brioche - ad hoc at home

The grilled cheese recipe in ad hoc caught my eyes last week and in true Thomas Keller fashion, it required a specific ingredient. Brioche. It's rich, soft, flaky and delicious. Sure it's not as good for you as wheat bread (actually, it's not that healthy for you at all) but this bread just takes everything to a whole new level. Likewise, making the damn thing (by hand...as in kneading by hand) may take your stress levels to another dimension.

If you've never baked yeasted-breads before, a brioche isn't something you want to start off with. It's a rich and wet dough that's harder to knead than regular breads. Oh did I mention the inevitable mess and chaos you'll bring upon the kitchen? You'll find pieces of dough in places you'd never expect everywhere. Of course this process is made a lot easier (okay...helluva lot easier) if you have a Kitchen Aid mixer but if you don't have one like me (I'm willing to accept charitable donations) you're stuck with doing this by hand.

That being said, is there a point to making brioche at home when you can buy it at Whole Foods and local bakeries? Probably not, and I don't suggest that you make this at home unless you really want to and have a mixer. However, for the sake of this blog and to cook through ad hoc at home, I decided to make it while studying for finals. And if you haven't realized already - yes, I'm pretty fanatic about food.

Brioche

From ad hoc at home, Makes 2 Standard Loaves or 1 Pullman

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup warm water

- 1 package (2.25 teaspoons) of active dry yeast

- 2.333 cups cake flour

- 2 cups AP flour

- 1/3 cup granulated sugar

- 2.5 teaspoons fleur de sel or fine sea salt

- 6 large eggs, at room temperature

- 2.5 sticks (10 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes at room temperature

1) Combine water and yeast in a small bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast is completely dissolved. Set aside.

2) Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix. If using a mixer, beat for 1 minute at low speed scraping down the sides with a spatula as needed.

3) Add the dissolved yeast slowly and continue to mix. 5 minutes at low speed in a mixer.

4) Once the dough starts to come together, stop, scrape any dough off the dough hook and beat for another 5 minutes. By hand...use your dominant hand like a dough hook and turn the bowl with the other hand.

5) Add the butter cubes, one-quarter at a time and beating for a minute after each addition. Once all the butter has been added, beat for 10 minutes more or until the dough is smooth and silky. If you're doing this by hand...take out the dough from the bowl after incorporating all the butter and knead until the dough is smooth and silky - kitchen mess is unavoidable. (Butter is added a little bit at a time because if all of it is added at once, gluten will have difficulty forming)

(prepare for a messy ordeal)
6) Transfer the dough to a large floured bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it stand in a warm place (I use the inside of my oven) and let it double in size, about 3 hours.

(before)

(after)

7) Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and gently work out the air bubbles by folding the dough over several times while gently pressing down on it. I tri-fold my dough twice (see pictures below). Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

(first letter fold)

(second letter fold)

8) Butter or oil 2 loaf pans or one Pullman loaf pan. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and with floured hands, divide the dough in half. Shape it into a rectangle or other shapes as desired. Form the rectangle into a loaf and place it inside the pan.

(it'll look like this after chilling overnight)

9) Let the dough rise, uncovered in a warm place until it's risen/doubled in size. About 3 hours.

(I didn't have a brioche mold so I used a muffin tin instead)

10) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

11) Bake the brioche until it's well browned on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. 35-40 minutes for standard loaves and 45-50 minutes for Pullman's. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack.

12) If serving immediately, let it cool 10 minutes before slicing.

You can also freeze the brioche once it's baked. Wrap the hot bread in foil promptly and freeze. The brioche can be frozen up to 2 months and when ready to use, heat in a 250 degrees F oven (unthawed and still wrapped in foil) for 20 - 25 minutes until heated through.

Coming soon: ad hoc at home grilled cheese.