It was often the children’s snack at school. It was my favorite snack.
Since I started the elementary school, every morning my grandfather used to come to my place, ring the bell and walk with me at school.
My grandfather Cirino, was a handsome and elegant man, always dressed in a jacket and tie, his eyes were sea-colored, his hair very short with glitter, he always used the same perfume and in his pocket he always had a lot of candies: mint, anise and toffee.
With my grandfather, I felt stronger, more joyful and even more beautiful.
On the way to school, we used to stop in the Don Vincenzo’s shop, a place that smelled of a very mixed flavours like: biscuits, salami, candies, mortadella, cheese…
Don Vincenzo seemed to have been there forever, an old gentleman who every morning entertained us.
In this shop my grandfather used to buy for me the brioche with sugar that Don Vincenzo was wrapping in this light brown paper, the typical Italian bread paper.
With the brioche in the backpack and my grandfather, who was holding my hand, I was going to school very happy.
All the time the sugar inside my backpack was spreading in my notepad and books, but I never minded!
During the break, while I was eating my soft fragrant brioche, a sugar rain was always falling on my clothes and on the desk. The sugar then was stacking on my nose, around my mouth and on my fingers that obviously I was licking one by one after finished my snack!
The only thing I was leaving of the brioche was the "tuppo", which is the piece of dough placed in the middle of the brioche like a hat. I did not like it and I still don’t like it! It is made of the same dough of the brioche but seems dry and so different from the rest of the snack, which is soft like a cloud.
This love for the brioche with sugar on top has never stopped, even when I was working at the University I always went to the office with my brioche in the bread paper, I was putting it on my desk and enjoying it slowly (my memory in an old photo ... note the image on my desktop
).Even today when I go to Sicily, I buy brioche with sugar and while I’m eating it, with my thoughts I go back to when I was a child who was going to school accompanied by a super hero, handsome and invincible.
Recipe (for 9 brioches)
Ingredients
500 g flour 00
250 ml water
70 g sugar
70 g di butter
About 10 g salt
12 g brewer's yeast
3 teaspoons of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of honey
INSTRUCTIONS:
Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water (about 25°C) and add it to the flour and sugar inside the mixer.
Operate the mixer, adding the rest of the water, vanilla extract and honey.
When the flour has absorbed all the water, add salt and butter slowly and in small amounts, the butter has to be well absorbed before adding more.
Leave the mixer to work for 10-15 minutes. The dough must detach from the walls of mixer and be soft. If it is too sticky add a few tablespoons of flour.
Transfer the dough to a wooden board, work it with your hands and place it in an oiled container covered with a transparent film.
Let the dough rise for around 2 hours. The dough must double its size. The rising time varies according to the external temperature. To facilitate the leavening process, it is possible to store the container with the dough inside the oven with the door closed and the light on.
After the time necessary, to deflate the dough work it with your hands and make balls of about 80 g each. Above each ball put another smaller ball of around 10 g, the so-called "tuppo".
Continue the preparation leaving the brioche to rise in the oven with the light on for about 1-2 hours.
Brush the surface of each brioche with milk and turn on the oven at 180°C in static mode.
Cook the brioche for about 30 minutes.
Allow to cool and brush each brioche with water or milk and cover with abundant caster sugar.
Store the brioche with the sugar in a food bag to keep them soft.