La chinoise, the mythical brioche from the East

Chinois, it’s Chinese people, it’s over-complicated language, that’s it, just this cake.

Te recipe is secret… Even myself, I don’t know what I put in it.

another chinois
Yes, that changes each time.

Yum….

Chinois lost in translation and in photo rendition

This sweet bread, this brioche is a chinois in my old country. Chinois means Chinese, and also complicated -like Chinese languages. That’s why… No, no. Here is the real story :
Once upon a time, it was called Schneckenkuchen, snail-cake. A German name because all those surdough cakes come from Wien Austria, via Germany. Back then everybody could speak German, or they pretended, or they would just shut it up.
But some Parisians came, ate the cake and like it. He asked :
“-C’est quoi ?
-Un Schneckenkuchen, Monsieur.
-Un quoi ?
-Un Schneck… OK, un chinois.”
So the name was changed into chinois.
And inside, the stuffing of custard cream and rum raisin was changed into better versions, one for each baker.

I hoped it would be more photogenic.
You can see it is rolled and stuff ? Yes, my sweet bread is white.
A “light version”.It is sourdough based, with flour, eggs, rice bran, a little sugar and butter. I let it raise overnight in the fridge.

And the stuffing white, like this… white on white, I know.

The stuffing is made of :

Dry fruit mix, that I cut finely (too fine for you to see. And diced almonds, honey, brandy, tea, melted butter. All together, one night. That becomes a sweet paste.

I rolled it as a cylinder, then as a big snail. Kurozato (black sugar), almonds, butter on top.