Brioche

My challenge this week: to make brioche, you know, that sweet, light and fluffy bread one eats for breakfast. So I looked online for a recipe. Frankly, I should have looked first through my cookbooks because the plethora of recipes out there is overwhelming. But I picked one that said it was easy...

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And I followed the recipe word for word, I did not get impatient, I did not skip any step. I was proud of myself. And yet, the result was so disappointing. Mind you, my daughter loved it, she kept eating it, she even took some of it to school today. My husband loved it too, he even compared it to something his mom makes, and he has only the highest compliments for his mom’s cooking.

But I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the taste, the look or the texture of it. The dough looked weird and never rose. The bread itself was dense and looked more like a cake than bread.

So I decided to make another one. I looked at other recipes to see if they were doing this differently. I looked through a book I have on breads and one thing struck me. It mentioned that for brioche, you could just mix all ingredients, like the recipe I used mentioned, HOWEVER, the dough then needed to rise for 12 hours!!!!! 12 Hours!!!! The recipe mentioned 2 hours! And I believe that this was the problem.

Thus, I mix the ingredients, same ingredients, in a different way. And I have to say, the result is spectacular. The dough did rise, the bread looks like a bread and tastes fantastic too. Now, remember, I used the same recipe as the day before (except the butter was softened instead of melted). I just changed the way I mixed the ingredients and I got a totally different result.

Here is my modified recipe.

Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 3 eggs
• 125g butter, softened
• 3 heaping tablespoons (actual spoons, not measuring spoons) of sugar
• 1 pkg of dehydrated yeast
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Preparation:

1. Heat the milk to lukewarm and pour the yeast in it. Let it foam for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Sift the flour in a large bowl. Form a well in the middle.
3. Pour the yeast mixture, the eggs, sugar and salt in the well.
4. Stir the mixture and incorporate the flour little by little. You can use the electric mixer or do it by hand. Mix until you get a smooth and consistent dough. If necessary, add some milk so ou have a soft but not runny dough.
5. In a second large bowl, pour 1/3 of the dough and 1/3 of the softened butter. Mix with the electric mixer until you get a homogenous dough. Add another 1/3 of the dough and of the butter and mix again. Repeat the process until all dough and butter are mixed.
6. The dough should be soft. If it is too firm, add an egg or two. Note that this dough is not a dough you knead, it is elastic but too soft to hold a shape.
7. Cover the bowl with a damp clothe and let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 2 hours). Personally, I use my microwave as a proofing box. I heat up a bowl of water to boiling, put it to one side of the oven and put my bowl in there. Very effective.
8. Using a spoon, poke at the dough so that it falls back. Then pour it into a pan (I used a meatloaf pan) that you buttered and floured. Put the cloth back and let it rise again for another 30-45 minutes.
9. Preheat your oven at 350º.
10. Mix an egg yolk with a little bit of milk and brush it on the top of the dough.
11. Bake for 30 minutes. The bread is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
12. Let the loaf cool on a cooling rack. To facilitate taking the bread out of the pan (when cooled), use a knife along the sides to detach the bread.
13. Serve with chocolate spread, butter, jam. Dip in hot chocolate or coffee. Perfect breakfast food or afternoon snack. Also use to make French toast when it turns a bit stale.