Brioche
Brioche and croissant are both Viennoiserie (breakfast pastries) but the preparation is quite different. Croissant dough calls for multiple folds of a simple yeast dough and butter (lamination) for its distinctive flakiness, while Brioche owes its softness and tenderness to the butter and eggs that are added directly to the dough. It is an extremely versatile dough, used for yeast coffee cakes, brioche loaves, and as in the recipe below, individual brioche à tête, with its distinctive topknot.
I made a lot of brioche dough in my years in professional pastry kitchens and absolutely loved the process. In the initial stage, after the eggs are added to the flour mixture the dough is fairly rough and adhering to the bottom and sides of the 20-quart Hobart mixer bowl.
Then, after approximately twelve to fifteen minutes of mixing, the dough would come together, wrap around the dough hook and the womp-womp sound of it being kneaded against the side of the bowl, which was music to my ears, indicated the first stage mixing was done. The rough mixture had turned into a beautiful, silky, and shiny dough ready for the butter.
Brioche dough can be challenging to make at home. However, with a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, a plastic bowl scraper, a bit of patience, and the willingness to get your hands in the dough, it is entirely doable and very rewarding.
When testing small versions of the recipes from my files, I discovered that one can only scale down the recipe so much before it becomes too small for the dough hook to do its thing and mix all the ingredients properly. The recipe below is that minimal batch size. Any extra dough may be frozen.
A source for the exact size individual brioche molds I use is listed at the end of the recipe. While I believe the waved molds add much to the visual appeal of the brioche à tête, one could use standard sized muffin tins.
Enjoy your brioche with morning coffee and good preserves or jam.
Brioche
| Yield: 32 oz dough | # of Servings: 16 individual Brioches à Tête |
Ingredients:
3 ¼ tsp (.40 oz / 9 g) active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (bet 101 °F and 106 °F)
3 cups (14 oz / 397 g) bread or all-purpose flour
1.4 oz / 40 g sugar
1 ½ tsp (.30 oz / 9 g) salt
1 tbl milk
5 eggs
8.4 oz / 238 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
Special equipment needed:
- Standing mixer with dough hook attachment
- Scale
- Brioche molds: 3 ½â€ top diameter, 1.75†bottom diameter, 1: high, 3.5 oz capacity, 10 waves
Pre-recipe preparations:
Remove butter from refrigerator
Directions:
Making the dough:
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside in warm place.
- In small bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in the milk.
- Place flour in bowl of standing mixer. Make a well, and pour in the sugar/salt solution. Cover with flour.
- Add the yeast and stir with heavy wooden spoon or spatula.
- Add four of the eggs and transfer to the machine with the dough hook. Mix together on low speed (Kitchen Aid speed 2) until it begins to form a dough.
- Add remaining egg and allow the machine to knead on low speed for 12 minutes, scraping down the dough from the sides and bottom of the bowl in in 4-minute intervals.
- The dough should be soft to the touch, but not overly sticky.
- On low speed add one-quarter of the butter. Once it begins to mix into the dough, add the next quarter. Your will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl to help the butter integrate into the dough.
- Continue until all the butter is integrated and the dough is smooth and homogenous. The dough will be very soft at this point.
- Place dough in a bowl or plastic container and let rise until double in bulk. Deflate dough, push a piece of plastic wrap against the top to prevent a crust from forming, and refrigerate.
- After three hours in the refrigerator, press the dough down and refrigerate overnight.
Forming:
- Butter the brioche molds and set on a baking sheet. Beat the egg for egg wash in a 1-cup liquid measuring cup or a small bowl. Set aside.
- Remove dough from container to a lightly floured work surface and press it down to deflate.
- Each standard brioche starts with 2 oz of dough. Weigh out as much of the dough as necessary for the number of brioches you are making. For example, for six brioches, you will need 12 oz of dough.
- Roll the dough into a cylinder about 2†in diameter. Using a metal bench scraper or knife, cut into 2 oz portions.
- Roll each into a ball. Using the palm of your hand, make an indentation in the top â…“ of the dough to form the topknot. Press into mold. Continue with remaining brioches.
- Brush with egg wash and set in a warm place to rise until they double in size. They should reach to top of the molds.
- Wrap the extra dough in plastic wrap, or place in a Ziploc and freeze for future use.
Baking:
- Preheat oven to 425 °F.
- Gently brush the brioches with egg wash.
- Place in oven and immediately turn oven down to 400 °F.
- Bake until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. The interior temperature of each brioche should be approximately 205 °F on an instant read thermometer.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Carefully remove brioches from the molds and place on a cooling rack. Serve warm or room temperature.
- Extra brioche may be wrapped and frozen. Defrost overnight and reheat in 350 °F oven.
- Wrap the extra dough in plastic wrap, or place in a Ziploc and freeze for future use.
Baking tips:
- 3.5†brioche molds are available from the JB Prince company: Brioche Mold, Non Stick, 3.5 inch, 3oz Capacity, 12 Pack. (jbprince.com). Another possibility is Amazon.
