Brioche- Help needed !
I'm trying to cope with the brioche challenge here ,making brioche bread in Bangkok.I'm quite experienced with this type of preparation,but first time for working on this recipe here.
Until now ,I have tried twice,and both times had problems big time.It all comes to the stage when the butter is added ,that is after I have my nice and shiny dough turning in the mixer bowl.
The first time was a real disaster.I added the butter at a room temperature and it separated completely from the dough,turning into an oily batter.
The second time I used a cold butter,working it a bit with my hands to break it into "pommade" .It turned out better than the first time,but still not all the butter got cooperated into the dough and the aspect of it all was far from the usual beautiful soft dough I had before.
I feel it has to do with the weather conditions here,but not really certain about it.The dough was not over heated and though the room is not air-conditioned it's not extremely hot.
I would like to hear what you guys think ,and would appreciate any good advise.Thanks!
It may depend on your definition of "not really hot" in regards to room temp.It all depends on what we are used to. It may still be warmer than your butter can be at to perform properly. Some of my colleagues in Malaysia consider 95F an airconditioned temp and are failry comfortable with that. Much too warm for me or dough.
It sounds like you have already identified the problem as the butter either being too warm and actually melting the first time and then the butter not being incorporated well into the dough when at a cooler temp.
Do you have a mixer that can mix the cooler butter into the dough relatively quickly so the dough doesn't heat up? Perhaps even chilling the bowl, dough hook and even the dough briefly before and perhaps during a mix may solve the problem.