{"id":3761,"date":"2014-06-01T02:04:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T00:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roadtopastry.com\/blog\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2014-06-01T02:19:49","modified_gmt":"2014-06-01T00:19:49","slug":"recipe-brioche-dough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roadtopastry.com\/blog\/recipes\/enriched-yeast-doughs\/brioches\/recipe-brioche-dough","title":{"rendered":"Recipe: Brioche dough"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I ate a French brioche<\/strong>, I almost fell on the floor!<\/p>\n

Brioches are heavenly soft<\/strong> and\u00a0are by far my favourite “viennoiseries<\/strong>“, although the French still seem to prefer their flaky croissants for breakfast.<\/p>\n

Their light, melt-in-your-mouth\u00a0texture<\/strong> is\u00a0the perfect way to start the day smoothly! The best part is that brioches\u00a0come in different sizes and shapes<\/strong> and can be flavoured<\/strong> with sugar, chocolate, pralines or anything you want!<\/p>\n

\"Recipe-Brioches01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this post you will find the\u00a0basic recipe<\/strong> of the dough, which can then be used to shape different brioches: Nanterre brioche, Parisian brioche, Brioche \u00e0 t\u00eate, Swiss brioche, plaited brioche<\/strong> and many more…<\/p>\n

So how is a brioche made?<\/h3>\n

Brioches are made by incorporating soft butter into a thick dough obtained by kneading flour, yeast, sugar, salt and eggs together.<\/p>\n

\"Recipe-Brioche13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a very rich and buttery dough: for this reason,\u00a0brioche must be made with a strong flour<\/strong>. A strong flour will have stronger gluten strands<\/strong> that are able to compensate the action of the butter<\/strong> (which loosens gluten strands).<\/p>\n

Strong flour have a high “W”<\/strong>, a technical parameter which is usually never mentioned in supermarket flours: as a rule of thumb, you can opt for a high-protein flour<\/strong>, or bread flour, or, best of all, the so-called “Manitoba” flour<\/strong> (“farine de gruau” in French)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What are the steps to make a brioche?<\/h3>\n

Brioche is classified as “enriched yeast doughs<\/strong>“, so it is not different from other doughs that contain yeast. The procedure is the following:<\/p>\n

\"Enriched-yeast-dough-steps\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Knead<\/strong> the basic dough<\/li>\n
  2. “Enrich<\/strong>” it with the soft butter<\/li>\n
  3. Ferment<\/strong> at room temperature until doubled in size (first “rise”) for about an hour or 12 hours in the fridge<\/li>\n
  4. “Punch<\/strong>” the dough to extract all gases<\/li>\n
  5. Portion<\/strong> the dough and form the desired shapes<\/li>\n
  6. Proof<\/strong> at room temperature until doubled in size (second “rise”) before baking, around 2 hours<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Only step 1-4 are covered in this basic recipes. The remaining steps will be handled in the specific posts for each type of brioche.<\/p>\n

    \"Recipe-Brioche11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Remarks about temperature<\/h3>\n

    As you all know by now (because you’ve read my article on yeast<\/a>),\u00a0temperature<\/strong> (of the ingredients and of the room) affect the rise<\/strong> of the dough.<\/p>\n

    To cut a long story short, here a few considerations to keep in mind while working with brioches:<\/p>\n