Pascha Bread and Doughnuts

One thing I love about the Bread in Five book is that I get to try a bunch of new recipes at once.  I made the brioche dough finally, and made several recipes from it.

The first recipe I made was a plain brioche, braided. I thought I should keep the first loaf simple, although I couldn't resist an attempt at braiding. It was much easier than I expected. I forgot to take a picture of the final loaf, but isn't it pretty anyway? This isn't the same as the recipe for Tsoureki (Greek Easter Bread), but its very rich and pretty, so I thought it would make a nice Pascha bread anyway.

And this recipe dough recipe is perfect for another feasting favorite: doughnuts - which I've successfully made before with the regular dough, but its much yummier with the brioche. I have to admit I was a little hesitant about deep frying, but it was so worth it. It's basically the same as the beignets recipe, but who can resist the donut shape? I rolled my dough and then cut my circles with a biscuit cutter. I needed a very small circle for the hole, so I used the top of a glass bottle to cut out the centers, which I thought worked quite well.

These are long gone, of course, and I think it maybe time to try another batch...