Brioche

It was time to try one of the classics: brioche. What self respecting bread baker can call herself that without attempting this all time favorite. Funny thing is that I've only ever had brioche before when I was travelling in France many, many years ago.

Very rich dough requiring the use of up to 6 eggs, plus one for the wash prior to baking and one half pound of butter. I searched through my cookbooks and found a number of recipes for brioche, including American and French versions. They were all a bit different in terms of relative quantities of ingredients. The French versions all included a fermentation stage in the fridge overnight. I ended up using Craig Claiborne's version from the New York Times Cookbook. It also had an initial step requiring using 1 cup of flour, added to the yeast softened in lukewarm water. This is mixed until smooth and than placed in a bowl and covered with lukewarm water and left to sit till the ball floats. This ball is then added to the rest of the flour and other ingredients. I've since discovered that this is a very old fashioned way of slowing down the fermentation time and help develop the gluten strands. Quite neat.

Once I kneaded the bread and let it rise the first time, it was punched down and put in a bowl and left in the refrigerator over night for the fermentation stage. The following morning I found the dough to have doubled in size and very easy to cut up and form each of the individual brioche. Another rise and bake  I do not have proper fluted brioche pans so I used muffin tins. I am quite pleased with the results!! And they are quite yummy to boot.