I love a good brioche. Whether in its classic small shape with a little ball of dough on top or in the form of a loaf, the rich, buttery bread is something I slather with lots of butter and any of several jams and jellies we have in stock in the pantry or fridge. And baking bread has one of the most comforting aromas known to man, or at least Marketman. :) For many years, I would get my brioche fix on trips abroad, but we only get to Paris every 5 years or so (where I can eat brioche at any decent bakery 3 times a day) and New York. I haven’t really found a local source in Manila (any ideas?). And yet the basic recipe is so close to an old fashioned ensaimada, so I figured I should just try and make this at home, but I wanted a simple recipe to start of my brioche baking adventure…
And it doesn’t get much simpler than an Ina Garten or Barefoot Contessa recipe. And frankly, this turned out REALLY nice. I made it on a terribly humid day, so I was surprised that the dough managed to rise so much, but the bread itself was substantial, rich and not too sweet. It had a fantastic yellow color and a medium dense crumb that was the perfect base for slathering butter and jam. Made without preservatives of any sort, this bread is good for a day or two max. But I suspect 80-90% of you who attempt this will get a pretty good result. The only hitch? You need a heavy duty mixer like a Kitchen Aid to make this as easy as it reads…
Full credit to Ms. Garten for this recipe, from her Barefoot in Paris Cookbook. In a mixer bowl, add 1/2 cup warm water at say 120 degrees F and 1 package of dried yeast, (I used 1 Fleicshmann’s package, you can probably substitute with 1/2 tablespoon of red star or other dried yeast, more readily available in local groceries), and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix this a bit with a spatula and let it sit for 5 minutes and watch the yeast bloom. If there is no activity in the bowl, your yeast might be dead. Add six extra large eggs (you may need to use 7 normal Filipino eggs) and beat in the mixer using the paddle attachment at medium speed for about a minute. Turn mixer down to low, add two cups of flour (Ms. Garten specifies unbleached, but I only had bleached and it worked fine) and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and mix for about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides at least once during that time. Add another 2 cups of flour and mix for another five minutes. Next, add 1/2 pound of softened butter (I left the butter on the counter for 1 hour prior to starting the recipe to make sure it was soft) in little blobs to the four mixture and keep the mixer running on low speed. Mix for about 2 minutes, then add 1/4 cup of flour and mix for about 15 seconds. Remove the paddle attachment and replace with a dough hook and knead for 2 minutes at low speed. Scrape the dough into a buttered stainless steel or glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate this overnight.
The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour. Grease two loaf pans (8.5×4.5×2.5 inches). Transfer the dough to a lightly floured kitchen counter and cut the dough in half. Pat the dough into a rectangle and roll it up and place it in the greased loaf pan. Ms. Garten suggests putting the dough seam side up, and that resulted in the weird mushroom shaped loaf in the photos above. I placed the other loaf seam side down and it resulted in the smoother topped second loaf. But then again, I have problems with dough shaping… Let the dough rise another 2 hours or so until double in volume. Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then brush the risen dough with an egg wash of 1 egg beaten slightly with 1 tablespoon of milk and bake for roughly 45 minutes until cooked. I found the loaves sufficiently browned at 35 minutes so just keep checking yours. The taste? Very good for the limited effort expended. My only concern was that the dough sort of flopped over the side of the pan rather than rising up… not sure if that was because of the extreme humidity that day… but the impact was once of aesthetics only. If you have a commercial or heavy duty mixer, this is the perfect bread for occasional bakers. Make the dough on a Friday evening and enjoy freshly baked bread all weekend. Yum. I served this at a Sunday brunch with good sweet butter and three jams: homemade kalamansi jam, homemade damson plum (sister’s), and a superbly silky guava jam from La Maison du Chocolat. Leftovers would be perfect for French Toast.
41 Responses
too yummy to look at! Laura Calder of “French Food at Home” once made a similar version…again, the bread looked so good you can almost “smell” the butter waft from the TV screen…your jams look equally delicious as well.
Hey Marketman,
Did you notice that Ina Garten or the Barefoot Contessa looks so much like a version of an old Lindsay Lohan or is it just me? Anyways those brioche you’ve made looks delish. Suggestion, if you happen to have any left overs the next day, they are best for making French Toast. Slice em thich about 3/4″ flip flop em on a scrambled eggs w/2tsp. of milk, a drop of vanilla extract and a pinch of nutmeg. Then fry em up on some melted butter in a non-stick frying pan medium heat. then sprinkle a little bit of powdered or confectioners sugar and sprig of mint and voila. Great for snack or breakfast. Oh uh, I didn’t get to read your last sentence. He He
My goodness, the jams are just too delicious! It would be nice to paint a slice of brioche with butter and then with 3 stripes of different jams! A nice cup of mint tea would be great too!
I have tried brioche only twice, both times from hotel restaurants during breakfast. So I honestly would not know what it really should be like. Being a fan of bread, I like trying out different kinds and I am fascinated by how different the textures and taste (or lack thereof) they possess. The brioche I had was a bit dry comapred to the usual bread one gets. What with the new standard being moist and chewy, which is fine but some breads are meant to be not chewy and moist at all (like pan de sal and putok). Anyway, I thought the brioche – with its almost crumbly body and its solid taste (true: not sweet, as most breads these days are wont to be) was the perfect vehicle for the sweet strawberry jam and the tart pineapple-orange marmalade with lots of butter.
And given its texture, it just drinks up all that creamy mixture that makes French toast so good (and so sinful). Wow, I really need to find an oven that fits in the rabbit hutch of a place I live in. *lol*
I enjoy watching barefoot contessa! She makes cooking look so easy. Even her stews and dessert looks yummy.
I love Brioche and most bread… I just have to buy Kitchen Aid. :-) Around how much will it cost me? Any estimates?
I’m also afraid of using my oven. Guess it’s old already bec I have to put fire inside to start heating it. I have to get over that fear that it will explode. :-)
But French toast… I sure can do. That brioche will make a super delish french toast.
saw this on Ina Garten’s website re: “seam side up”
“For the Brioche Loaves, are they supposed to be placed “seam side up?”
Writing cookbooks is a little like making sausage; what goes in sometimes doesn’t look anything like what comes out. None of us can figure out how the words “seam side down” went to the printer and “seam side up,” came back in the book – but it did. Definitely, put the loaves into the pans seam side down. “
Monsters Inc., I recently saw a Kitchen Aid quoted in a home magazine, and if I remember correctly, it’s about P25K.
Thanks Lissa. I’ll look around for it. :-)
^Lissa and Monsters Inc, I found one in ATC for ~18K. I covet the pink one though, and it’s much more expensive. Haaay. Mr MM, that bread looks so brilliant! I think I’m going to make one this weekend for my bebe. *cross my fingers*
Reinhartd in his Baker’s Apprentice presented brioche in three levels of richness which seems to be a practical way of approaching brioche dough (specially if you are a beginner and/or do not have a powerful counter mixer) because as you might have noticed, brioche dough gets progressively more difficult to handle as the proportion of butter goes up. If it comes out pretty sticky here then I do not even want to imagine how it would act over there. Incidentally, he also has an excellent recipe for Hawaiian sweet bread which in French boulangeries would not be classified as quite brioche but more properly as brioché. Great to experiment with if you are particularly apalled by the long list of hard-to-pronounce chemicals listed in the ingredient labels of commercially baked products.
Oooh…! i love ina garten and those brioche look delicious!! and the way you describe them, oh man! i can almost smell the delicious aroma…i have to get me one haha…
can’t wait to get my kitchenaid. i asked my uncle from US to buy me the 5-Qt. Stand Mixer, converted to peso it’s just less than 10k since he got it at almost 50% off! will be arriving in a week’s time…yay!
thanks for sharing the recipe, MM!
Brioche can also be twice baked, stuffed with any confectionery paste, then smolder some sweet nuts… I have tried this kind during one of my travels in north america. It would come in biscuit form or mini logs.
Looking at your enticing, toothsome photos, i can say i can almost grab that beautiful bread out my screen, split then shove pancetta, with brie or feta cheese!
Urp! I crease with the excessive satifaction on my face Mr. Marketman… I give you a twenty-one-gun salute once more :-) Cheers!
MM,your brioche looks divine! Leftover or 1-2 days old brioche makes the best bread pudding ever!
Your jams looks and sounds wicked!I wished we had those here now as I just baked some Coconut Cocktail rolls (it’s chinese sweet breadrolls with coconut cream in the middle,parang pan de coco). My next baking project? Brioche,of course!
btw,have you heard of Thermomix before? It’s the best kitchen appliance any person can have in their kitchen.Just google Thermomix and find the world’s best appliance ever!
hi marketman! i love ina garten the way she prepares food is so easy, and she trully enjoys each dish she makes…. she likes using fresh herbs from her garden….i hope i can do those dishes too!
rose, yes, Ms. Garten does make everything look so easy… linda, Australia has some superb jams and jellies as well, I am sure your selection is brilliant… Rachel, wow, stuffing it with confectionery paste sounds interesting. I have two cans of chestnut paste in the pantry, talk about a rich brioche! GayeN, enjoy the mixer, I distinctly remember getting our first kitchen aid mixer, I was 14 or 15 years old… It makes kneading doughs a total breeze. Apicio, baking brioche or ensaimada in the tropics can get a bit messy… but surprisingly, this simple recipe turned out a pretty good loaf. Monsters Inc, they have them in Manila, at the Coleman dealer (official with repairs) and S&R with 110V and no repairs. But if you have access to the U.S. buy the kitchen aid there when on discount, it shouldn’t exceed $200 by too much. Abby, thanks so much for that info, I did think putting it seam up was bizarre, that’s why the second one is seam down. Odd how that typo would make it into the book… kasseopeia, yes, the brioche was perfect for the butter and jams… jdawgg, I think Ina Garten is much more homey, if you know what I mean. She also looks like she enjoys her brioche… :) chinachix, you have to try baking this at home!
Ever since the episode last week when she made the brioche as a part of her welcome home breakfast for Jeffrey (What a lucky man he is, don’t you think!), my cook and I have been discussing giving her recipe a try and after reading about your success am off now to buy yeast!
i am a failure at bread, although i did try a moderately successful ensaimada once before. Never left dough to rise in the refrigerator before. Interesting. It sounds quite easy with successful results. But no kitchenaid =
That looks gorgeous! I’ve always wanted to make brioche to use up all the eggs my mom-in-law gives me from her farm :) Thanks for sharing the recipe!
(the jams and jellies sound divine!)
That’s a beautiful brioche, Marketman! Love InaGarten as well; she looks like she’s all about the pleasure of food rather than fancy techniques or presentation. Her croissant bread pudding recipe is fabulous too and a favorite at my house.
Mr. Marketman, you are such a tease! Do you have pictures of the cut crumb? One loaf has been cut above, but the crumb is teasingly turned away from the camera. We want our food porn! Hahaha.
Monsters, Inc.- I got my Kitchen Aid 5qt. heavy duty from New Sin Kian Heng in Quiapo for 17k two years ago, with warranty and everything. Chefs and restaurants source from them in bulk. You will get the best discount if you pay cash.
“…normal Filipino eggs.”
I had to quote that. :p
The Kitchen Aid Mixer is indeed a baker’s great friend, however, may I suggest using a cuisinart processor when kneading dough, use the plastic blade, its quicker, less messy and the resulting dough is finer in texture.
I think this is a great recipe, MM. Thanks!
MM, where in Manila do you buy the “good sweet butter” you mentioned? Anyways, I love brioche too and can’t find a decent one here, do share if you find one or if you decide to sell your homemade version :)
Oooooh!
perfect for a croque monsieur!
Thomas Keller’s recipe for brioche (French Laundry cookbook) is good and easy to make as well and also lends itself well to freezing. He uses a combination of cake flour and all-purpose flour.
im a fan of the barefoot contessa. about brioche, i watched a recent episode wherein she made single-serve brioche in muffin molds. maybe it’ll help a bit with the aesthetics, the shape’ll hold better in smaller dimensions.
I’ve made this brioche. Ina Garten’s recipes are straightforward, easy to follow and usually come out great. I did use a KA mixer like MM suggested above and it was pretty easy for someone like me who is not really good at bread baking. Ate loaf no. 1 right away and froze loaf no. 2 for one month. It still came out great after thawing. My gosh, all that butter really stands out. Agree again with MM that fruit preserves are best served with this.
Monsters Inc., I bought my mom a 5-qt Kitchenaid from Amazon (as a spare, in case her 10+ yr old one breaks down) a few months ago. I remember getting it for just $119. It was more than half off during their Friday sale. If you have a way of getting it from the US and you don’t mind it being 110v, I guess that’s a good deal.
Hi Mr. Marketman… if I’m not mistaken, they serve brioche breads in Aubergine, a restaurant in High Street, Fort Bonifacio. Not loaves but little ones…
ange, thanks for that tip… hopefully I get to try the place soon. esquire, that is a great price for a Kitchen Aid. tnm, yes, and apparently the “seam side up” was a typo… tikitikitin, brioche are traditionally in the smaller individual shape with the little ball on top. siopao, I have that book… perhaps I should try that recipe too. Booey, try the Australian Golden Churn unsalted brand at S&R, its not bad and reasonably priced compared to other premium butters sold locally. Homebuddy, I would have never thought to use the Cuisinart, thanks for that tip, and readers who don’t have a kitchen aid appreciate it too, I’m sure. sometime_lurker, and we know which eggs you mean, right? :) risa, sorry, I forgot to do a close-up of the slice, hence the lack of photo… MES, yes Garten’s croissant pudding is good, I altered it a bit and made an ensaimada pudding that also turned out great… joey, make ensaimada with all the eggs! :)
I’ve always wanted to make brioche but never did because I have yet to purchase a KA standmixer. I do have a Cuisinart FP so if Homebuddy says it could be done then I might just have to try this soon.
Ina Garten is so lovely. She cooks great and laughs great. And oh! I have watched the episode of Barefoot Contessa where she made Brioche bread for her husband. But she made little ones. I also love her idea of fruits.yogurt.granola on sundae glasses, gorgeous! By the way, I’m 15 and I just had a Kitchen Aid mixer last year. It’s not the heavy duty one so I was just wondering if it can manage to make a brioche bread. Because one time I made a traditional ensaymada and the mixer seemed to be stressed after that. And I kinda freaked out.
help?
>.
One does not need a kitchen aid to start making bread, of any kind, even though I have worn out half a dozen machines over the last 35 years. For at least a thousand years hand kneading was sufficient. It only requires a little practice to learn the proper technique and it does not require an exceptional amount of energy. Press dough down with the lower portion of your palms and give it a quarter turn over over every time. Bang the whole ball of dough sharply against the table or pastry board a couple of times once it has gotten elastic and unsticky. Kneading by hand will give you a better feel for how much flour is necessary to achieve optimum results.
Jelly bean, if you are worried about over heating your mixer and having the motor conk out, add the last few cups of flour by hand and finish by hand kneading.
I’ve never had luck baking bread, so I usually buy my own. I didn’t know La Maison sells Guava Jam :)
sister, i’m worried wether it’ll turn out good. i don’t know how to knead by hand. =(
i made ’em!! turned out kinda hard tho. wat hav i done wrong?? anyway, it’s fine.. i made little ones and i just stuffed ’em with nutella. sweet :)
jellybean, you may have overkneaded, if done by hand. Or not kneaded enough. Or perhaps you didn’t let the dough rise enough. Or you overcooked them. The loaves above turned out soft yet substantial. Try again with some slight alterations and see how that affects the outcome… :)
MM, have you seen/read the book, “Artisan Bread in Five MInutes a Day” by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois? The basic premise is to mix all the ingredients, let rise, and store in the refrigerator – no kneading required and using only one bowl. On baking day, you need only pinch a 1-pound size dough, make a gluten cloak, let is rest a few minutes and then it is ready to bake! For busy moms like me, it is perfect. I have just recently tried the Master Recipe to make several Boule. The bread came out wonderful. Take note, this is the first time I have ever tried to bake bread. I also made delicious Challah and Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls. The book has a very easy recipe for Brioche that I will try next. Our home smells like a bakery now … ha ha!
ECC, the book certainly sounds interesting. I have to look it up the next time I am in a bookstore, thanks for the heads up!
Just in case you are interested, this is a link to one of their videos:
https://www.startribune.com/video/11967361.html
or you can read more on their website:
https://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/