The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hand-incorporating Butter Into Brioche Dough

gabolski's picture
gabolski

Hand-incorporating Butter Into Brioche Dough

Hi all!

Have been following this site for a while, especially the official handbook and I really learned a lot from it. I only just recently made my own account on here. I was wondering if anyone could give tips on hand-mixing enriched doughs like brioche, as I don’t own a stand mixer and honestly, I much prefer hand-mixing my breads anyway. By the way, I only bake purely sourdough/naturally leavened breads. 

I’ve tried making brioche burger buns already, but the dough ended up underdeveloped and the bread was a bit too dense. When I was mixing in the butter after the autolyse, I could only get it to the sticky, almost high-hydration dough texture, but not into a shiny cohesive dough ball. The texture improved slightly after I applied 3 folds over 3 hours, but was still underdeveloped. What do you think am I doing wrong? Am I not working the butter into the dough long enough prior to applying the folds?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Get a video on youtube on slap and folds.  By had but takes about 800 slap and folds to get to window pane and this is one bread you want to get there.  I usually do 35 lap and folds a minute and do 7 minute sessions 3 times to get there - all on 40 minute intervals.  No worries, a great brioche can be made by hand just like they were long ago.  Make sure the dough is fully hydrated before adding the sugar and the butter last.

Happy baking 

gabolski's picture
gabolski

Hi! Thank you for the suggestion, I just tried it today. Maybe I did something wrong but the dough still seemed to lack strength/was underdeveloped by the 3rd slap-and-fold, and after a 1.5hr rest. I did 3 slap-and-folds as suggested, with a 45min interval, around 10mins each. There was some development in between the intervals, but it still seemed sticky and too soft after each slap-and-fold. What can you suggest I do? Should I slap-and-fold for much longer? 

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

Check out Bruno Albouze brioche on youtube. I followed that recipe once, with good results. I will never make brioche by hand again, as incorporating the butter took about 40 minutes. The whole process was very interesting though, so I’m glad I did it once.

gabolski's picture
gabolski

Hi thank you for your reply! Yes I also watched Bruno Albouze’s video. I can’t seem to make his technique work properly for me, though. Maybe I’ll give it another shot.