Dwarven pride.

Beard Bread. Bread beard? Walnut brioche with warm coffee caramel.

This delicious beard-shaped brioche filled with walnut paste is even more delicious with hot coffee caramel sauce.
Ingredients

Brioche
42G (fresh) YEAST
2 EGGS
120ML LUKEWARM MILK
300G FLOUR
25G SUGAR
25G BUTTER
a pinch of SALT

Walnut paste
100G WALNUTS
100G BROWN SUGAR
150G BUTTER

Coffee caramel sauce
200ML CREAM
150G BROWN SUGAR
100ML (strong) COFFEE

Method
  1. Combine yeast, 1 egg, milk, flour, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt. Knead for 15 minutes.
  2. Let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.
  3. In the meanwhile, you can make the walnut paste. Mix the walnuts in a food processor or blender. Add the butter and sugar and mix until you have a homogenous mixture.
  4. Roll the dough out into a rectangle of 20cm x 40cm. Spread the walnut paste over the dough and roll the dough into a long tube. Cut the tube into 4 equal pieces and cut the pieces in half lengthwise. Let the pieces rest in the fridge for awhile.
  5. Braid three of the four pieces into a thick braid. Cut the fourth piece into two and add them to top of the braid to have some more volume, so it gets the shape of a beard. Let it rest in the fridge overnight – or let it rest for 40 minutes at room temperature.
  6. Pre-heat the oven at 190°C. Bake the beard brioche for 30 minutes.

For the caramel sauce, heat the brown sugar and the cream in a saucepan over high heat. Once the mixture gets thicker, add the coffee. Keep the heat on until you get a thick caramel. Let it cool down a bit before pouring it over the brioche.

Look at that fabulous beard! If you serve this beard to a real dwarf, add some whiskey or rum to the caramel sauce. They’ll appreciate it!