Milk/Cream

My best briocheĀ loaf

February 29, 2016
4.7
3 Ratings
Photo by Oh Sweet Day!
  • Makes two loaves
Author Notes

My best brioche loaf —Oh Sweet Day!

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup milk, warm to touch
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active yeast
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Directions
  1. To prepare the dough, mix milk, sugar and yeast in the standing mixer. Let sit for 10 minutes, or until you see foam at the stop.
  2. With a paddle attachment, beat in eggs, one at a time, until the mixture becomes light and creamy.
  3. Add the flour and salt, continue mixing until the flour is incorporated.
  4. When the mixer is running, slowly add small pieces of softened butter.
  5. Let the mixer knead the dough for another 5 minutes. The dough will become very stretchy and sticky.
  6. Place the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
  7. Leave the dough in refrigerator overnight.
  8. The next day, remove dough from the fridge. Let it come to room temperature.
  9. Grease 2 loaf pans and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
  10. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 10 pieces and roll them into balls. Place 5 dough balls in each prepared pan. Cover with tea towel and let it rise for another 2 hours.
  11. Preheat oven to 350F.
  12. Mix egg yolk and cream. Lightly brush the egg wash over each loaf. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the loaves are golden brown on top.
  13. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before slicing.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Regine
    Regine
  • labeil
    labeil

4 Reviews

labeil April 23, 2020
Love this bread, It turned out great - but it is a low loaf so for my son who like grilled cheese I am going to try to do just a loaf and not the balls or I may try to do 5 and 5 balls and see if I can get more height - it is delicious by itself and very buttery and light - also great with am coffee - thank you for this amazing recipe to enter into brioche baking!!!
 
Regine January 28, 2017
I finally made this brioche. Out of this world!!!!! The best indeed. 2 things though. First, I beat dough longer than 5 minutes to make sure it passed windowpane test. Second, my cue to know when dough had risen enough was not the 2 hours in your instructions but the doubling of the dough in the first rise, and the dough reaching top of pans in the 2nd rise. Thanks for this great recipe.
 
Regine March 7, 2016
Does dough need to pass windowpane test (stretching a piece of dough to see if it stretches without tearing and one can somewhat see through it like in a window)?
 
Regine March 7, 2016
I am going to make this this week. 8 inch loaf pans?