Brioche is the dream girl of bread. Charming shapes, airy with the substance of eggs and butter, perfect for adding in whatever decadent filling you want, amazing in “days after” recipes like French toast or bread pudding- this is the bread that once you have in your life you hold on to for dear life. Or at least tightly grip so no one in your crazy family can grab it out of you paws before it is in your mouth.
And like all dream girls, she starts out in her own unique way- this is one sticky dough. Luckily it all comes together in the mixer with the dough hook, so it doesn’t matter one crumb!
Once we were bunkered down in our house to wait out the COVID 19 virus, I decided it was now or never to complete my 2020 new year’s resolutions (the other ones were to touch a beard and to keep the dining table clear!). My Bake from Scratch recipe needed 5 eggs which kind of freaked me out with news about all the egg shortages, so I jumped to King Arthur’s recipe and found it only took 3 eggs and some for an egg wash, but pretty much was the same (also, not having non-fat milk, I used the 1/3 cup whole milk from BFS and reduced the amount of water from the KAF recipe).
The next day, after a couple hours proofing on the counter under a towel the dough grew. It smelled amazing in the oven (which also was a DIY COVID-19 test…sense of smell check!). This is one recipe where a digital thermometer was super helpful, it should read 190F in the middle when the bread is done. King Arthur’s blog recommended using sheet pans underneath the bread pan, and above to make sure nothing burned while the middle cooked. Clever. Instead, I just fussed and was nervous the last 15 minutes of cooking and wasted a lot of foil trying to tent it. Afterwards, I definitely had earned myself a socially distant picnic, and, luckily this bread is the perfect picnic bread. Pack it up with some butter and jars of jam and you will feel like you are on the French countryside, even in your own back yard.
brioche
Ingredients
- 1/3 c whole milk warmed to 80-100 degrees F
- 2 tbs sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 330 g all-purpose (ap) flour (180 g at first, then 150 g later)
- 3 or 4 eggs (one extra fro egg wash)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 16 tbs butter at 68 degrees
Instructions
- beat 180 g flour, yeast, water and eggs until smooth using mixer and beater attachment. let it sit for 45 minutes covered with a towel.
- add the 150 g left over flour, sugar and salt
- beat using dough hook for 8-10 minutes
- add butter 2 tbs at a time, beating in before adding more
- let it rise 1 hour, covered
- fold the dough a few times and place in a greased bowl, it might be a bit sticky. refrigerate 4-16 hours.
- shape the dough into balls and place in your greased loaf pan
- allow to rise for 1 and half hours- it should look puffy
- preheat oven to 375
- whisk equal parts egg and water to make an egg wash, brush loaf with this
- place loaf pan on a double layer of sheet pans and pop in oven for 20 minutes
- either cover loaf with foil tent or place sheet pan on rack above loaf to prevent browning. bake for another 20 minutes. i deep brown crust is a good, traditional thing, but watch out for burning! the inside of the bread should get to 190 degrees.
- cool for 10 minutes in pan, then release it from pan and let it continue to cool on rack (or pull it apart at this point like cookie monster attacking a cookie)