or food processor. Also add the Parmesan cheese, the pine nuts, the fleur de sel and the olive oil.
3. Blend until you achieve the desired texture and set aside.

Brioche assembly:

1. When the dough has risen well, cut off a small portion and separate it from the rest of the dough, so that you have two balls of dough: one large and one smaller.
2. Place the large and the small dough balls on the well-floured work surface.
3. Deflate the dough balls by flattening them well.
4. Spread the wild garlic pesto over both doughs so it is well distributed and place the cubes of smoked pork loin on top.
5. Close the large dough, forming a ball carefully so the filling stays inside, and place it in the De Buyer fluted brioche mold greased with butter.
6. Form a ball with the small dough, place it on top of the large ball, pressing lightly, and let it rise for 1 hour.

Baking the brioche:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Mix the milk, the cream and the pinch of salt and brush the surface of the brioche.
3. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted shows it is cooked through.

Notes

• This brioche allows many variations, since by simply replacing the pesto in the recipe with another, you will give it a different aroma.
• If you want to vary the result, you can get inspiration from some of the pestos we have on the blog. You can see them here.
• Similarly, you can also replace the smoked pork loin with whatever you prefer: small cubes of ham or bacon, chopped sun-dried tomato, a bit of smoked cod... You decide!