Right now, daphne is making me smile. Small sprigs, in unexpected places. Resurrecting broken china cups.

It is nice to be reminded of what artificial air freshners* are aspiring to. Unsuspecting window sills in those functional rooms of the house, now sport their own little tea cups of lemony daphne.

* not my favourite thing and certainly not in our home.

I've been playing around with some brioche recipes. Taking the ones that work and mixing them with the stickiest fillings I could find. It fits nicely into my days at home - kneed dough, head out to playgroup while it rises, roll out and cut swirls, bake, eat lunch and then weld our teeth firmly together with gooey sticky brioche.

The recipe goes like this:

1 1/2 t active yeast
1 T sugar
1/2 c warm milk
2 egg yolks + 1 egg
2 c flour + pinch of salt
75 g soft butter

1. Mix yeast, milk and sugar. Leave to start (about 5-10 minutes).
2. Whisk egg yolks and egg and stir into yeast mixture.
3. Stir in flour. Add softened butter.
4. Knead until smooth and elastic.
5. Place in buttered bowl and leave to rise until double in size (1-2 hours).
6. Preheat oven to 180 C.
7. Roll dough into 20 x 40 cm rectangle. Spread with half of the the butter mixture and roll up into a log shape. Cut into 12 portions.
8. Butter a 12 segment muffin tray. Place a teaspoon of the butter mix into each segment. Sprinkle with raisins and top with a segment of rolled dough.
9. Place a baking tray under the muffin tray to catch overflowing toffee.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
    

Butter Filling -

125g butter - softened
2T brown sugar
4T maple syrup
3T golden syrup

Beat all until smooth

Tips for a cold day -
As the weather is hardly tropical, I am finding my bread needs all the help it can get. If things are a little chilly where you live, you might want to try some of the following:

• Where ever possible preheat bowls by filling with hot water and drying before using
• Preheat flour by placing in warm bowl and leave on top of a slow fireplace while yeast activates.
  

We are still here and still having adventures, just keeping a low profile.

Sometimes that last thing you want to do at the end of a day is turn on yet another computer. Other times, it's the first thing. Hopefully some more of the "other times" coming up.