Classic Brioche

A long time ago, we’re talking way more than ten years ago, Tom and I lived in the Garment District. It was our first apartment in Manhattan, a tiny one bedroom with one window that faced out onto the brick wall of a nearby office building. The kitchen was barely big enough to hold myself let alone another person. I could wash dishes, cook, look in the fridge and pack groceries away just by turning my upper body, ugh I really hated that apt. The neighborhood or lack of, was a little odd too. During the week it was the bustling epicenter of the Fashion Industry, on the weekends it was a ghost town. The only exciting thing around was Macy’s (and really, how exciting is that). As for food, well the choices were slim, there was the usual fast food, very few of the delis were open on the weekend and there was no grocery shopping to be had until well past Lexington Ave. There was one little shop that I had grown to like very much and because of Macy’s and its close proximity it was also open on the weekend. It was a brioche shop, I think it may have even been called La Brioche.

The goods were baked fresh daily, offering dozens of choices in personal sized brioche from plain, to chocolate, to ham and cheese, and many more. I liked the shop very much and I liked the brioche they sold even more. They might have even been a chain, although I had never run into another shop like it. I doubt the brioche was being made by hand… to offer that kind of variation and to make the quantity that they sold daily, I’m sure it was more of an automated process using big machines rather than a small hand made operation, but still, the product was good. Tom and I moved out of that neighborhood after about 2 years but I still had access to the shop because I worked no more than three blocks away. I was sad when they went out of business, especially when the business that eventually moved into that space was a fast food chain. I guess La Brioche, like so many other places, fell victim to the fickle industry that is the food business here in NYC.

This weekend, something reminded me of the time I lived in that neighborhood, which got me thinking about that store and then I got a hankering for some brioche. Since I enjoy baking and am teaching myself how, the urge to try making my very first brioche was strong, and so I made that my weekend baking project.

Armed with my book, Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton, Cesaria Evora's Cabo Verde on the cd player, and my cat Charlie underfoot by my side, we entered the kitchen with anticipation and determination...we were about to learn something new!

I picked Clayton's recipe for Brioche Dough With Starter because I wanted to make something as close to authentic brioche as I could. According to Clayton:

”The classic Brioche is made in 2 steps. It begins with the preparation of a starter or levain which grows active and puffy in 2 or 3 hours. Meanwhile the dough is prepared separately. The two come together when the starter is spread over the dough and folded in.”

He wasn't kidding about the starter growing puffy after 2 or 3 hours, heck after 30 minutes I was shocked at how much it had grown! I know, I know, I shouldn't have peeked, but I couldn't help myself. Tom thinks that if the way I can't leave my starters alone is any indication, then I'm going to be the kind of mother who stands over the crib watching the baby sleep. pffft I say he's going to be standing right there with me.

To make the starter, Clayton had me begin by dissolving 1 package of yeast into a half a cup of warm milk. He didn’t say if I should let the yeast rest for 5 minutes or so and the way the book is written it wasn’t clearly obvious, so I left if for 5 minutes to kind of bubble and gurgle and get to know the warm milk. I then added 1 cup of flour, and spent about 3 minutes stirring and making sure everything was blended. I ended up with a small rough looking ball of dough. I covered it with plastic wrap and left it on the counter to rise. As I said, I did peek at the dough after 30 minutes and I was surprised at how it had already started to grow. Clayton suggests leaving the starter for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight if that’s more convenient. I decided to go out for a while, I didn’t want to spent the next 90 minutes peeking at the dough and possibly ruining it by introducing contaminants, it was a gorgeous day Saturday and spending all of it inside would have been a crime. So out I went.

I returned about 2 hours later, consulted the book and realized that I needed to start moving to get the dough ready! Into a large mixing bowl went 2 cups of flour. I made a well, (a much better one this time, no?) then began adding 4 of the 6 eggs the recipe called for. Clayton writes:

"Break in one egg at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula or with a mixer flat beater to pull in the flour from the sides."

Adding the eggs and mixing in the flour was not as easy as it sounds. It was kind of awkward actually. I kept worrying that the sides of the well were going to collapse AND to add to that, the eggs weren't easily breaking apart, even at room temperature. I finally got it all done and to the mixture I added 1/4 cup warm water, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of salt. I blended well and was left with a thick batter.

Clayton then instructs me to spread the 3 sticks of room temperature butter onto a work surface and "work the butter" with a dough scraper to make it pliable and soft. I wasn't sure what he meant, so I interpreted it to mean that I had to take my three sticks and SMASH them onto a cookie sheet spreading them out with a pastry scaper. It was actually kind of fun, the butter was already soft and gave away under pressure quite easily. I added the butter to the batter in stages, blending well and making sure all of it was mixed in before adding more. After all the butter was incorporated, I added the remaining 2 eggs, (oops! good thing I had backup) and beat those into the mixture as well.

At this point I was instructed to add the remaining 2 cups of flour a half cup at a time, mixing well until I was left with a

"soft elastic ball and can be worked with your hands or that pulls away from the work bowl or mixer. Do not make it a hard ball of dough."

Let me tell you, my confidence in the dough being elastic and workable was not high after I mixed in the last of the 2 cups of flour. The dough was still quite wet, too wet, it didn't even come close to pulling away from the sides of the bowl. I stood there for a minute or two wondering if I should add more flour, Clayton's warnings not to make the dough hard were ringing through my ears. Finally, I made up my mind, I'd add more flour a half cup a time until the dough just started to pull away. This worked fairly well, after the 5th cup of flour, I had a dough I could work with.

I spread the dough out onto a floured work surface, pressed it into a flat oval shape and then placed the starter dough on top. I began the kneading by first coating my hands well with flour and then folding the dough over the starter, pressing and folding, turning and pressing over and over for 10 minutes making sure that the dough and starter were blending together evenly. I ended up having to use a pastry scraper to knead for the whole 10 minutes. I was leery of adding more flour to the dough although Clayton mentions using light sprinklings of flour and a scraper if the dough is too wet and tacky. I just dealt with it, I had already added more than a cup of extra flour at this point and was scared that I was going to ruin the outcome of the final, which should be a light airy crumb. When the dough was finally smooth and elastic I placed it in a butter greased bowl, then covered it with plastic wrap and set it on the counter to rise for 2 hours. At this point, with 2 hours to kill and Tom not being home, I decided to run through my building with a pot on my head knocking on doors and hiding. HA! no I didn't, I went for a another walk because really, the day was too beautiful. When I got back and walked into the kitchen I was greeted by this fresh hell, Holy Cow! and as a bonus, here's a side view of the overflow. Clayton had mentioned that the dough would be "light and puffy" under the plastic but this was insane. I removed the plastic, folded the dough back into the bowl, punched everything down and turned the dough over as per Clayton's instructions. I covered it again with plastic wrap and this time it went into the fridge to rise for another 2-3 hours.

Tom had come home at this point and since it was nearing dinnertime, we went out to our favorite dive for some burgers and TATER TOTS! shout out the love for the tater tots, yo! By the time we got home, the dough was ready and upon opening the fridge I found myself facing this beast. Okay, maybe not as bad as the first explosion, but sheesh, this was some active yeast. I was now ready to shape the loaves. Excitedly I flipped through the pages of the book to the part where we shape the loaves and found Clayton talking about his 2 favorite brioche shapes and where they come from. He had this to say:

"Two favorites, made with the same dough, are Brioche Nanterre and Brioche Parisienne. They are full-size loaves shaped in different ways. The Nanterre is made by placing 6 or 8 balls of brioche dough in a zigzag pattern along the bottom of a loaf pan. They rise to fill out the pan in the same overall pattern. The Parisienne is made by placing 9 or 10 short lengths of brioche dough side by side across the pan. They rise in identical sections as do the Nanterre"

Okay, so I had a little problem. I don't own two loaf pans. I decided, out of necessity really, to make the Nanterre in a bundt pan. I placed the chilled dough onto a floured work surface and divided it in two. I then took the one half of dough and divided it into 12 or 14 pieces and rolled them into balls, placing them in the bundt pan. For the Parisienne, I took the remaining dough and rolled it into long ropes, placing the ropes into the loaf pan in two layers. I covered the pans with wax paper, and left them on the counter to rise, (OMG, again?!) until doubled in volume, for 2 and 1/2 hours. Did I mention that making brioche is an all day affair?

At 1/2 hour from being ready to bake, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I then beat an egg with a tablespoon of milk and brushed the egg wash over both the loaves coating the tops well. I popped the bread into the oven and let them bake until light brown, about 35 minutes. Halfway through baking, I turned the pans once for even browning. I removed the pans from the oven when a cake tester (my ice pick) inserted into the middle came out clean. I set them aside and let them cool on racks before removing them from the pans. It was close to midnight at this point!

Once the bread was cool enough I sliced into the Parisienne. I was quite happy with the texture of the crumb. Not too dense and airy enough to give the bread a fine texture, if you know what I mean. The brioche I remember from La Brioche was even lighter and flakier than mine, but for a first try I was satisfied with the results. Even though it was well after midnight Tom and I tasted a slice. We were kind of disappointed. The bread was lacking flavor. Oh sure, it tasted and smelled wonderfully of yeast, but it needed either more salt or more sugar to make it really have character. I spread some apricot preserves on my piece and it was a great improvement. Tom and I both agreed that the next time, if I use this recipe it would need to be tweaked.

I had some brioche for breakfast on Sunday morning with apricot preserves and Tom made a few slices into French toast. He said the bread itself was perfect for French toast, it soaked up the egg well and didn't fall apart. To give it more flavor he beat some cinnamon and vanilla into the batter. He ate the cooked slices with real maple syrup, and declared it a good breakfst. Brioche is something I'd make again, just not right away. It was too time consuming for something that turned out average tasting. Perhaps if I try a different recipe next time, for comparison, I might change my mind and make it more often. As always, I don't consider it a complete waste of time. I really learned alot, AND I enjoyed myself despite how time consuming it was.

Written by Deb on November 3, 2003 12:01 AM