Brioche: A lovely, fancy bread

by Kate Chu

Hello, I’m Kate!

I’m currently an undergraduate student at Northwestern finishing up my last

year. I’m studying Biomedical Engineering (BME) in McCormick and love finding new hobbies to take a break from my studies.

During my winter break, I started baking!

I wanted to try a brioche recipe because I had never baked bread before and love brioche on its own, used in French toast, and as a dessert with ice cream and caramel syrup. Instagram: @kxtechu

I followed a recipe on

The Woks of Life by Judy: https://thewoksoflife.com/homemade-brioche-recipe/

Kate Chu

Homemade Brioche

Brioche is a lovely French bread that uses a lot of eggs and butter and takes two days to make. There is really no short cut, because it calls for an overnight cold proofing. Also, if you've ever made bread before, this dough will feel a bit different. It is wet and sticky during the entire process, but still easy to work with. I'm telling you all this not to discourage you, but so you can plan ahead as homemade brioche is well worth the time, effort and patience it takes to make it from scratch. Most of all, it is incredibly delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoon salt

4 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup warm water

6 eggs, room temperature

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

Sugar-water topping:

2 teaspoons sugar +1 tablespoon warm water

Directions:

Day 1:

In an electric mixer, add yeast, sugar, salt, and 1 cup of the flour and mixed evenly.

Add warm water and turn the mixer on to medium speed until well-combined.

Add 1 egg at a time, allowing each egg to mix evenly.

Turn mixer to low and add 2 more cups of flour, ¼ cup at a time, and mix until well-combined.

Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, and allow butter to incorporate evenly into

dough.

Add in remaining flour, ¼ cup at a time, and allow dough to combine thoroughly.

Oil sides of a large bowl and place dough in it making sure to scrape down sides of mixing bowl.

Cover large bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to proof at room temperature for 3 hours.

Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down and cover again. Place dough in refrigerator overnight (~ 8 hours)

Day 2:

Take dough out of refrigerator and divide into 2 equal portions (each portion is

enough for two loaves).

Clean and sprinkle flour on your working surface with extra flour for your hands.

Shape dough to your liking and place in an oiled loaf pan or any other oven-safe

dish. Cover pans and allow dough to proof at room temperature for 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake loaves in center of oven for 35 to 40

minutes. While loaves are baking, prepare sugar-water topping by mixing sugar (2 teaspoons) and warm water (1 tablespoon).

Take loaves out of oven and immediately apply sugar-water topping with a brush to

top crust of bread. Allow bread to sit in pan for at least 5 minutes before removing.

I loved this recipe because the dough was really easy to work with and shape into different

designs. I also thought it was the perfect portion size to share with family members and keep

for myself to try out different recipes with the brioche.

As you can tell, I also made a raisin loaf by sprinkling some raisins into the dough when I was shaping it.

As someone who enjoys raisins, I really liked this variation. I’m also a big fan of this recipe because I’m a small person trying to gain weight and this brioche is definitely an enjoyable way for me to boost my daily calorie intake!

Let me know if you ended up making the brioche, and if you tried anything different with the dough, or added some fun ingredients! Enjoy!

- Kate Chu