This brioche is simple, quite unpretentious and low-key, light, fluffy but nonetheless very tasty, just like we enjoy to have on some mornings with butter, jam and strong coffee. There are many versions and kinds of brioches, you just have to play around with quantities of eggs, flour, sugar butter and yeast, but the technique is always the same: a “pâte levée“, a “rised dough” . Pâte levée technique consists of preparing the dough the night before with a yeast, then refrigerate it overnight. The cold will enable the dough to ferment slowly in a cold environment, therfore acidity developed by the cells of the yeast will give more flavor to the ingredients and a better aspect to the dough due to the reinforcement of the tenacity of gluten.

Anyone who has been to France knows what brioche is, it’s probably as famous as Eiffel Tower, baguette and croissant. After brioche tressée that tastes more like Pain au lait (milk bread?) that I have been making for a while and the extra rich Farro brioche with goose egg, I went back to a more simple and traditional version of brioche. Retour à la simplicité.

Basically its origin goes back to Middle Ages in Normandy where similar “rised dough” have been retraced. Brioche is not considered a bread in France but a viennoiserie, which is slightly different. Techniques of making viennoiseries are similar to those of making bread but since they have more fat and sugar content, they’re considered more like pastries.

On Friday evenings when I realize I have nothing left for the Saturday morning breakfast, I start making one of those brioches, yes it needs to be prepared the night before and needs to rise in the refrigerator overnight for a light and fluffy dough. I am afraid you cannot cut any corners if you don’t have a bread-machine and will have to wait for the day after to enjoy it.

Breakfast is sacred in my little world and getting up in the morning with nothing to eat is not an option! Even though I have been living in the US for many years, I am not used to the brunch concept, I guess it’s hard to change habits. Brunch is a little confusing, it makes sense if you get up at 11 am but not if you’re up at 7 am like me and have breakfast as early as 7:30 am, call me boring but I like to stick to my traditional coffee, bread, jam and butter in the mornings. Et non, on ne se débarasse pas de ses habitudes comme ca! (no, you don’t get rid of your habits so easily!).

I have been playing around with ingredients quantities, putting less sugar than required because I love jam on my brioche slice so it’s sweet enough for me but you can certainly add more sugar in the dough if your tooth is sweeter.

Ingredients for 6 people

• 10.58 oz (300 g) flour
• 1.5 cup lukewarm milk
• 1.41 oz (40 g) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3.17 oz (90 g) butter
• 1 dose dry yeast or fresh yeast
• 2 pinches salt

Preparation

Place flour in a mixing bowl, add dry yeast (if using fresh yeast, needs to be dissolved in milk), sugar. Mix well all ingredients.

Add one egg, milk and salt and gradually mix all ingredients. When the dough has thickened, add the extra egg. Knead the dough to incorporate the egg. It might be sticky at the beginning, but keep kneading.

Add butter at the end and mix until the dough becomes elastic but not too sticky. Let it rise for 3 hours. Then, knead a little to remove the “air”.

Place in the refrigerator overnight with a plastic warp, and preventing air from getting into the container.

In the morning, remove dough from the refrigerator, knead slightly and cut in 4 equal parts and form little balls. Place each ball in a greased rectangular baking pan loaf.

Let it rise for an additional hour and cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy plain or with your favorite jam. I don’t usually add extra butter, since the dough has already some, but you can!

One thing I miss about France is their croissants and brioches you can get at the boulanger (the backer) anytime of the day. They are crunchy, moist in the middle and so delicious. Again, San Francisco has quite a few decent French bakeries where you can go grab the Sunday morning croissants, pains au chocolat, or any other viennoiseries (pastries).  

I do not consider myself  a great baker, and eventhough I like to make desserts, it is not what I prefer to cook, probably because I prefer savory dishes than sweet ones. I wanted anyway to try to make a brioche, since I knew this Sunday morning, no croissants would be waiting on the table. Breakfast is sacred for me, and one morning without breakfast especially on weekends, is ruined. I made this brioche a few times and always turned out perfect. Don’t get intimidated to make it, you cannot fail with this one. Fresh yeast is not easy to find in the US, in France you can buy it at any boulangerie (bakery). In San Francisco, the Rainbow has it, it’s sold in solid cubes and is quite inexpensive but that’s the only location, I have seen it. If you cannot find any fresh yeast, you can use the dry one sold in jar or individual bags. I prefer to use fresh yeast when I make pizza dough, brioches or any pastry, just because I think it rise better or tastes better, which might not necessarily be true.

I know brioches and croissants are filled with butter and quite heavy, so I wanted to make one with little butter, and little sugar, this brioche is in between a traditional brioche and a pain au lait (milk rolls). You can keep it for a few days, you just have to wrap a fabric towel around to keep its moisture. You can also serve this brioche with a fruit salad and ice cream as a dessert.

Ingredients for 8 people

• 1 lb unbleached white flour (or 500 g)
• 1/2 lb milk
• 1/4 cup soft butter 
• 1 egg (+ 1 for the outside of the brioche)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp fresh yeast dissolved in 6 tbs lukewarm water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together except for the butter. Add butter at the end when you already have a nice dough consistency. Incorporate butter but do not mix too much. If the dough is too sticky add some flour but do not make it to hard or it will not rise. The dough should be somehow elastic.

Let the dough rise for about 1h30 hours. Knead the dough again and place in the refrigerator overnight. 

Knead the dough once more, and cut it in theree equal pieces. Roll them to form three stickes and start braiding them. Place in a flat tray, and let rise for another 1h30 hrs. 

Using a brush, baste egg all around the brioche and cook in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 370F.

Let cool and enjoy with jam and butter.