Festive brioche pinwheels

Tamara West

Here is my indulgent breakfast of brioche pinwheels stuffed with mulled wine-soaked raisins and candied orange zest. If your hectic December schedule doesn’t allow time to make them, pop in to Monterey, we’ll be serving them every day in the lead-up to Christmas.

Mulled wine raisins

5	Oranges
1 bottle	Red wine
200 g	Brown sugar
1 stick	Cinnamon
1	Star anise
5	Cloves
1	Vanilla bean
500 g	Raisins

Candied orange zest

200 ml	Water
100 g	Sugar
5	Oranges, zest from the 5 oranges used above

Brioche pinwheels

6 Tbsp	Water, warm
4 ½ tsp	Active yeast, dry (Main)
4 ½ cups	Flour
9 Tbsp	Caster sugar (Main)
350 g	Butter, soft
10	Eggs

Directions

1. Mix together the water and yeast until dissolved,then in a medium-sized bowl stir it together with the flour and sugar.
2. Gradually add the butter and 9 of the eggs into the flour mixture; knead until the dough is smooth. The dough is ready to rise when it is completely smooth and pulls away from the sides ofthe bowl.
3. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise for 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
4. Transfer the dough from the bowl on to a floured work surface and knock the air out of it a few times. With a rolling pin, roll into a large rectangle. Sprinkle with the soaked raisins and candied zest (keeping some of the zest aside for sprinkling on top later) then roll very tightly into a sausage shape.
5. Cut to around 10cm in width and place on lined baking trays (or ideally into greased Yorkshire pudding trays if you have them).
6. Cover the trays and allow the dough to rise for an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled in size.
7. Heat the oven to 200C. Remove the covering from the trays, gently brush the brioche with the remaining beaten egg and bake for 10 minutes.
8. Reduce the heat to 180C and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until the brioche are golden brown.
9. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then transfer it to a cooling rack before sprinkling with your reserved orange zest.

Tip

Remove the zest from the oranges for later use and cut the oranges in half. Bring the orange halves, wine, brown sugar, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and vanilla bean to the boil, then turn off the heat. Pour over raisins and store for as long as possible before using, to enhance the flavour. It will keep for a month in an airtight container.