Brioche Bread

If you love butter, you'll live for this brioche bread. This recipe produces two loaves, each containing a whole stick of butter—so you can imagine how rich each fluffy bite will be. 

Brioche is a yeasted dough that falls firmly into the enriched dough camp. Unlike simple lean doughs (think French bread or pita bread) that only need flour, yeast, water, and salt, enriched dough also has sugar, butter or oil, eggs, and milk or cream. The added fat changes the dough's behavior at each stage and yields a tender bite and a soft crust.

What kind of flour should I use? We went with AP flour for this brioche recipe, but you can use bread flour or substitute half of the flour for white whole wheat flour. The critical thing to remember is that the texture of the brioche will change depending on the kind of flour you use. Flour with a higher protein content will form more gluten, resulting in a chewier brioche loaf. AP flour has 11-12% protein, bread flour has 12-13% protein, and white whole wheat flour has 13-14% protein.

What kind of yeast should I use? Active dry or instant yeast will both work in this case; because we're blooming the yeast in the sponge portion of the dough, the type of dry yeast you use has no impact on the final product. Yeast has to be alive to be effective, but you may get a packet full of dead yeast every now and then. To avoid starting your dough with dead yeast, pay special attention to the sponge to ensure it produces air pockets before proceeding. If the dough is flat with no bubbles, start again with a fresh packet of yeast.  

Can I make this dough by hand? Technically, yes, but the stand mixer will genuinely make your life 100x easier for this recipe. Because of the extensive amount of mixing that's required to develop the gluten properly and the slow, gradual addition of butter, doing this by hand will result in a very long, very arduous process. If you're without a stand mixer, but you absolutely must have fresh brioche, try working with a half batch to yield 1 loaf. Your arms will thank you!

This dough seems very wet and sticky! It is a very moist dough! Enriched with lots of eggs and butter for that insanely delicate crumb and fatty goodness, the dough will be quite sticky initially. This recipe uses large eggs measuring about 54 grams each. If your eggs run larger, use only 5 eggs to avoid an overly wet batter! Stickiness is a hallmark of enriched dough, so trust in the process and have the patience to let the gluten develop fully before adding in the butter.

How do I know when the gluten has developed properly? The windowpane test is a reliable way to check for gluten
development. To perform the test, take a small piece of dough and slowly stretch it out in opposite directions: if the dough becomes thin enough to appear semi-transparent (like a pane of glass in a dirty window) before it tears, you're there! You'll have an extra desirable chew in the bread once your dough gets to this stage. The surface of the dough should look shiny and smooth, and well-hydrated. If your dough struggles to pull away from the sides of the mixer, chances are you need to increase the mixer's speed. Stay nearby the mixer! You might have to hold it in place as it dances across your countertop with vigorous agitation.

How should I add the butter? Slowly and with great patience. The butter addition process should take no less than 10 minutes. If you add the butter in too fast, it will not "emulsify" into the dough and result
in an oily, broken dough. It'll still bake off well enough, but do it right, and your dough will look satisfyingly smooth, glossy, and plump. Like laminated dough, if your climate, kitchen, hands, or tools are particularly warm, it can cause the butter in the dough to separate and seep out. To combine warm temperatures, pop the dough into the refrigerator for a few minutes when you feel it start to become greasy.

Should I let the dough rest overnight? It's up to you! Generally, more time means more flavor when it comes to food. Aside from making the dough easier to handle, letting it sit in the fridge overnight is basically a slow fermentation that helps it develop a subtle depth of flavor. Because we're already letting some fermentation happen by using the sponge mixture, overnight proofing is unnecessary if you're looking to bake immediately. Or, if you're like me and love freshly baked bread straight out of the oven, bake one loaf on the day of, and save the other half of the dough to bake for the next day!

How do I know if my dough is overproofed? Unfortunately, a final result that tastes like fermented, hoppy beer-bread is the easiest way to tell if your bread dough sat in its proofing stage for too long. But of course, by then, the loaf is baked, and starting over is probably the last thing you'll want to do. Avoid scraping your hard work by paying particular attention to the dough during the proofing stage. Timing the dough is undoubtedly helpful, but noting how the dough looks is the most reliable way to tell if the dough has proved enough. Be sure to note where the dough sits in the bowl before it starts to rest so that you can get an accurate idea of where it should be when doubled in size. You can even mark the bowl with tape or a rubber band to track your dough-baby's progress.

Why do I have to shape with letter fold rolls? Of course, you don't have to, but I simply love shaping my softer breads like this for an easy pull-apart feature once baked: you won't even need a knife to get a perfect slice of fluffy heaven. If you want to make buns instead of loaves, try our recipe for perfect brioche buns to get the shaping technique right.