Brioche is a French artisan bread that is almost like a pastry – sweet, flaky, and buttery. It is one of our favorite bread among many others. The process of making brioche can be a bit intimidating for beginners, but with the right tools and technique, you can get the best results. We highly recommend using a stand mixer for this recipe, unless you want a good workout kneading the sticky and messy dough for 20 to 25 minutes.
Butter Is Everything
French cuisine is an art that relies heavily on quality ingredients and precision. To get the best tasting end product, you need to use the best ingredients. Just like the croissant, butter is the most important ingredient in this recipe. The high proportion of egg and butter gives the brioche its characteristic, rich and tender crumb.
Assortment
This versatile brioche dough is widely used in French cuisine and patisserie. We have used the same dough to make plain buns, sesame buns, regular bread loaf, braided bun topped with chocolate chips and our Cinnamon Twist Buns inspired Nutella brioche buns. The idea behind this assorted brioche recipe was to show you how versatile this dough is.
We recommend using bread flour for this recipe because it has a higher protein content, which helps to produce better gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Gluten gives this brioche dough its stretchiness, elasticity, bite and helps trap air to produce the light bread. Add all ingredients except butter to your stand mixer and mix on medium speed until everything is well combined. Gradually increase the speed and continue mixing for 10 to 15 minutes. Once the dough is pulling away from the sides, start adding butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue mixing for another 15 minutes. As a result, you will get shiny, stretchy, and beautiful dough.
Now, let the dough proof for about an hour and a half. The resting time is very important to achieve the depth of flavors. If you can, we recommend letting the dough ferment overnight. Deflate the dough after the first rise then transfer it to a greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, shape the dough and proof again at room temperature until it has doubled in size. Gently brush the risen dough with egg wash and bake the brioche. We hope that you try this recipe. Enjoy!
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Assorted Brioche
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (5 quarts)
- Bench Scraper
- Silicone Spatula
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Pastry brush
Ingredients
- 500 grams Bread flour
- 100 grams Sugar
- 60 grams Whole milk warm
- 227 grams Unsalted Butter 2 sticks, room temprature
- 2 tsp Active dry yeast
- 6 Eggs large
- 1-1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- Egg wash 1 egg & 1 tbsp water whisked together
- 3 tbsp Nutella
- 1/4 cup Chocolate chips semi-sweet
- 1/2 tsp Sesame seeds
Instructions
Preparing The Dough
- Add the active dry yeast to warm milk and allow it to bloom for about 10 minutes. (Make sure the milk is warm and not too hot or else it will kill the yeast)
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, add yeast and milk mixture, flour, sugar, eggs, and salt. Mix on medium speed until everything is well combined.
- Gradually increase the speed to medium-high. Stope every now and then to scrape down the sides.
- Continue mixing until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl of your stand mixer. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Keep your mixer running and start adding the butter gradually, 1 tablespoon at a time. Allow the butter to incorporate before adding another spoon.
- Continue mixing at medium-high speed for 10 to 15 minutes until the dough is shiny and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for about an hour and a half.
Shaping The dough
- Turn the dough out on a floured surface, deflate and divide into 4 portions.
- Divide each portion to form different shapes. Here, we formed 5 buns out of one portion. For the second portion, we divided them into 4 cylinders and placed them in a 9X5 loaf pan.
- Split the third portion into 2, roll them out into a rectangle, spread the Nutella over, and with one side facing you, letter fold to enclose the filling. Using a sharp knife, make the cut twice down the length to make three strands. Plait the three strands together like challah bread, roll the open ends underneath, and place them in the individual muffin tins.
- Split the fourth portion into 3 and roll into ropes. Gather and squeeze them together at the very top. Braid them together like challah bread and roll the braided dough sideways.
- Lightly cover all of them with plastic wrap and let them proof for another hour and a half or until they are doubled in volume.
Baking The Brioche
- Lightly brush the top of your prepared brioche with egg wash. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the buns. Place chocolate chips on the braided roll.
- Bake the brioche 350ºF/180ºC for about 20 to 25 minutes. Place a piece of aluminum foil on top, if the brioche is getting too dark before they are done baking.
- Once baked, let them cool for 10 minutes and turn them out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let us know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below, tag us @flux_foodie on Instagram, and hashtag it #fluxfoodies.