Poor Man's Brioche

Ingredients
Makes 10 Brioche à Tête

• 3 cups plus 2 tbsp bread flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 3/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk, save the egg white in case the dough is too dry
• 12 tbsp(1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
• 1 egg white plus 1tbsp water for egg wash

Method ~ By Hand

1. In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, egg, and egg yolk together.
3. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix them well with a large wooden spoon.
4. Knead the dough for 3 minutes. The dough is dry at this stage.
5. If the dough is too dry to mix, add some of the egg white.
6. Use a roller pin to make the butter soft by hammering it.
7. Add only 1/3 of the butter at a time to the flour mixture. The dough is very sticky at this stage.
8. Knead the sticky dough until the butter is completely incorporated into the dough. Be patient!!
9. Continue knead the dough until it is fully developed and has a good gluten window, for about 30 to 45 minutes. Great exercise for your arm and shoulder too!
10. Shape the dough round and place it loosely in a plastic bag in the freezer for overnight.
11. The night before baking, remove the dough from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
12. On baking day, let the dough sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
13. Coat the muffin pan or brioche forms with nonstick cooking spray.
14. Divide the dough into 10 pieces, and shape them into rounds.
15. With the edge of your hand, rolling each piece to create a neck about 1/3 of the way down.
16. Shape the large pieces into loops, and small pieces into the head (tête).
17. Place the loops into the prepared muffin pan and attach the heads.
18. Pinch the two together firmly to ensure the head stays attached during baking.
19. Let the brioche proof at room temperature for 1 hour 30 minutes until it has doubled in size.
20. Preheat oven 365ºF about 30 minutes before baking.
21. Brush the brioches with egg wash and place them into the oven.
22. Bake the brioches for 12 to 14 minutes.
23. Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes.
24. Remove the brioches from the pan and continue to cool on a rack.

In Bread Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart categorizes three different types of brioches in butter to flour ratios: 70% rich man' brioche, 50% middle-class brioche, 20% poor man's brioche.


Since I had never made brioche before, I chose the recipe (37.5%) from Ciril Hitz's Baking Artisan Bread, which is more like a poor man's version. By the way, this is a very sticky dough, but I kneaded it by hand until the dough had a good gluten window. Great exercise and experience :-)


As far as the taste of brioche, I love the tender crust, and buttery flavor yet not too rich. I think that the poor man's version suits me very well. After all, this is also the healthiest one.