Yay! With this first pastry article, each section of the blog will be filled and you won't risk coming across a "no results" anymore. Well okay, honestly I cheated a bit because I disabled the "My favorite places" menu (I want to do things properly and those are articles that take a long time to write, but you won't lose out. You can always subscribe to my instagram to follow my adventures live). So back to our recipe, I wanted to start with a simple traditional brioche CAP style.
How to make brioche CAP style
Nothing complicated, here's the process:
MAKE: the brioche dough (mechanical kneading)
BULK FERMENT
BREAK: the dough
RESERVE: in the cold (refrigerated or frozen)
SHAPE, MOLD
PROOF in the proofer
BRUSH WITH EGG WASH
BAKE
RESERVE
All clear? No? Okay, let's go through all this in detail!
Well, I won't lie to you, traditional brioche isn't the easiest thing to work with (after all, everyone has their nemesis and personally I've never had a problem with choux pastry even though some people tear their hair out over it).
The equipment needed to make traditional brioche
Before we dive in, a quick note about the equipment and ingredients to maximize chances of success. The stand mixer: not essential but honestly without one, it's a hassle (it's a baker teacher's joke to make their students knead by hand to teach them life...). I know some people love kneading by hand (personally, I hate it: it sticks and gets everywhere...) but after all, to each their own: a stand mixer, a bread machine, or lots of elbow grease, it's up to you to choose your method!
About the ingredients
As for flour, good quality flour isn't essential but it helps (it will help give body to the dough and make shaping easier). Another helpful aid: a marble slab. Again, it's not essential but if you get the chance to pick one up, it really makes life easier (because plastic work surfaces that heat up from the dishwasher below are just... hmm...). You can find them at reasonable prices at home stores and if you like working with dough it might be worth the investment.
I got mine from my grandfather's cave of wonders, but the real tip is to contact funeral homes and recover off-cuts pretty cheaply (yes, I know it's a bit morbid...). For accessories that seem essential to me (and are super affordable too), I recommend the dough cutter and the bench scraper (which are used respectively to cut cleanly and scrape the dough).
The process to make successful traditional brioche
Back to the process, we start by mixing the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast but be careful, not just any old way. Position them "in a triangle" to avoid direct contact between the yeast and the salt or sugar, which would immediately kill our poor yeast before it had time to develop. So do it like this:
You can see in the photo that that's not what I did (yes, do as I say, not as I do...). Actually, since I like not taking risks when I cook, I always give the mixer a turn or two before adding my yeast, that way no worries, but you do what works for you.
About yeast, between fresh and dry, you can use both depending on what you have on hand (fresh is always better, that's for sure, but dry works very well too), the important thing is to respect the proportions properly (generally 20 g fresh yeast for 500 g flour and between 1 and 5% of flour weight for dry). The ideal is to dilute your yeast in a liquid (milk or eggs) to allow it to develop.
Once the dry mixture is well combined, add the eggs (and therefore the yeast if you've diluted it in there) and knead until the dough is really smooth (this can take up to 10 minutes):
Quick note for Kitchen Aid owners (and maybe other stand mixer owners but I'm less familiar with them), watch out for your motor! Household models aren't designed to handle heavy loads and I've seen several CAP trainees whose KA gave up the ghost on a pretty stiff dough. If it's struggling, stop everything! And I also recommend not positioning it too close to the edge of a work surface because it rocks quite a bit during kneading.
Once the dough is really smooth, add the butter slowly and knead until it's smooth again. The dough starts to come away from the mixer and makes a plop-plop-plop sound...
Remove the brioche dough and refrigerate for a good hour (this is called "reserve in the cold, positive temperature"). Here, methods differ, some swear by the fridge, others let it rise at room temperature and still others skip this step. I learned to let it rise in the cold, I'll have to test the other methods another time.
How to deflate brioche dough?
Once the dough has risen well, take it out and flatten it really hard to deflate it:
Then cut the dough into equal portions depending on the desired use (Nanterre brioche, small loaves...). For my part, I chose to make a Nanterre brioche (pretty easy to make at home in a loaf pan) and a brioche à tête (much less easy since you need a special mold and the execution is often unpredictable).
For the Nanterre, I made 6 balls of 100 grams each but that was a bit tight for my loaf pan. For a nice, puffy brioche, plan on about 110/120 g per ball:
To shape balls correctly, flatten your brioche dough into a circle. Then bring the edges to the center to fuse them. Next, flip the dough so the seam is face down on the work surface. Finally, roll the dough in the hollow of your hand to form a ball (neither the dough nor your fingers should leave the work surface).
Once all your dough is shaped into balls, form the brioche according to the desired use. In a staggered pattern for the Nanterre:
And 4 balls on the outside and 1 ball in the center for the brioche à tête (you'll understand why this one, which often tends to rise unevenly during baking, is called a brioche "zizi" among pastry apprentices...)
So at this stage, there are several options. When making brioche, we generally start with a 500 g flour base (it's difficult to make less to measure the yeast and salt) but that makes a large amount of cooked brioche (2 nice big brioches). When I get started, I usually freeze half the dough. Brioche freezes very well and it's always handy to have a snack or breakfast that's just waiting to be thawed.
So this time, I put the Nanterre to rise and the brioche à tête straight in the freezer (you'll just need to take it out the night before and let it thaw overnight in the fridge before putting it to rise the usual way).
For the proofing, the crucial step of the recipe that can sometimes be difficult to get right at home, I recommend the hot water bowl method in a closed oven. This allows you to achieve the ideal temperature for good rising. Let your brioche rise gently there for at least two hours (the dough should double in volume) before brushing it with egg yolk and baking in a 160° C oven for 45 minutes.
I found the result was a bit dense in flavor (probably some lack of rising on my part) and lacking a touch of sugar, but it still goes down pretty well as a snack with a little spread!
