Sausage in Brioche

How can Christmas be over when there are still so many Christmas recipes to try?! My motto is forge ahead; keep baking Christmas goodies until the urge passes. So that's what I'm going to do.

Today's entree came from a book written by one of my very favorite cookbook authors, Susan Branch. If you haven't seen her books, you MUST check them out. They are charming, illustrated with her very own lovely, lovely watercolor paintings.

In Christmas from the Heart of the Home, Susan explains how to make this without a bread machine. I do all my yeast bread baking with a little help from kitchen appliances, so I'll just give you my cheating little bread machine directions.

BRIOCHE DOUGH

Plop into bread machine:

1/4 c. milk

2 eggs

1/2 c. butter, cut into pieces

2 c. flour

1 T. sugar

1 package dry yeast

Set machine on "dough" option.

When dough is ready, take half of it and smush it out into a 4" x 12" rectangle on a floured surface.

SAUSAGE PART:

Now take

1 lb. ring of fully cooked Polish Kielbasa sausage

and cut it in half. You'll have two long hot dog-shaped pieces of meat. Put one of the halves in the middle of the dough you just smushed out.

Wrap dough around the sausage and pinch edges to seal. Place it seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with other half of dough and other half of sausage. Let it puff up for about 40 minutes or so (it won't be super puffy). Brush entire surface of both loaves with

EGG WASH:

1 egg white whisked with 1 t. water

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, until brown.

Slice with a bread knife, and serve with mustard.

We had this with soup for dinner, but you can also serve as an appetizer.

And I really don't think anyone needs to know it came from a Christmas cookbook. Shhhhhhh.

Does anyone else love Susan Branch cookbooks?