I follow many channels on YouTube, quite a few of which are food based. Surprising, yes? [/irony]

There is one channel whose owner has such a relaxing voice, that I could probably listen to her reading the phone book to be honest, but when she’s talking about her cooking, that’s much better than Smith, Jones et al. The channel is Ndudu by Fafa, and I spotted a post from about a year ago where she made plantain brioche. I love plantain, I’ve even bartered hugs for more fried plantain at a festival, I love them that much. (It worked. Being a big, cuddly lady wins.)
The look of that brioche drew me in, especially as I happened to have some plantains just heading into overripe. I chose the blackest one as that would be the sweetest, and got to work.

Fafa’s recipe is here, and I worked from that. These are my results. YouTube video is here so you can see me fighting with it.

I think that either my plantain was extra juicy, or my eggs were too large, as I seemed to have a LOT of liquid, and I ended up needing to add an extra 150g of flour to get the dough to come together. Some days this is just what happens! Weather, what flour you use, can affect recipes. I’d say that 2 eggs were enough, but then brioche is meant to be rich so just see how you fare.

Once the dough had rested for an hour or so in a very well oiled bowl, it was beautiful. Silky and pliable, so easy to shape. I decided to play. 12 rolls are a lot easier to share out that one large loaf, after all!

The recipe ingredients as written by Fafa are here:

330g of Bread flour – (be aware you may need extra)
7g of instant Yeast
1 levelled teaspoon of Salt
3 beaten Eggs
40ml of Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 large mashed over ripened Plantain (you can use a large over ripe banana if you want.)
130ml of Milk
2 levelled tablespoon of light Brown Sugar
Half a teaspoon of Vanilla extract or grated Nutmeg (I added both!)
30g of flour for dusting

Mix your dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, salt, sugar, yeast, nutmeg.

Mash plantain until very smooth, then whisk in the eggs one at a time, add your vanilla, nutmeg and then the milk, when smooth pour into the dry ingredients.

Mix well, add your olive oil and knead until very smooth and elastic. I had to use my stand mixer, as it was such a wet dough, and I added extra flour until it finally came together. It did take a while, but keep at it. The final result is so worth it!

Place the dough into very well oiled bowl, make sure it is all coated in the oil, then cover and leave it to rise for an hour or until it doubles in size. Mine started pushing the towel off!

Shape into 12 rolls and place them in muffin tins like I did, or shape and place into your well oiled 2lb loaf tin, and proof again until it’s doubled.

Loaf: Bake at 180C in an oven with a pan full of water for steam for 30 minutes.
Rolls: Bake for 15 minutes at 190C

This is a very soft and fragrant bread, but the crust does hold up well. If you want the crust to stay a little softer, brush the hot rolls with olive oil or butter.

It would be perfect for breakfast with some good butter and apricot jam. I suspect that it would also be excellent used to sop up any highly spiced sauces, as the sweetness would contrast beautifully.