Recipe: soft, sweet and glossy brioche
A luxurious bun that looks like a party hat—what’s not to love? Soft, sweet and glossy, brioche is as decadent as bread can be.
Brioche is made from bread dough enriched with butter, eggs, a little sugar or honey and sometimes even milk. That makes it a sticky uh… challenge for home bakers, because it sticks to your fingers, the mixing bowl, the countertop and pretty much everything else too. But those extra ingredients create a golden-yellow color, a sweet, almost creamy flavor and an irresistible aroma. Brioche with homemade raspberry jam? Classic. A brioche hamburger bun? Why not! Brioche French toast? I’ve never eaten such delicious leftovers.
Parisian buns
The most characteristic shape of a brioche is a round, tall bun with a small ball of dough on top. That’s the brioche parisienne. But it also comes in other shapes: in Nantes, two thick strands of dough are placed next to each other in a loaf tin; while rising, they form a whole. Master baker Robèrt van Beckhoven (from Heel Holland Bakt) makes brioches from six or eight balls of dough, which he places snugly together in a loaf tin. In Provence, wreath-shaped loaves are also made from brioche dough, decorated with dried fruit and sugar.
Get the stand mixer ready, then bake
Come on, people, let’s get started. Take your time, because the dough needs to rise overnight in the refrigerator. The butter makes the dough stiffer, which means it takes the yeast much longer to do its work. Have a stand mixer? This is the moment to get it out of the cupboard. As mentioned, the dough is sticky, but that doesn’t bother the KitchenAid. With this recipe, you can make ten small brioches in a muffin tin, or one large brioche in a loaf tin.
How to make the brioche
- Knead the butter until light and creamy in the stand mixer. Stir the honey into the lukewarm milk, add the yeast and wait for the yeast to activate. The mixture will start to foam.
- Gently add the flour and pinch of salt to the butter while the machine is running. Add the milk-yeast-honey mixture as well and let the machine knead slowly. Add the eggs one at a time. The dough will become much yellower. Let the machine run for about five minutes to create a nice structure.
- Then place the dough in a bowl greased with a little butter or oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- The next morning, make eleven small balls from the dough. Roll them across the countertop until they have a smooth outer surface. It will probably stick to your hands, so dust them with a little flour, and dust the countertop too. Place ten balls in the greased wells of the muffin tin. Divide the eleventh ball into ten small pieces, shape those into balls as well and place them on top of the ten balls in the muffin tin.
- Beat the third egg with a little water and brush the brioches with egg yolk. Then cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise for another two hours in a warm place.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and put the brioches in the oven. They will be golden brown, glossy and cooked in about 20 minutes. Let them cool for fifteen minutes, then pop them out of the tin. Eat the brioches warm, with a knob of butter and a generous spoonful of honey.
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