These brioches came about because I wanted to make something with the peanut butter and strawberries I had lying around, and the first obvious choice was to do a PB&J. Peanut butter and jelly is such a nostalgic concept, since so many people(at least in the States) have grown up eating these at some point for lunch. What I love about the combination is the creamy, salty-sweet peanut butter against the almost sickly sweet yet somehow tart jam, against fluffy bread with the toasted flavor of the bread crust. I wanted to evoke that sort of feeling again, but in a more dessert-forward and technical manner. Obviously there are three components, which I have listed, being the peanut butter, the jelly/jam, and the bread. So I wanted to make sure that I found ways to highlight all three, but make them a little more bougie. Starting with the bread component, I was obviously making my own from scratch. It would be a major copout to not make my own bread in this sort of dessert, where there are essentially only three to four components in it. I went with the softest, and most dessert-friendly bread, being brioche.

Buttery, soft, almost like cake, brioche is a French bread that has lots of butter and eggs in it, resulting in that pillowy texture. It is a very popular bread to use in bread puddings, French toast, or my sister’s personal favorite, tarte tropezienne, which is essentially a French strawberry shortcake-like situation. We actually made these pistachio-lemon brioches at Milkbar, randomly enough, and they were absolutely delicious. I also used kinako(toasted soy) powder in the bread, to evoke this toasty, nutty flavor. So the bread was a no-brainer for me. With the “jelly”, since I had leftover strawberries, I went ahead and combined them with black currant concentrate, just to give them a more “mixed berry” meets “ambiguous fruit-flavor” appearance and feeling, a little yuzu for tartness, and set a puree of those three fruits with agar to form these cute little jelly cubes. With the peanut butter, I whipped that with white chocolate, blonde chocolate, and cream to form this light, silky mousse called a namelaka. I personally love namelaka, and I just felt like it was the right vehicle to carry the peanut butter in a way where it is light, silky, and not too heavy.

Going into the technical aspects of this recipe, the brioche and the namelaka are probably the harder two components. Making bread can be difficult, especially since yeast and resting/proofing the dough are involved in the process. With yeast, treat it like your own body. It is a living thing and it thrives best in warm climates. So just make sure whatever you are adding to the yeast is at a temperature you feel comfortable with, and you will almost never kill the yeast prematurely to baking(unless your yeast is expired and already dead, in which case, RIP). Unlike a traditional brioche recipe, mine has a few changes. The first being the addition of kinako powder and malted milk to the dough, just to give it a more peanut butter meets whole wheat kind of feeling to it. And then there’s the usage of kewpie mayonnaise. The logic behind using the kewpie mayonnaise is that I wanted to add more fat/oil as well as egg to the bread dough, without using too much butter(which could dry out the dough) or eggs(which would make the dough super sticky). I found that using the kewpie, which contains egg yolks(for flavor) and oil(for the fat) was the perfect medium, and it resulted in a soft, springy dough! Make sure you proof/rest your dough for the right amount of time, or else your bread could turn out either dense, or it might taste of vodka! I also used a soak on the brioche, since it will just guarantee that the bread does not taste stale or dry. If your brioches end up puffing up too much, which happened to me, I went ahead and sliced out the oblong portions fo the bread, just to keep my buns at an even height and appearance.

For the namelaka, the main difficulty here is emulsifying everything together correctly. If you over whip the mousse, it split and look like vomit. The peanut butter luckily does help, since it contains protein, and that acts like an emulsifier, which gives you more wiggle room to whip the ganache and cream together without running the risk of over-whipping it. I used equal parts white and blonde chocolate because the white chocolate sweetens the mousse, while the blonde chocolate gives a more caramel-y flavor as well. Make sure you don’t whip the mixture with the cream while it is still warm or not fully cooled down, or else the namelaka runs the risk of curdling. I would only whip the namelaka with the cream right before piping it into the breads themselves. The gelee, like I had mentioned, is essentially just blending everything together, heating it up in a pot, and then allowing it to firm up the refrigerator before cutting it into cubes. The cool thing about agar-based gelees is that they set firm, and set quickly, so the gelee can be made after the bread is baked and the namelaka is made without much of an issue! I also finished the brioches after assembling them with a dusting of kinako powder which I found gave the brioches a more whimsical appearance.

For the kinako brioche:
1 packet active-dry yeast
1/2 cup room temperature water
2 tbsp malted milk powder
2 tbsp honey
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup kinako powder
2 eggs
3 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise
a pinch of salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter

In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix together the yeast, water, milk powder, and honey first. Then mix into that the flour, kinako powder, eggs, kewpie, and salt, stirring the ingredients together into a dough. Once the mixture has formed a dough, mix in the unsalted butter until everything forms a smooth ball. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature, covered, for 1 hour, before transferring to the refrigerator to rest for another 4-6 hours. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, flattening each one out slightly – I lined up 6 4-inch crumpet molds, but if you do not have those, just bake these pieces on a lined sheet tray, keeping them at least 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes, then at 350 degrees F for another 12 minutes. Allow the brioches to cool down before slicing in half, hamburger bun-style. Store the brioches in an airtight container.

For the peanut namelaka:
2oz white chocolate
2oz blonde chocolate
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp gelatin powder
a pinch of salt
4oz peanut butter
1/2 cup heavy cream, in two parts
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a pot, melt down the chocolate, milk, gelatin powder, salt, peanut butter, and one part of the cream. Once everything is melted together, take the mixture off heat and refrigerate for 2 hours. Transfer the chilled mixture into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until soft, then fold in the remaining heavy cream and vanilla to finish.

For the berry-yuzu gelee:
1/4 cup diced strawberries
2 tbsp black currant concentrate
1 tbsp yuzu juice
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp agar agar

In a blender, puree everything together, except for the sugar and agar. Add up to 1/4 cup of water as necessary to help everything blend. Pass the fruit puree through a sieve, and transfer into a pot. Heat up on medium-high heat with everything else until the mixture comes up to a boil. Pour into a lined shallow container and refrigerate until firm. Cut into small 1/8-inch by 1/8-inch cubes and keep refrigerated.

For the malted milk soak:
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp malted milk powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Whisk everything together. Keep refrigerated.

To assemble:
Kinako powder

Brush the brioches(both halves of each bun) with the soak. On the fully flat(more honey puck-looking) half, pipe on the namelaka. Then add in cubes of the gelee. Place on top of that the second half of the brioche buns, and dust the tops with kinako to finish.