Our daily brioche
Pain bénit, the blessed bread.
For the last 400 years, France has been at war. No, not with Germans, and no, not even themselves, but with butter.
Yes, butter.
Brioche, that soft, pillow miracle, was originally a holly bread. Up until a 17th century clergyman got a hold of the butter that is. From that point on, France has been battling…to stuff their holly bread with as much butter as is inhumanly possible.
Luckily for us, bread dough can take a beating, a lot of beating. If we look at a modern recipe for brioche, the wweight of butter used can vary anywhere from 25% of the weigh of flour used, to a whopping 80%, almost equal to the flour weight. That’s pastry!
But, being the miracle bread of God, brioche remains a bread. Despite it’s force fed diet of sugar, egg, butter and milk, brioche will always be, a silky, smooth, elastic dough.
And still nobody understands how…
Blowing gluten bubbles with butter blocks.
After some digging (I even had to look in a physical book! Bread Science) I managed to find an explenation I at least founf beliavable for the brioche’s inexplicable strength. The theory goes that air trapped in a dough will often be surrounded by a thin outer film, which prevents collapse even if the bubble its self ruptures. In an un-enriched dough, this film is made up of protein native to the dough, their polar and non-polar ends naturally forming a barrier at any air-water boundaries.
However, the game changes as we add fat. Fat molecules, lipids, are also polar, and thus will compete with protein for space at air-water boundaries. This competition leads to an overall weakening of the films surrounding air bubbles, leading them to collapse more readily, reducing the final loaf volume.
Why then doesn’t brioche deflate flat during baking, instead of rise skyward like a loaf to heaven?
Because the solution to too much fat, is to add more fat!
As the graph shows, to overcome the volume minimum, we need to flood the dough with lipids, which can then go on to re form these protective films. This i what we see with modern wonder bread, who’s fats (E471 and E472e) ensure a tender, soft loaf with the maximum possible volume. However, the synthetic nature of these fats does mean that they lack flavour somewhat.
Not so for brioche.
Proving the theory against the machine
To prove the theory and test whether butter is truly the backbone of brioche, the following recipe for brioche incorporated kneading only after the addition of butter. Prior to this the ingredients were only combined into a dough, and no more.
Further more, I wanted to test the impact o kneading technique. I therefore decided to split the initial dough, incorporating the butter using two different techniques. One half of the dough had butter hand kneaded into it, whilst the other half had butter machine kneaded in using a food processor. Both cases were timed and their structures compared before and after baking.
Below is the full recipe with all the techniques and measurements used.
Forming the dough
Dissolve the yeast in cold milk
There’s no need to wait for the mixture to froth or anything. We’re just dissolving the yeast here.
- 150g milk
- 1 sachet (7g) of dry active yeast
Combine all ingredients but the butter to form a rough dough ( ~ 1 min )
Again, there’s no need to knead here. We’re mixing to the point where the flour is hydrated and no more.
- 500g strong white flour
- 10g salt
- 40g sugar
- 150g milk with yeast dissolved
- 150g / 3 eggs
Cover the dough and let rest ( 20 mins )
This step will ensure that any flour you miss is hydrated, and will also help develop some gluten through autolysis.
Once the resting period is done, you have two choices. Either go for the long game and hand mix, or go for the quick and dirty food processor. I warn you now however, I will not be held responsible for any messes or burnt motor that result from your laziness.
Adding the butter
Work the butter in until a smooth, elastic dough forms ( 6 mins by machine, 20 mins by hand … or 18 mins if you’re just shredded, like me 😛 )
This is the definition of easier said than done. The butter will demolish you’re dough, leaving nothing but a stick mess all over you and your kithen.
Power through. With time, the dough will take on more and more of that butter and you’ll notice it becoming less and less sticky (the slap and fold method of kneading from the Focaccia video’s the one to use here).
- 250g menyn meddal (unai ar dymheredd ystafell neu wedi ei weithio’n hyblyg)
Let the finished dough rest in the fridge overnight ( 8 – 12 hours )
This is an important step, much like pastry making, where the butter can cool and re-solidify, as well as developing the dough’s natural flavours.
Shaping, proofing and baking
About 2 hours before you intend to bake, shape your brioche, straight out of the fridge.
You can choose any shape or size you like here. Scale 150g pieces and mold them into rolls, or use the entire thing a tin for one big loaf.
Proof the dough, covered with cling film, until a finger pressed to the dough leaves a permanent indentation ( 1 – 2 hours )
I won’t give you the old “doubled in size” line here as it just isn’t true. The finger test is a far more reliable method than literally trying to eyeball a change in overall volume.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, 20 mins before the brioche is done rising.
This again, is all guesswork. If you’ve done the finger test and you think they could be close to ready, that’s when I’d turn the oven on.
Brush the tops of your brioche with a milk and egg wash and bake at 180°C ( 15 – 30 mins )
Again, the baking time is whole dependent on the shape and size of your loaf. Rolls could take 15 mins whilst a tin loaf might take up to 45 mins. The best way to put your mind at ease is…thermometer. Yes you guessed it, an internal temperature of 95°C is bake loaf anywhere.
Let the brioche cool on a wire rack
This step is simply to prevent the bottom of the brioche from becoming moist and soggy. If you’re baking in a tin, just take it out once it’s cool enough to handle and let it finish cooling on the rack.
More to Read
There you have it then, Man V Machine V Brioche. With that you can take this recipe anywhere to make all sorts of creations, from rolls to croissant, waffles to dessert pizzas (yes there is such a thing, check it out, you won’t regret it).
