The British Larder is one of the first blogs I ever followed. Right at the beginning before they opened a pub. I salivated over Ross and Madalene’s recipes and always vowed to attempt at least one of them. It’s typical of me that I would choose to follow the blog of professional chefs and then want to re-create their dishes.
I came across their blog when I was looking for a recipe for Whoopie Pies, who remembers them? I never made the Whoopie Pies, but I did become hooked on their blog.
Then Madalene made a brioche that looked just perfect and I decided that would be the first recipe I’d try from The British Larder. I’ve made brioche quite a few times with varying degrees of success.
I didn’t hold out much hope for this recipe, because my track record with bread is not good. I didn’t need to worry though, this turned out to be one of the best brioche recipes I’ve made. It produced, what I think looks like a pretty authentic French brioche.
The recipe below, is pretty much a direct copy of the one on The British Larder, it really is that good!
Brioche is an enriched dough, because butter and egg yolks are added. As it is such a rich bread it can spoil quite quickly, if you can’t eat the loaf within 24 hours of baking, you can slice the brioche and freeze it in a ziplock bag. Then defrost the bread when you need it, so that you can always have fresh brioche.
Making this recipe, will mean that you’ll have leftover egg whites. Keep these egg whites and you can freeze them to use a later date. You could make macarons, financiers or madeleines with them.
BRIOCHE
Ingredients
- 500 g strong bread flour
- 30 g fresh yeast or 2 x 7g dried yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 80 g caster sugar
- 200 ml full fat milk
- 4 free range egg yolks
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 1 extra yolk to brush the loaf for baking
Instructions
- Place the flour, sugar, salt and if using, the dried yeast into the bowl of a mixer.
- Heat the milk to 37°C and if using the fresh yeast; add the yeast to the warm milk and stir to dissolve it.
- With the dough hook attached, mix the dry ingredients on low speed, and slowly pour in the warmed milk. When all of the milk has been added, mix the dough for 5 minutes.
- Add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well after each addition.
- Once all of the eggs are incorporated, cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dough while mixing. Mix until all the butter is incorporated.
- Knead the mixture, for a further 2 minutes, then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth, silky and in a round ball shape.
- Grease a bowl with a flavourless oil or some butter and place the dough into the bowl and cover with a clean dry tea towel.
- Let the dough prove in a warm place until it doubles in size. This will depend on room temperature and can take up to about 40 minutes.
- While the bread is proving prepare the baking tins. Grease a standard 1lb loaf tin and lightly dust with flour, set aside until the brioche dough is ready.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, gently turn the dough out onto to a floured surface. Do not treat the dough too harshly, remember that you have waited approximately 40 minutes for it to double in size. Apply gentle actions.
- Cut the dough into 8 portions and gently shape the dough into 8 balls and place them into the loaf tin so they are touching. Cover the brioche lightly with a clean dry tea towel and let the brioche prove for the second time to double in size; this could take up to a half an hour.
- While you are waiting for the brioche to prove for the second time, preheat the oven to 180°C. Use a fork to loosen the egg yolk. Once the brioche is doubled in size, gently brush the top with the egg yolk and place the loaf tin on the middle shelf of the preheated oven.
- Bake the brioche for 30 – 40 minutes, test for readiness by tapping the bottom of the tin and it will have a hollow sound when ready. Turn the brioche out on to a cooling rack and cool completely before cutting.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
I’ve added this to Fabulous Foodie Fridays.
Lovekesh pal
Why egg white is not used in brioche
patisseriemakesperfect
Egg white not needed you want the yolks for the colour and the richness.
Jodie Dodd
Your brioche loaf looks fantastic! Love the photo set up too, especially that cute little garden box. 🙂 I know brioche buns seem to be all the rage here and I love them. And I love whoopie pies! I hope you tackle them one day! xx
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thanks Jodie, I do know of whoopie pies, but i don’t know a lot about them. What are the classic flavours? Maybe I’ll make a batch in your honour 🙂 x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thanks very much Angela! I’m so glad you like the look of the bread. Let me know if you try it, it’s really tasty.
Shari from GoodFoodWeek
Oh wow, this looks so good! Stopping by from the #FFF link up – your photography caught my eye.
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thanks Shari, I’m so glad you were attracted by my pictures as it is something I have been working on lately. Thanks for coming to comment.
Amy
I would love to try making brioche! It’s on my ‘to bake list’. I only hope it turns out as beautifully as yours did! Gorgeous photos too!
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Amy! I’m so pleased you like the pictures too. I’m sure your brioche will turn out beautiful, x
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile
This is great!! Do you think I could make it into little rolls? Thanks for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party xx
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Yes you can make this into rolls, I had some leftover and made rolls with them. They worked really well. I would only bake them for around 20 minutes, tap the bottom of a roll and if they sound hollow, they’re done.
Thanks so much for commenting, and for hosting Fabulous Foodie Fridays. x
Hannah Hossack-Lodge
Your photos are beautiful, and the brioche looks fantastic – a lovely texture. I will probably give your recipe a try as every brioche recipe I have used before uses FAR more butter – at least 250g for 500g of flour…which is an awful lot! x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Hannah, I’ve had the same problem, all of the recipes I’ve tried had way too much butter in my opinion. They didn’t rise much, or I couldn’t get the butter to incorporate into the dough.
This recipe is still rich and cakelike, so I don’t think it suffers from the lack of butter, plus Madalene, who’s recipe I used is French, so I trust her recipe to be pretty authentic.
Thanks for the lovely comments. x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Louise! I’m so pleased you like the look of the pictures. I’ve had problems in the past with incorporating butter into my brioche. This recipe worked perfectly though, I was so impressed, no stress on my KitchenAid! x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
I need to try French toast actually. I’ve never had it! Thanks so much for the lovely comments, I have half a loaf leftover to make something with. x
Beeta @ Mon Petit Four
I love brioche! Yours looks gorgeous and very fluffy. Fantastic job, Angela!
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Beeta! I’ve been very unsuccessful with brioche in the past, so it was good to finally make a good loaf!
Lucy Parissi
There’s nothing like freshly baked brioche, is there? I think I am more addicted to brioche than I am to chocolate. Now I just to somehow find the time to bake some…
PatisserieMakesPerfect
I love brioche, especially with burgers. When you make yours, if you’re using it for savoury rolls do you reduce/ leave out the sugar?
Lucy Parissi
I like it quite sweet – so I include at least 60g I think. It contrasts nicely with the meat and any condiments.
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Yes I checked your recipe after I asked and you included a similar amount of sugar. I need to make some burger buns. They look so good!