Brioche

Brioche is, without a doubt, the gold standard of enriched bread, the yardstick by which all others are measured. It is unashamedly rich with a melt-in-the-mouth quality and has a relatively soft, thin crust that can be squished without cracking. It has a tight, even crumb that, when baked correctly, can be torn apart like cotton candy into fluffy strips. Although brioche may sound complicated or fancy, it’s made from common pantry staples: flour, butter, eggs, salt, and sugar. In fact, its proportions of butter and sugar to flour are similar to pie dough. And much like pie dough, brioche is all about the butter, just expressed differently. Instead of being crisp and flaky, brioche is pillowy and soft, thanks to an almost three-fold increase in hydration (about 25% for pie dough versus 70% for brioche), mainly in the form of eggs and the addition of yeast.Remove the yeast from a list of brioche ingredients and one could mistake the ingredient list for cake, and they'd be right! Brioche is the original cake; consider the famous mistranslation of “Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!,” which may or may not have actually been said by Marie Antoinette, to “Let them eat cake.” After all, it was only with the introduction of chemical leaveners like baking soda in the mid-1800s that we began to disassociate cake with yeast. To boot, brioche has a much lower sugar content than the average modern cake, which makes it an incredibly versatile cake-like bread for both savory and sweet applications. It lends itself equally well to sandwiches and burgers as it does to being soaked with syrups, speckled with chocolate chips, or swirled with jam.

What is Brioche: A Look at Ingredients and Ratios

In the world of breads, there are two basic categories: lean and enriched. Lean doughs refer to your typical sandwich bread, pizza, or baguette and have little to no sugar or fat added. When a dough is enriched, it means it has been bolstered with sugar, eggs, or fat to create various textures and flavors. From Parker House rolls to challah, panettone to cinnamon buns, you’ve probably been enchanted by the softer and fluffier profile of enriched doughs.

When you slice open a loaf of well-made brioche, you’ll be greeted with an ultra fine crumb. This is partly thanks to the yeast which ferments the flour and produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand in the oven, causing the bread to rise. The rest can be attributed to the butter. As the bread bakes, the butter (which was dispersed throughout the dough during the mixing process) melts, lubricating the dough around it and leaving pockets of air bubbles in the gluten structure. Once it cools, all the melted fat re-solidifies in the crumb, yielding a springy yet delicate bread.

Whilst there is no strict formula for brioche, there are some commonalities we can rely on.

The Fat

First, there needs to be a significant proportion of fat in a brioche dough, which comes mostly in the form of butter. In baker’s percentages or baker’s math (where we calculate the percentage of an ingredient in proportion to the total weight of the flour), a true brioche should be well above 30% in fat, usually in the 45% to 80% range, though recipes may go all the way to 100%. Below 30%, you are getting into demi-brioche territory, a designation bakers use to refer to less buttery dough. Brioche with more butter will rise the least and is dense and rich. This is because fat inhibits gluten development and increasing the amount of butter in dough will ultimately limit the strength potential of the gluten network. Brioche made with less butter will sit taller but have a less tender, yet flavorful crumb. Although you wouldn’t think it with those percentages, a well-made brioche of any fat percentage will always be very light.

The Eggs

Second, eggs are key. They work to bind the ingredients together, both as a hydrating agent and an emulsifier, while providing flavor, color, moisture, and structure in the final loaf. Yolks contain lecithin, an emulsifier that is both hydrophilic (water-loving) and lipophilic (fat-loving), meaning it binds the water and fat components in the brioche dough. The proportion of yolks and whites makes a big difference on the final loaf. Brioche made with whites alone produces a brioche that is more similar to sandwich bread, while brioche made only with yolks has a vibrant, tall, and rich crumb that towers over its white counterpart. This is because lecithin, with its emulsifying power, helps to retain bubble structures by stabilizing the interaction between the at-odds fat and water in the dough, thus improving extensibility and volume in the final loaf. Without the emulsifying power of the eggs, you are limited in how much fat you can incorporate into the dough successfully―anything above 50% will leave you with a greasy mess after baking, just like a broken mayonnaise. It may be helpful to consider brioche as an emulsion that can break under heat and stress. If it breaks, the final dough will have little solid beads of butterfat distributed throughout after chilling. Although you could bake it, the final texture would be subpar and somewhat greasy.

The Flour

Since brioche is a highly structured dough, with its interweaving web of fat, eggs, gluten and sugar, the use of strong bread flour, which has a protein content of 12.7% or above, is essential because fat, especially in high proportions, inhibits gluten development. When added to the dough, the fat coats the flour, preventing the proteins from forming long chains of gluten.

It’s possible to make brioche with all-purpose flour by reducing the hydration slightly, since lower protein flour can absorb less water (the proteins gliadin and glutenin, which form gluten, can absorb around twice their weight in water). But possible doesn't mean advisable. The seemingly minor protein difference between all-purpose flour (10-11%) and bread flour (12-13%) is enough to make a big difference in the quality of your brioche even after accounting for the necessary shift in hydration. In my experience, brioche made with all-purpose flour is more likely to produce a sad soupy dough instead of a happy springy one. And instead of brioche that's chewy and fluffy, loaves made with all-purpose flour tend to be spongier and more cake-like with a low, wide profile. There simply isn’t enough gluten produced from all-purpose flour to support the structure of the final baked product.

The Sugar, Water, Yeast, and More

While butter, eggs, and flour are the main building blocks of brioche, there are other essential supporting ingredients that help define its final characteristics. Sugar kickstarts fermentation and helps the dough retain moisture, as well as adding a pleasant but subtle sweetness. Salt strengthens the gluten structure and helps ensure a successful fermentation by inhibiting microbial activity. Yeast, which must be fresh or instant due to the mixing method, is at a slightly higher baker’s percentage of 1.8% compared to most yeasted breads (for reference, a typical loaf of white sandwich bread is 1.5%) to accommodate the enriching ingredients, namely sugar. Although sugar at first boosts the yeast, anything above 5% (this recipe is 14%) will ultimately slow down the fermentation process. Sugar, being highly hygroscopic, steals water from everything, including yeast cells. As a result, enriched doughs generally benefit from a slightly higher proportion of yeast. 

As always, water (in the form of eggs, milk, and butter) plays an important role in the character of the final loaf. When it comes to hydration level, brioche is generally in the range of 60% to 80%, depending on the desired final product. A 100% brioche is outrageously airy and soft but difficult to make and runs the risk of stressing your stand mixer beyond repair. Brioche made with lower hydration is better for shaped bread, like babka, as it is less sticky and easier to manipulate. In this recipe, I aim for just under 70%, which strikes a great balance between airy and robust.

The Mixing Process

The word brioche comes from the French verb, broyer, which means “to pound,” so you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that this dough needs a lot of mixing. Like, a lot.

Traditionally, brioche is made by mixing the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, eggs, and milk (often referred to as hydrating agents) in a bowl. When placing the ingredients in the bowl, I make sure to keep the yeast apart from the sugar and salt as an insurance policy since the two ingredients affect the performance of yeast by stealing all of its water. (Although it’s unlikely to do damage in such small quantities, it’s better to be safe than sorry). The ingredients are mixed until medium gluten development is reached, the point at which the dough can be stretched but will tear easily. After this, softened butter is added piece by piece, and the mixing continues until full gluten development is achieved, the point at which the dough can be easily stretched into a very thin sheet without tearing. This is also known as the windowpane test. During this mixing process, long chains of gluten are formed, which ensures lofty loaves. Once mixed, the dough undergoes a long, cold fermentation in the refrigerator where it develops flavor and, crucially, firms up as the butter chills, making it easy to work with. 

Although I’m sharing the most widely-accepted way to make brioche, there are plenty of other ways to force the butter into the dough. For starters, it is possible to ‘hyper mix’ brioche, a technique which involves throwing all the ingredients in the bowl and hammering the dough for up to 40 minutes in a mechanical mixer. I don’t recommend this due to the risk of overheating and damaging the dough (I’ll get into that shortly.)

On the other extreme, you can make brioche in a no-knead style, but it will never rise as tall as a mechanically-mixed brioche since the gluten chains are not as long. The same goes for brioche mixed in a food processor: it can be done incredibly quickly (5 minutes!), but the slicing action of the blades limits the long protein chains, and the result is a loaf with smaller volume, no matter how long you proof it. You can also make brioche by hand, but it is not advisable due to the warmth of your hands, which is likely to melt the butter over long periods.

This recipe employs the traditional mixing method, but I incorporate a few tactics to improve the process and final product.

Better Brioche Tactic 1: The Importance of Resting and Temperature Control

Temperature plays an important role in the success of brioche. When you mix the dough, you must balance gluten development with fermentation. These two processes are at odds with one another: Fat inhibits gluten development so a fat-containing dough needs to be worked more. However, working the dough results in a rise in temperature, which risks amping up the fermentation too much. If the yeast ferments the flour before a strong gluten network has been established, you will end up with a sticky dough that isn't strong enough to hold onto the little bubbles of carbon dioxide created during fermentation. 

As you mix the dough, the friction generated by the mixer turns to heat. This, alongside the warmth from the surrounding atmosphere, can mean a rapid climb in dough temperature (since the rate of fermentation and temperature are linked, it’s important to take steps to control this). Taking strategic rests during the mixing process can limit this heat transfer. These downtimes serve as mini autolyse periods. Gluten will happily develop on its own without any interference or mechanical kneading. All you need to do is introduce flour and water and leave them to it―this is known as autolyse. During these rest periods, the tightened gluten strands relax and the dough will show improved flexibility and elasticity. As a result, these rest periods result in a reduction of the overall and active mixing time. Don’t forget that when it comes to bread, doing nothing is something!

Better Brioche Tactic 2: Controlling Temperature

Brioche is a sensitive beast, and because we all live in different climates and keep our homes at different temperatures, not one method fits all. Given the prolonged mixing process and heat it creates, I recommend first chilling all the dry ingredients, a step worthwhile no matter what temperature your home is. 

Since air is being incorporated into the dough during the mixing process, the ambient temperature of the environment is crucial. I first tested this recipe in the summer and using both chilled flour and plasticised butter (cold butter that has been pounded until malleable without warming it up much; it will incorporate similarly to butter that's been softened by letting it warm slightly, but won’t raise the final dough temperature by as much) was essential to keeping the dough relatively cool. However, upon retesting in the winter in a much cooler home, I found that softened butter (65°F/18°C) incorporated more effectively.

After mixing, the dough should be around 77°F (25°C). If the dough is less than 77°F (25°C), I rely on a short ferment (about one hour) at room temperature to allow the yeast to establish before moving the dough into the refrigerator to cold proof. If your yeast is not properly established at this stage, the final proof will take around 50% longer. Although yeast should, in theory, come alive anytime, I often notice that enriched doughs performs poorly in the final proof if the dough hasn’t undergone fermentation and the yeast has clearly become active. For this recipe, you do not need the dough to double, you are just looking for visual puffiness.

Better Brioche Tactic 3: Holding Back the Sugar

Thought butter was gluten’s biggest enemy? Think again! Brioche dough is also under attack from the sugar. Sugar is highly hygroscopic, meaning it loves water. Sugar will do anything—beg, steal, or borrow—to get a hold of moisture. Because of this, it immediately begins to compete with the flour for water once added. To avoid this, I hold back the sugar until after I've added a portion of the butter. There are several benefits to this: The first lot of butter incorporates more easily into a denser sugarless dough―it’s almost like tempering, like you would egg yolks for custard, by adding a bit of butter in and preparing it for the next stage, allowing the dough to adjust to the fat. When you add the sugar, the dough will temporarily appear slacker and wetter as the sugar rapidly draws water from the gluten structure. However, since the dough is already well developed from the first stages of mixing, it will recover quickly. If you were to add the sugar at the beginning of the mixing process, the initial gluten development would take much longer (see Better Brioche Tactic 1).

Shaping, Proofing, and Baking Brioche

The final shaping of the brioche will impact the bread's crumb. I offer two ways to shape the dough in my recipe below. The first is what's called brioche Nanterre, in which a series of dough balls are proofed together in one loaf pan, giving you a highly tearable, pull-apart bread, and the other is a classic loaf, which is simply rolled up and proofed as one big piece of dough, that is great for slicing. Beware of dusting with too much flour during the final shaping stage as it can prevent the dough from fusing together.

The proofing and baking stages are the last chances for you to make a significant impact on your loaf: Slightly underproofing your dough will give you the largest oven spring but will likely result in a large rip in the crust as the under-fed yeasts have a maniacal last supper, and the heat of the oven causes a fermentation spike and a more erratic, slightly drier crumb. On the other hand, pushing the loaf to the other extreme by overproofing will result in a less dramatic spring but an airier crumb, though it may be at risk of deflation after baking. For brioche, I err on the side of being overproofed to achieve that light, fluffy crumb. Depending on the ambient room temperature, the refrigerator temperature, and the shaping of the dough, the proofing stage will take anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 5 hours.

To promote oven spring, preheating the oven slightly hotter (400°F) than the baking temperature (350°F) will encourage an initial rapid rise. Although brioche has plenty of butter to effectively brown on its own, a slick of egg wash adds a luxurious shine befitting of such a decadent loaf. When fresh, there’s not much better than slicing your brioche and enjoying it slathered with jam. (There’s no need to add butter since brioche is its own source of fat and, when lightly toasted, those buttery flavors come through even more.) It also makes for an over-the-top grilled cheese, an indulgent breakfast sandwich, and serves as exemplary soldiers for dipping into soft boiled eggs and as the ultimate base for French toast.