Bread

Sugared Cardamom Brioche

by:
January  4, 2018
3.8
4 Ratings
Sugared Cardamom Brioche
Photo by Posie Harwood
  • Makes one loaf
Author Notes

The crunch of Swedish pearl sugar is a lovely contrast to the pillowy, ethereal texture of this cardamom-scented bread. You can make it in any shape you like, but I love baking in a loaf and watching it rise loftily above the pan in the oven.

Featured In: New Year, New (Sugared Cardamom) Brioche —Posie (Harwood) Brien

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 3/4 cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup (56 grams) lukewarm milk
  • 5 eggs (save one egg for the egg wash)
  • 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom (or less to taste)
  • 1/4 cup Swedish pearl sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
  1. Add all the ingredients, except for 1 of the eggs (reserving it to use for the egg wash) and the pearl sugar, and mix in the bowl of a stand mixer until satiny and smooth. This will take at least 10 minutes of mixing and kneading as the dough is quite sticky and rich, so don't despair! Keep at it until the dough comes together nicely.
  2. Transfer the dough to a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight (or for at least 4 hours).
  3. When ready to bake, lightly grease a standard (9") loaf pan.
  4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place them in the pan, placing each ball slightly offset from each other.
  5. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour, or until puffy and the dough rises to the top of the pan. Just before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F.
  6. Beat the reserved egg with a tablespoon of water and lightly brush the egg wash over the surface of your dough. Sprinkle liberally with the pearl sugar.
  7. Bake the bread for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown on the top. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
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  • Donna B
    Donna B
  • Marina D Polak
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  • Lynda Renaud
    Lynda Renaud
  • Darci M.
    Darci M.
  • Posie (Harwood) Brien
    Posie (Harwood) Brien

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21 Reviews

Donna B.
Donna B. July 13, 2018
My bad 🤗. Thank you
 
Donna B.
Donna B. July 13, 2018
I read this recipe over, although I haven’t tried it yet, the instructions say to add the pearl sugar to the dough. I believe this is incorrect. The granulated sugar should be added to the towel in the Purl sugar sprinkled on the top.
Donna
 
Posie (.
Posie (. July 13, 2018
If you read it again you’ll see that it says to add all the ingredients EXCEPT the pearl sugar to the dough! It’s just for sprinkling!
 
Nicole
Nicole January 21, 2018
Friends, if I don't have a stand mixer, what is a good alternative? Use the dough hook (spirals) for my hand mixer (and for how long)? Or just mix by hand with my strongest arm?
 
Posie (.
Posie (. January 21, 2018
You can totally do it by hand (bakers have been for generations!) but it’ll take a lot of muscle!
 
Nicole
Nicole January 21, 2018
Thanks! Sounds like the hand mixer won't be much help (?). Brioche will be the reward for all the exercise.
 
Marina D.
Marina D. January 20, 2018
Too bad when i first printed this recipie it did not have a metric mesurement. Just saw it now, thank you for putting it it now. That's great to have. Thank you thank you
 
Lynda R.
Lynda R. January 20, 2018
I live in Canada, we do not have butter sold by 'stick' I have come to the conclusion, from reading recipes, that it's approx. 1/2 cup.
 
sabrina
sabrina April 28, 2018
I also live in Canada and we have butter sticks (Lactantia-My Country). Most butter is sold by grams though, at least what I buy in European stores. 1 stick is roughly 110g
 
Kevin K.
Kevin K. January 7, 2018
This preoccupation with metric measurements for everything drives me nuts. It's two STICKS of butter and 2.75 CUPS flour. Full stop. One can be assured that, these days, virtually every blog/recipe site/etc. I read will have at least one poster (usually several) that whines (or feels some need to comment on) the lack of metric everything in the the ingredient list. This is nonsense. First, not everyone can be bothered to weigh everything in every case - I don't and I've been cooking professionally for over 45 years - and in most cases it is absolutely unnecessary. This fixation that everything MUST be weighed because accuracy to the gran (or tenth of a gram) is so crucial to good results is utterly without merit - and, for many people, it makes cooking too formulaic and far less enjoyable. Except in fairly rare cases this sort of precision is wholly unnecessary.
 
Sheryl W.
Sheryl W. January 9, 2018
Many of the people asking for metric live in countries where the term one stick of butter would have no meaning. The cup measurement is not used everywhere...the internet is international...get used to it. I agree that measuring for a home cook in the US is often overkill (depending on the recipe.
 
Kevin K.
Kevin K. January 9, 2018
Certainly the Net is international. And I agree that the cup is not used everywhere. But neither is metric, even though more common. It's easy enough for the writer (and due diligence, actually) to simply state " 1 stick butter (4oz/110g)" or "220g butter (2 sticks/8oz)" or whatever. It's the insistence by so many posters (and some sites) that EVERYTHING requires a metric weight (for eg., part of a recipe on Chefsteps right now: 66g cilantro, 23g lime juice, 9.5g salt...) that I find ridiculous. It's this nonsensical requirement to weigh every single ingredient that makes me crazy.
 
Yvonnez
Yvonnez January 11, 2018
One cup of AP flour is 150g. Flour weight in this recipe should be more like 420g.
 
Posie (.
Posie (. January 11, 2018
Hi Yvonne, I actually use 120 grams as a cup of AP flour for my measurement when baking, always (I've always followed the King Arthur Flour guidelines). Everyone uses a slightly different guideline I know, which is why I'm providing both.
 
sabrina
sabrina April 28, 2018
Juice or other liquids are measured in l or ml. If you want imperial (only US) it's fl oz or other volumetric units.
Solid ingredients are measured by weight in g (metric) or oz/lb (imperial)
 
hmm7cornell
hmm7cornell January 7, 2018
In my typical rush to get things done, I overlooked the butter in the ingredients list because it was after the dusting sugar... but the bread was still delicious.
 
Dandelion
Dandelion January 7, 2018
So the butter goes in the dough?
 
Posie (.
Posie (. January 7, 2018
Yes! I've reordered the ingredients so that it's clearer.
 
Darci M.
Darci M. January 6, 2018
This is basically a lovely Nisua bread...so good.
 
pea
pea January 6, 2018
So that's about 340 g flour and 225 g butter for us metric people?
 
judy
judy January 5, 2018
I use this for the basis of my version of Pannetone each holiday. I do add a little cardamom and coriander seed to the dough. wonderful flavor.