Brioche

Hey you…are you ready to take on a baking challenge this weekend?! The result will be a golden-brown, ultra-fluffy loaf of the most delicious bread of all that has endless uses….THAT CAME OUT OF YOUR OWN KITCHEN!!!  French toast?  Check!  Bread pudding?! Mos def.  Croque monsieurs?! I’m all in.  A piece of toast with jam?  I’m not mad about that.Brioche is the king of enriched breads, in my very carb-loving opinion.  Butter and eggs make the dough so rich, fluffy and flavorful and it toasts up to be the most delicious shade of golden-brown.  It’s also time-consuming and best for a weekend baking project…but the results are so so worth it.  It’s hard to find, even in my moderately-sized city, so I wanted to find a good, reliable recipe for those times when the very similar challah just won’t do (and it does a lot of the time).

I turned to one of the baking queens, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and her The Baking Bible because she’s notoriously meticulous and her recipes are incredibly thorough and well-tested.   Her Classic Brioche recipe did not disappoint!  Best of all, it was already converted into metric weights, so I didn’t have to do that.  I highly recommend using a scale to weigh your ingredients for the best results (this is the one I use) and using the brand of flour suggested in my recipe.  I exclusively use King Arthur flour as my all-purpose, cake and bread flours, but Rose suggests using Gold Medal brand in her recipe.  If you use Gold Medal, replace all of the bread and all-purpose as outlined in my recipe with Gold Medal bread flour.  You do not need to use half bread, half all-purpose as my recipe states.  The original recipe was tested using different brands of flours, and states that the best texture and rise came from all Gold Medal bread flour, or half bread, half all-purpose of another brand.  There is only a scant amount of water called for in the actual recipe; this is not a mistake!  The remaining moisture comes from the egg whites and water in the butter.  I promise it will work!  The dough will be very sticky, but after resting in the refrigerator, it will set up and be workable.  You can always add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to work with after chilling.  Bread-making is all about practice and getting a feel for what the dough should look, smell and, well, FEEL like.

I highly recommend seeking out a high-quality European-style butter, like Plugra, Lurpak, Land ‘o Lakes European-Style or even Trader Joe’s cultured butter in the little blue packs!  It will make your bread all the better for it (and more rich).  Don’t fear if you can’t-or don’t-want to use this.  The bread will be delicious with store-brand, American-style butter too!You can use this brioche dough as a base for many other sweet dough recipes, like monkey bread, cinnamon rolls or pull-apart breads.  Experiment to your heart’s content and let me know what you come up with!  

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