High hopes - Back to Basics - making brioche bread

Art Culinaire, Spring, 2002

sugar

Sugar adds flavor, which makes us want to devour brioche. Proper amounts also feed the yeast, allowing it to activate and expand, giving off valuable gasses as the dough rests, causing it to rise. Sugar also enhances the color of the finished product. Fine grain sugars are best because they dissolve easily and are distributed evenly, during the mixing and kneading process, evenly browning the dough in the oven. This is not to say that the super-fine grain of confectioners' sugar is desirable when baking. Powdery confectioners' sugar contains a small amount of starch (3%), which is desirable in some products like icings and pastry creams but not desirable in brioche.

mixing

Brioche employs the use of a sponge: a combination of warm water, yeast, and flour. This sticky paste creates a volatile foamy base to which the remaining ingredients are added. The use of sponge starters requires slow, multiple-rising steps resulting in a smaller, lighter crumb. Care must be taken not to over-mix the dough as highly developed gluten strands will diminish the desired supple texture.

rising

A rich yeast dough must rise. This is not a fast process. Brioche must rise in three separate stages to achieve its signature cake-y quality. Famed French Pastry Chef and Three Star Michelin Chef, Michel Roux of The Waterside Inn in London, allows his freshly formed dough rounds to rise at room temperature for two hours. The dough is then punched down, reshaped, and transferred to a bowl, covered with a damp towel, and set aside in the refrigerator for several hours (24 hours at most). The dough is punched down once more, shaped, and transferred to prepared brioche pans. Roux brushes the top with egg wash, covers it with a damp cloth, and allows the dough to rest at room temperature for two hours or until doubled in size. He brushes the dough with a second coat of egg wash and bakes it in a 425 degree oven for 40 minutes (Collister and Blake 181). When the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped, it is done. Not all brioche recipes employ a prolonged fermentation. Sarabeth Levine of Sarabeth's all ows her brioche dough to rise for three hours, a fraction of the 24 hours Geoff Gardner of Sel de la Terre prefers. Levine's final result is an airy and mild loaf, while Gardner's loaves are more golden, dense, and butter-rich in flavor.

shaping

There are many brioche shapes: large, small, stout, tall. Whether it is the towering panettone and pandoro of Italy, the fruit-studded crown of French kugelhopf or the oblong stollens of Germany, it is the shape that distinguishes the bread as celebratory and regional. Brioche a tete is a traditional Parisian brioche in which two dough rounds are stacked in the same mold. Brioche Nanterre is baked in the traditional hexagon mold and scored on the top with two scissor marks to create a star-like crown. Brioche Mousseline is a tall cylindrical bread, formed by lining a round baking dish with a tall piece of aluminum foil. Brioche rings are often used in making a brioche coulante, or any of the sweet fruit and nut studded varieties, If small brioche or shapes are being made, it is easier if the dough is chilled overnight to prevent the sticky dough from becoming overworked (Cordon Bleu 111).