Secret Recipe Club: Brioche

For my first Secret Recipe Club post I was lucky enough to get to choose a recipe by none other than Rebecca from A Dusting of Sugar.  Her blog is fairly new, but there is a nice variety of recipes and you can bet I'll be visiting again soon!

On top of the great recipes, if you are lucky enough to live in her area, Rebecca also does custom cake and dessert orders.  Not being much of a baker myself, that would come in handy.  I wonder if she delivers to Utah? 

One thing about her blog that intrigued me was the vegan recipes.  Now, being highly carnivorous myself, (think T-Rex) I've never even tried to make anything vegan.  We've gone meatless once in a while, but I've never worried about the milk and eggs.  So her blog has a lot of new thing for me to try.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm really not much of a baker.  I love to cook, but not bake.  Breads are something I'm not super confidant making.  So as I was reading through the blog I ran across a posting for Brioche.  Its something I'd heard of but never attempted to make.  The reason I chose this recipe is that Rebecca said what awesome French Toast this bread makes.  French Toast?  I'm all over it!! Its my favorite breakfast food.

The dough was an absolute dream to work with.  If all bread dough was as smooth and silky as this was, I'd be baking it every day!  Just the texture of the dough gave me a hint of what the finished bread would be like.

So how was the finished bread?  In a word, unbelievable!  The crumb is so soft and tender.  And the color it gets from the egg yolks is so beautiful.  It was light and buttery and delicious.  And Rebecca was right, French Toast is amazing made from Brioche.

Would you look at how high it rose in the oven?  How could it be anything BUT light and delicious!

Brioche

Makes 1 loaf

2/3 cup milk
1½ tsp dried yeast
5 egg yolks, at room temperature, lightly beaten
3 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
2 T sugar, plus extra for dusting
10.5 T butter, diced and softened

For brushing: egg wash

  

Warm milk until it reaches around 100-110 degrees F. Combine yeast, 1 tsp of sugar .and half the milk in a bowl, stirring to dissolve. Stand in a warm place until foamy (8-10 minutes)

Whisk remaining milk with egg yolks in a bowl and set aside.

Mix flour, remaining sugar and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a dough hook, until combined. Make a well in the center, add yeast mixture and yolk mixture. Beat on medium speed until a smooth dough forms (4-5 minutes).

While mixing, gradually add one-third of butter at a time, beat until dough is elastic and pulls away from sides of bowl (8-10 minutes).  Transfer to a lightly buttered bowl, cover and stand until doubled in size (1½-2 hours). 

Punch dough, knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth, shape into a loaf and place in an 9"x 5" greased loaf pan. Cover, stand until doubled in size (30 minutes-1 hour). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350.

Brush top with eggwash, dust with sugar, bake until golden and risen (25-30 minutes).

Source:  A Dusting of Sugar