Sourdough Brioche

Hello all,

Just thought I'd try something atypical today. 

Normally, I go for lean bread with an open, lacy crumb, but ever since my fascination with bread began years ago, and I was flipping through Reinhart's BBA, I've been wanting to try making brioche.  It just looks so shiny and decadent, and I knew with all the butter and eggs incorporated that this bread would be interesting at the very least. 

I used Reinhart's poor man's brioche formula, modified for natural leavening, and didn't even use all the butter recommended for that.  For a one pound loaf, I used this formula:

216g flour

32g milk

2 eggs

1 tbsp sugar

5g salt

45 g butter (55g recommended)

50g starter

I mixed until the dough felt developed, fermented for 5 hours at 85 degrees, with S+F every hour. Preshape, rest 30, shape, proof for 2 hours at 85 degrees, then bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. Result was this: 

The bread was very rich, tasty, the caramelization from the egg and sugar was the best part.  That being said, you can't taste much of the starter's influence, there is no WW flour to make the flavor interesting, and the texture is a little dense for my taste, even if the bread melts in your mouth.  Its good on its own, and PB or butter would make this too rich a snack. I don't really like jelly, and the bread is too rich for sandwiches, IMO. I just don't have a use for this kind of bread, as delicious as it is, so it will probably be my last for a while.  

Oh well, it was fun to try, and the results are very beautiful.

Until next time, folks!