After our Lincolnshire Sausages, the other week and in particular my tease on mine and Regan’s Brioche Buns, for our take on a Sausage Butty, we’ve spent the morning making Brioche Buns, and the Tomato and Onion Relish to have with the Lincolnshire Sausage Patties we made last week. We vacuum packed and froze the sausage patties to ensure they kept well (remember, no additives or preservatives as such). I know some will be saying salt is a preservative, but you know what I mean.

If you’ve tried our Bread recipe, making Brioche won’t be an alien process, the ingredients and method are slightly different, but lots of similarities too. Regan likes making Brioche, as there are more ingredients, whilst I prefer the simplicity of proper bread with just flour, water, yeast and salt.

Ingredients: 500g of Strong Bread Flour; 125ml Warm Milk; 10g of Dried Yeast; 10g of Salt; 200g of Softened Butter Cubed; 2 Medium Eggs; 50g Caster Sugar. You’ll also need, another Egg for the glaze.

Method: Again, as with all the recipes I do with Regan, we weigh out everything before we start, a great opportunity for her to practice her maths. Once, weighed out we mix the yeast in to the warmed milk, the milk should be lukewarm, and not hot. Whilst we wait for the milk/yeast to bubble a little, we put the flour, salt and sugar in to the mixing bowl and give it a gentle mix through. Remember we use the KitchenAid mixer with dough hook, but this can be done by hand, although the Brioche dough is much more sticky, so I find it too messy when doing it with Regan, despite her enjoying getting in to a mess!

After the milk and yeast start to bubble, add to the bowl with the flour/salt and sugar, keeping the dough mixer on a low setting. We then add the eggs to the mix, closely followed by the butter in small chunks a bit at a time, to ensure the butter is well incorporated. We do find we have to switch off the mixer occasionally throughout this process to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Once the butter looks to have been incorporated in to the mix, we turn the mixer up to medium for 5 mins and then down to low again for another 5 mins.

We then empty the dough in to a greased bowl and cover with a shower cap or clean damp tea towel for an hour, I say an hour, but there are times this dough has taken longer, so be patient and allow it to at least double in size. We’ve found unlike with our proper bread recipe, you do need to use a dough scraper of spatular to get the dough mix in to the greased bowl. Like I said earlier the dough is much more sticky. The dough should have an elastic feel to it, by which I mean it’ll stretch rather than pull apart.

After the hour (maybe longer), the dough just like our usual bread will have risen and we need to shape it in to buns. Dust the work surface and your hands with flour and tip the brioche dough on to the work surface and knead and shape in to a long sausage shape, this is the bit Regan enjoys most it seems. We then cut equally and weigh each piece before shaping in to the buns, place on a baking tray lined with parchment, we get 12 good sized buns from the dough. Cover with a clean tea towel for the 2nd proof. This takes another hour. Put the oven on to it’s highest setting, to ensure it is hot and to temperature.

Whilst, we’re waiting for the 2nd proof we make the Tomato and Onion Relish, which can be served warm or cold on your ‘Sausage Butty’ I prefer it cold, but the wife and Regan like it warm with Stilton Cheese crumbled on top, which melts slightly into the relish.

Ingredients: 4 Large tomatoes, skinned and chopped; 1 small or half a large Red Onion; 1 Garlic clove, crushed; 2 tablespoons of Rapeseed Oil; Pinch of Sugar; Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method: We start the onions off in the oil, just so they start to get a little translucent, we keep the onions in half rings so they’re chunky. We then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, sugar and garlic and simmer for around 15 minutes. I sometimes split a small red chilli just to add something different, again that is down to your taste. Once cooked I put in a jar, seal the lid and tip it upside down to create a vacuum seal. We are not keeping this long, it pretty much goes with one serving across the family, but I’m sure it would keep longer if you wanted.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this tasty take on a sausage butty is very nice, extremely nice even, but there are times when either shop bought branded ketchup or brown sauce is preferred and both work really well, or sometimes we do the sausage patties in the brioche buns with a fried egg, but I still recommend going this homemade relish route.

Once the relish is made and a quick tidy up, the brioche buns are ready to go in the oven. Regan gives them a glaze with egg wash, not always as neat as I would like, but it doesn’t change the taste, and we follow the same method in the oven as for our normal bread. A few ice cubes in the bottom of the oven on a tray, and cook the brioche buns for 10 minutes at a high temperature, this will give a nice crunch to the top of the bun. Turn the oven down to 180C and cook for another 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Place to cool on a wire rack.

If you’re planning to eat these whilst warm (which I recommend), fry off your Lincolnshire Sausage patties whilst the brioche buns are cooling. If you’re eating them later, these buns are great lightly toasted too.

As always, let me know how you get on.