The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Brioche Dough

shoshanna673's picture
shoshanna673

Brioche Dough

Hi I'm new to this site from Adelaide, South Aussie.  Trying to find baked brioche here in Adelaide is almost impossible, so I am forced to make my own.  Have been using Michel Roux's recipe from his book Pastry, but am looking for even better recipes, which I know must be out there.  We are limited here in Adelaide in the selection of flours available for bread baking, so have been trying to source T45 flour.  Can have it sent to me from across the country at a cost of $22.50 (postage only).  Is it worth the cost to go ahead with this?  Thx for any help provided.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

I started with his recipe and just never had a need to go anywhere else for one. It is easy and well illustrated. So just enter " Lazy Man's Brioche" in the search box. There have been many variations developed since, which are very delicious and interesting. No special flour needed-I have done it with bread flour and with AP flour (in the US). The AP flour is usually Gold Medal,Pillsbury,King Arthur or any of the type that makes an acceptable loaf of white sandwich bread.

Have delicious fun!

thomaschacon's picture
thomaschacon (not verified)

When it comes to butter, you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who knows more about it (especially re: bread and pastry) than Michel Roux. He's a grand-master. Add his Tourte Milanese from Baking with Julia to your baking 'to-do list'. It requires about 10 lbs of butter (I joke! Only 5 lbs!).

 

There are 2,650 results for 'brioche' in the archives. Here's a link: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/searchresults?cx=partner-pub-5060446827351852%3A9bvu1n-clx1&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&cow=brioche&sa=Search

 

The recipe I use for brioche is the same one Thomas Keller recommends: Jean-Louis Palladin's Brioche.

This recipe doesn't require hard-to-find 'bread' or 'hi-gluten' flours.

The result is almost too good to be believed.

 

$22.50 for shipping for T45 would be a waste of money, methinks.

PiPs (Phil) wrote an interesting blog post re: Tflours. Here's the link. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28625/three-french-breads-three-french-flours

runningknows's picture
runningknows

I second thomas's endorsement of the keller recipe.... it's very easy to do and comes out wonderfully. There are a WHOLE lot of options considering brioche, depending on how rich or how sturdy you want your loaf to be. Typically you categorize by the amount of butter you add with respect to flour (all flour, including any used for pre-ferment). Peter Rhinehart has a really nice intro to brioches in pretty much all his books, although I like Baker's Apprentice best. As far as specialty breads, my go-to is Karen Demasco's recipe in The Craft of Baking. It's a 100% brioche, so it's about an egg and a bit of sugar short of being cake batter, and it acts like it. It's messy, it's sticky, it's hard to work, but it makes the most ethereal cinnamon and sweet rolls I've ever had! The sinking feeling I get when I start pulling out all of that better is far compensated by the joy I see on friends' and family's faces when they take a bite.

thomaschacon's picture
thomaschacon (not verified)

For the archives:

Here's the converted the recipe to metric (and BBGA format).

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28956/jeanlouis-palladins-brioche

shoshanna673's picture
shoshanna673

Thx everyone for your help.  Will try some of your suggestions, however altho I grew up oh so many moons ago with the imperial system I have been metricated for so long now I struggle with conversions.  How does one weigh fractions of ounces, i.e. 1/4 oz or 0.19 oz .  Getting old 'aint for sissies when you can't remember things!

runningknows's picture
runningknows

calculators help. If you want to be exact, 1 ounce (weight) = 28.35 g. 1 ounce (fluid) = 29.57 mL (which means, for those of you keeping score, a pint's NOT a pound the world 'round!). Some folks and recipes round it to 1 ounce = 30 g (weight) or 30 mL (fluid), but the accuracy of scales and my own peace of mind get me to use the more exact conversion. So, 1/4 oz = 0.25 ounce x 28.35 g/ounce = 7 g, and 0.19 oz = 0.19 oz x 28.35 g/oz = 5.5 g (both to the nearest half gram). Using the less exact conversion, 0.25 oz x 30 g/ounce = 7.5 g and 0.19 oz x 30 g/ounce = 5.5 oz. So the rough calculation is within the error of measurement for most food scales with this small amount of ingredient (which frankly, would be hard to measure in a food scale). The error gets bigger when the amounts get bigger: 32 oz. (two pounds) x 28.35 g/oz = 907 g and 32 oz. x 30 g/oz = 960 g, a difference of almost 2 ounces (or a skosh less than half a cup if you really insist on measuring by volume).

shoshanna673's picture
shoshanna673

Thank you so much for that info .. it will be printed off and attached to the inside of my kitche  cupbrd!   Cooking precise dough like brioche will be so much easier now.  Being in Australia, we sometimes struggle with US ingredients cup sizes and spoon sizes.  I have recently purchased from Amazon a set of imperial cups a and spoons (being a perfectionist) so now I'm raring to get cooking.

thomaschacon's picture
thomaschacon (not verified)

Here's the recipe for Jean-Louis Palladin's brioche in metric (and BBGA format): http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28956/jeanlouis-palladins-brioche

I hope you don't get too attached to those imperial cups and spoons. Many UK/USA books use volumetric measures like cups and spoons, but they'll lead you far astray in baking.

runningknows's picture
runningknows

Yeah.... I really REALLY hate that so many US cookbooks give volumes rather than weights (Keller, who should know better, doesn't give weights for the Palladin recipe in Ad Hoc but does for French Laundry), and the trouble is particularly acute for flour. For a cup, do you use KA's equivalent (4.5 oz), America's Test Kitchen's conversion (5 oz.), USDA conversion (3.5 -4.75 oz, depending on the flour)? Which method do you use? Fluffed, spooned, and leveled (~4.25 oz), spooned and leveled (~4.5 oz), or dipped, scooped, and leveled (~4.75 oz)? That difference is sufficient, at worst, to turn a manageable 65% hydrated recipe into either a distinctly goopy 74% hydration recipe or a much drier 58% hydration recipe. To paraphrase the old commercial, "I'd like to buy the world some scales, and bake in harmony"