DEAR DAME EVELYN , Ten years ago my then-significant other and I took our first trip together – to Paris. Valentine's Day was snowy and very romantic, and we traipsed all over the place. But first thing in the morning we stopped into a little patisserie between the rue de Rivoli and the river and filled ourselves up with cafés au lait and brioches. This year, since we're still together, I want to make brioches in commemoration, and also because they're just good. Can it be done? Or is French brioche, like French wine, a mystery no New Worlder may solve?

Paris

My precious,

It can be done, of course. It's not even all that difficult if you have some comfort level with the basics of baking. Brioche is just more time-consuming than most other baked goods because it's essentially half bread, half pastry; you have yeast that must rise, and you have absolutely gobs of butter and eggs that make the rising a weightier proposition. The biggest twist is that you must let the dough rise twice – once overnight, in the refrigerator, and again the next day, before you bake it. (Ideally too you need brioche pans, those flared and fluted numbers you see in a wide assortment of sizes at cookware shops. But such pans aren't essential.) You can make either sweet or savory brioches. Dame Evelyn favors – or at any rate tends to make – the former, since a slightly sweet brioche seems to go especially well with breakfast or teatime jams and spreads. But savory brioche has its applications, including beef Wellington, if you're thinking grandly romantic. If you, or anyone else, wants the specific recipe, contact me at the address below and I will provide it. Although there might have been enough space here to reproduce it if I hadn't gone on so, I did and now there isn't.

Sweetly,

E. G.-S.