A Mother's Day Brunch

THIS SAVOURY SCROLLS RECIPE IS THE PERFECT EASY RECIPE TO SHARE WITH MUM!

This savoury brioche recipe from The Forest Cantina's Unna Burch is an ideal weekend treat that is best enjoyed while it's still warm from the oven. Why don't you get Mum over and treat her to this recipe and a delicious glass of Sauvignon Blanc?!

Brioche is such a great bread dough, enriched with milk, eggs and butter - it's definitely a treat having that beautifully soft and buttery finish to it. I have used this dough base and rolled it into scrolls filling it with a combination of basil pesto, sundried tomatoes, cheese and spinach. I love these Mediterranean flavours together. But you can fill this with a range of different flavour options such as feta, grated mozzarella, caramelised onions, rosemary, olives, bacon and chorizo to name a few. You can bake these in Texas muffin tins, or as I have shown here that if you don't have these, you can also bake them into regular tin cans. I used short 300g tins here, and they baked perfectly in them, although it did take a little extra moulding of the cut scrolls to get them to fit in them nicely.

MAKES | 9 scrolls
TIME | 2 1/2 hours for the dough (inc proofing time) + 1 hour to prepare, fill and bake the scrolls

For the brioche dough
¾ cup (160ml/5.4oz) milk
1 ½ teaspoon (7g/2oz) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons castor sugar
6 free-range egg yolks, beaten
2 2/3 cup flour (+ extra for kneading),
1 teaspoon salt
150g butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes For the filling
Cooking spray or butter for greasing
Baking paper for lining tins
100g basil pesto - I used store brought
12 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups grated cheese - I used Colby
120g bag baby spinach, roughly chopped
1x beaten egg for egg washing at the end

For the brioche, start by heating the milk in a small pot until it is lukewarm – I do this by touch. Once the milk is at temperature pour this into a bowl and add the yeast and the sugar, then whisk well to combine. Set aside for 10 minutes in a warm spot until the yeast had thickened on the surface. NOTE: I typically don't find the yeast to get frothy when using milk as opposed to water like in other bread recipes - but you will notice it to be a light brown thick consistency on the surface once the yeast is activated with the sugar.

In a stand mixer, with a dough hook attached (or you can do this step by hand) mix the flour and salt together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and the beaten eggs. Mix for around 3 minutes until you have a sticky dough that begins to look smooth. Now you want to add the room-temperature, cubed butter, bit by bit until it is all incorporated. If it hasn’t been fully mixed in completely, you can do this by hand in the next step.

Turn out dough on a lightly floured bench and knead for 10 mins until the dough is smooth and elastic. You have to add a little extra flour as you go to stop the dough from sticking to your hands and to help bring the dough together. Only add the minimal amount of flour needed – the dough is meant to be light. Put the kneaded dough into a greased bowl, cover with a clean damp tea towel and set in a warm spot to prove until doubled in size, about 1-2hours.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Spray or grease the bottom of your tins and line the sides with baking paper, then set aside for now. Once the dough is proved, press or roll out on a surface so you get one large long rectangle, approx. 50cm long x 20 cm wide. Spread surface with the basil pesto, then the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, followed by the cheese and the spinach. I carefully roll this up as tight as I can go - the trick is to roll away from you, and to do sections at a time, adding back in any filling that may fall out as you go. before cutting into 9 portions. Carefully add the cut scrolls to the tins, brush the tops with egg was and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly in the tins first before removing.