Mini brioche bread

I haven’t been so excited about food for a long time. The reason why…

Little brioche molds! I’ve found these last Friday and I spend all Saturday looking for a brioche recipe! I even look at some videos online and I never do that! So I knew it was serious. Even though the hubby said no more cooking I had to do it.

My sister in law got me these super cute measurement cups. No more converting cups to grams! Thanks sis!

I’ve found several recipes, some very easy (mix all the ingredients together and you’re good to go) some more time consuming. As much as I would like to go for an easy recipe the pictures of the end product didn’t look as airy and fluffy as I wanted it to be. I wanted to have a brioche that didn’t need like 8 eggs and a ton of butter but still turned out light and fluffy. So I picked this one because most recipes talk about making a sponge first and this recipe seems to describe the steps the easiest:

http://www.food.com/recipe/brioche-51546

I know the 38 steps on the site are quite intimidating, but I’ll break it down in lesser steps to make it easier. Everything is mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook so there’s really no need to knead it by hand. Also it takes a lot of (resting) time before you can bake the brioche so make sure you either have plenty of time or make one day ahead.

For the about 50 mini brioches or 3 loaves you’ll need to make the sponge first:

Put 1/3 cup of lukewarm milk, 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast, 1 egg and 1 cup of all purpose flour in a bowl and mix it till everything is blended. There will be lumps of flour in there but don’t worry, this will all smoothen out. Then cover the mixture with 1 cup of flour and set it aside uncovered for about 30-40 minutes.

 

After the resting time you should see some cracks indicating that the yeast is active and doing what it has to do. If you don’t see any cracks this means your yeast is dead and you’ll have to make a new batch.

Now it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients:

-       1/3 cup of sugar

-       1 teaspoon of salt

-       4 room temperature eggs slightly beaten

-       1 package of vanilla sugar (about 1 teaspoon)

-       1 ½ cup of all purpose flour

-       185 grams of unsalted room temperature butter (I know the recipe talks about 6 ounces (about 170 gram) but I use a bit more)

Add everything to the sponge mixture except for the butter and ½ cup of flour. Mix it in your stand mixer with the dough hook on low till medium speed till all the flour is incorporated then add the ½ cup of flour and mix it again for about 15 minutes till you have a smooth dough. Make sure you stop every now and then to scrape down the sides and the hook. A lot of dough will get stuck and try to work their way up, just stop and push it back down. I don’t think I made the 15 minutes since my stand mixer was bumping up and down like crazy and I didn’t want to overwork the machine. So I stopped when they dough got together and wrapped itself around the hook. At this point the dough won’t be stuck to the sides either.

Now it’s time to incorporate the butter. Since it is room temperature it’s easier to mix it in the dough. Mix it tablespoon by tablespoon till all the butter is incorporated. Mix it till the dough wraps itself around the hook again and slaps to the sides of the bowl. If needed add some more flour.

Butter a big bowl and pour the dough in. It should be elastic and shiny. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for about 2-2 1/2 hours or till it doubles in volume.

Then leave the dough in the bowl but use your fingers to tuck the sides in. Work your way around the dough till you tucked it all in and all the air is out. Then cover it again and let it rest in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours, but preferably overnight.

The next day the dough double in size again and is ready for baking.

Since I had so much dough there was room for experimenting. I made 20 mini brioches in a brioche mold and 20 in my trusted mini muffin molds. And even then there was some dough left, so I chopped some dark chocolate and filled the dough to make some chocolate brioche.

After forming the bread it had to rest for about 1 hour or till it doubled in volume again.

 

Brush it with some egg wash and bake it in a preheated oven (190C degrees as in the recipe is way too hot, 170C degrees is better) for about 15-25 minutes till they are golden. By now the house smells like a French bakery!

The brioche was so light and fluffy. This recipe is a winner! I’ve never made brioche before so if can do it…everyone can!

PS: if you like your brioche sweet you should add some more sugar. For me it wasn’t sweet enough!