Brioche with wild garlic pesto

Today I bring a brioche with wild garlic pesto that I'm sure you'll love. It is a recipe that is easy to make, that is very colorful and that is ideal both to accompany any dish, to present with a table of cheeses and sausages, along with a salad or to savor just as is.

This brioche dough beautifully wraps a pesto made with wild garlic , one of the first herbs to bloom in spring and found in the shady areas of some woods. Its season is not very long and the leaves must be cut before the plant blooms so that they retain all their aroma and flavor , which is subtly reminiscent of garlic.

As alternatives to wild garlic, if we cannot find it, we could use some young garlic shoots or garlic, 1 garlic clove or half a teaspoon of garlic powder. But if you like the intensity of the garlic, you can put a little more, because it will surely be equally delicious and very aromatic.

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

Ingredients

For the brioche dough:

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

For the pesto:

• 50 g wild garlic*
• 20 grated Parmesan cheese
• 15 g of national pine nuts
• 1 pinch of fleur de sel
• 2-3 tablespoons EVOO

*Wild garlic grows in spring. This plant is reminiscent of garlic in smell and taste, but in a very subtle way. In case you can't find it, you can replace it with 1 dried garlic clove or some young garlic or young garlic .

For the filling:

• 50 g smoked pork loin

To brush the brioche:

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

Elaboration

Prepare the brioche dough:

1. Pour the warm milk into the KitchenAid stand mixer bowl, add the yeast and mix well with the whisk.
2. Add the egg, melted butter, salt and sugar. Mix again with the mixer.
3. Remove the beater and put the dough hook. Add the flour and knead with the hook, starting on low speed until well integrated and then speed up a bit to continue kneading.
4. When you see that the dough is homogeneous, keep kneading for another 3-4 minutes until you see that the dough is somewhat sticky.
5. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp cloth and let the dough rise for about an hour.
6. Cut the smoked pork loin into small cubes and reserve.

For the wild garlic pesto:

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

Preparation of the brioche:

1. When the dough has risen well, cut 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. Leave the large and small dough on the well-floured work surface.
3. Degas the balls of dough by flattening them well.
4. Spread the wild garlic pesto over both masses, so that it is evenly distributed and arrange the cubes of smoked pork loin on top.
5. Close the large dough, forming a ball being careful to keep the filling inside, and place it in the buttered De Buyer corrugated brioche tin .
6. Shape the small dough into a ball, place it on top of the large ball, pressing slightly, and let rise for 1 hour.

Brioche baking:

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Mix the milk, cream and a pinch of salt and brush the surface of the brioche.
3. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until when you poke it you see that it is done.

Grades

• This brioche admits many possibilities, since just by substituting the pesto in the recipe for any other, you will be able to give it a different aroma.
• If you want to vary the result, you can be inspired by some of the pestos that we have on the blog. You can see them here .
• In the same way, you can also replace the smoked pork loin with whatever you prefer: a few cubes of ham or bacon, chopped dried tomato, a little smoked cod... It's up to you!