Mostly Sourdough Brioches

Mostly Sourdough Brioches

Total weight: about 1600 g

3-build starter: 250 g @ 65% hydration

All flours: 732 g (100%), which breaks down as follows:
- 348 g unbleached bread flour
- 232 g unbleached all purpose flour
+ 152 g in starter

15 g sea salt (2%)
353 g eggs (48%)
100 g sugar (14%)
303 g unsalted butter (42%)
3 g fresh yeast (0.4%)
25 g flavours (alcohol: eau de vie & orange blossom water)

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This part is not important. Calculated for fun.

All liquids: 497 g (68%), which breaks down roughly as follows:
- eggs water content: 229 g (total eggs input: 353 g in the form of 3 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks)
- butter water content: 50 g
- milk: 95 g (not part of the formula, but was added in panic mode - will explain below)
- flavours: 25 g
+ 98 g filtered water in starter

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Mixing was done in two stages, using a Bosch Compact. One big mistake: I forgot to remove about 20% of the dough flours for the second mixing. Thus when the first mixing turned out on the dry side, I quickly added some milk to prevent the formation of lumps in the dough. That turned out all right. So maybe I will include milk in the formula next time, or better still some cream.

FIRST MIX

Using the whisk, eggs are beaten & the 250 g of starter is broken into pieces and gradually added to the mix. Everything is mixed to a smooth consistency.

The whisk is removed & replaced with the dough hook. All the dough flours was added and mixed (here I should have used only roughly 80% of the flours, keeping the rest for the second mix. Naturally the mix was crumbly and that's when I added some milk to help the dough come together.)

That dough is transferred in a loosely covered bowl and allowed to ferment for about 4 hours at room temperature (next time, I would put it inside the lit oven instead for a somewhat higher ambiant temperature, about 28º C)

SECOND MIX

Fresh yeast is mixed with a little warm water & a tiny bit of the sugar. (Water not accounted for in the formula.)

In another bowl, butter and sugar are creamed and put aside.

Flavours are weighed and put aside.

The first dough is transferred in the mixing bowl. Using the dough hook, the fresh yeast mixture is added and incorporated in the dough. (speed is at level 1)

Gradually, over the next 15 minutes or so, the creamed butter and sugar is added to the dough in spoonfuls. Each spoonful is allowed to be fairly well incorporated in the dough before the next one is added. (Speed is at level 1)

Speed is switched to level 2 and the dough mixed for about 5 minutes. During that stage, the flavours are added.

Dough is transferred to a clean bowl & allowed to ferment overnight in cooler at about + 10º C.

The next day, the dough is transferred to the working board and while still cold, is patted down to a rectangle and folded. That is done three times, at 10 minutes interval. The 1st time is a bit hard, but it gets better as the dough starts to warm up. At some point, it is possible to use a rolling pin to flatten the dough before folding.

Next came the divide and weighing part. This dough was divided into two, one for the brioche pan (which went to a friend) and a smaller portion for the loaf tin for us.

Both went into the lit oven for 8 hours to rise and then baked at 180ºC for about 45 minutes.