Hello friends!

I hope you’re having a wonderful summer! I’m definitely enjoying my well-deserved break! Since I have time, I’m baking almost every day. Nothing makes me happier than having fresh bread on the table!

I’m also taking this time to look for new recipes, try flavor combinations… And also, to look into how bread science can help your baking.

Lately, I’ve seen several brioche recipes and from the pictures, I could tell that the crumb wasn’t what brioche crumb should be. In other words, most likely, the dough wasn’t developed properly.

Why is brioche usually labeled as a “difficult” bread to make? Well, adding solid butter is challenging, and developing dough with that amount of fat takes extra time. So, it’s easy to give up

But let me tell you something, brioche = patience, that’s it. That’s the secret.

Sometimes we’re tempted to melt the butter and make the whole process easier

Or we stop kneading because we’re just tired of waiting for the dough to be ready…

Both butter and kneading, are strongly related when we make brioche.

On this post, I explain why we should use solid butter and how to knead brioche to achieve the PERFECT texture.

I hope that once you understand the science behind, it’ll be easier for you to achieve better results and not to get discouraged when handling enriched dough.

Also, on this recipe, I show you a way to use sourdough discards.

If you’re beginning your brioche journey, this recipe is for you because the butter content is not too high. Practice with this recipe and feel free to increase the amount of butter later on.

This is not a 100% sourdough brioche, it also has commercial yeast. But the sourdough enhances its aroma, and the long fermentation times improve its texture considerably. Speaking of texture….

How to get the best texture in your brioche

First things first. When making brioche we need to have one thing in mind: the fat content is very high, not just because of the butter, but also the eggs, therefore, developing the dough is going to take time and patience.

Although this brioche has a relatively low flour:butter ratio, all the explanations apply to higher butter content brioche and other enriched doughs.

How does fat affect the dough?

The first thing you need to know is that melted butter and softened butter (which is still in solid-state) are two completely different things.

The structure of solid butter is made of little crystals that interact with other ingredients and are essential for developing a nice gluten network. When you melt butter, those crystals are destroyed, so the structure of the butter is different, therefore, the way it interacts with other ingredients it’s also different.

Although the role of solid fats is not fully understood yet, scientists have agreed in a three-parts mechanism to explain what happens when we add butter or shortening to bread dough:

1. Wheat proteins have bound phospholipids in their structure which are essential for gluten elasticity. These lipids interact with the crystals found in the butter to create gluten-fat complexes (structures) that strengthen the gluten network and give it more elasticity.
2. Butter (or solid fats) can act as a lubricant between the gluten structure and starch matrix, improving the gas retention capacity of the dough. As a result, dough that has a higher content of solid fat has the ability to rise more due to an improved gas retention capacity.
3. Solid fat melts during baking and seals pores that are present in the dough through which the gas would, otherwise, scape. CO₂ eventually leaves the dough, but the butter retards this process and, again, helps the expansion of the dough during baking, the famous “oven spring”.

You can see that a proper redistribution of the fats within the dough is very important. And the way to achieve it is…. By kneading! Of course 😉

How to knead dough with high-fat content

Developing the gluten network of enriched dough consists of two major steps: One is the development of the gluten-starch matrix the other is the development of the gluten-butter complexes.

First, we need to develop the gluten-starch matrix, so then, the butter has a place to start forming the complexes I mentioned before. That’s why we don’t add the butter at the beginning, we knead the dough a little bit until it has a good consistency.

After that is when we start adding the butter.

Think of it as building a house. First, you need the main structure, then you start building up the walls.

However, how many times have you tried to develop the dough and it looks as it will never come together?

That’s because the long strands of gluten proteins, as they form, they get all tangled. If you force them too much (knead too much) you might end up breaking them, or in other words: over-kneading the dough. There’s a simple solution though… Let the dough rest!

Letting the dough rest while kneading can go a long way and reduce the kneading time. Whenever you have troubles to bring the dough to full development stop for 5-10 minutes so the gluten strands have time to detangle.

What do you achieve with this?

1. You avoid over-working the dough having better control over it.
2. You can develop a better gluten network, with organized gluten strands that are more elastic. This will improve the cohesiveness and strength of the final product. The crumb of your bread will be AMAZING!
3. You avoid increasing the temperature of the dough to the point where the fats will melt. Either if you’re using your hands or a stand mixer.

The texture of your brioche should NOT look like cake or banana bread. It should NOT be crumbly. It should be cohesive, soft, spongy and springy. You should be able to pull apart strands of crumb. If not, most likely, the dough wasn’t properly developed

Although there can be many other reasons to explain why the texture didn’t come out right, I believe dough development is, usually, the main cause.

As you can see, breadmaking is pure science. And I hope that by understanding better what goes on when you mix the ingredients, you can succeed and make better and better brioche!

And now… let’s go to the recipe!

For this brioche, I wanted to play with aromas a little bit because one of the loaves was going to be a gift. So I added blossom water, orange syrup, and lemon zest. But feel free to skip these ingredients or add other you like better

POSSIBLE SWAPS

• If you don’t have sourdough starter, just add half of the weight in milk or eggs and the other half in flour. You can also make the day before “pâte fermentée” (also known as old dough).
• If you don’t have orange syrup you can substitute if for honey, molasses, agave… Whatever you have at home.
• If you don’t have lemons, you can add any other type of citric zest.
• If you don’t have orange blossom water, you can add orange juice or brown liquor (rum would give a really nice aroma).

DAY 1 – Late Afternoon

In the morning I fed my starter to bake a sourdough loaf, I always make more than I need just in case! So, I use some for the loaf, some to keep and the rest… I used it in this recipe.

I started mixing my ingredients at 3 pm.

First, I mix all the wet ingredients and the sourdough discards to dissolve them a little. Then add the sugar and the yeast, combine everything well and let it rest a few minutes.

Sift the flour and add it to the wet ingredients along with the salt and lemon zest. Mix everything until you don’t see dry flour particles and let it rest for 20-30 minutes to allow the hydration of the flour.

After the autolysis period, start kneading the dough until it reaches certain consistency.

Start adding butter little by little. It’s better to use it at room temperature (softened butter) so it can be incorporated easier. Otherwise, you might have chunks of butter in the dough and it will be difficult to incorporate it.

I find easier to incorporate the butter by hand, what I do is squeeze the dough and twist it until the butter is absorbed. You can see how I do it on my Belgian waffles video

Then continue kneading the dough at low speed. After 15 minutes stop, cover the bowl and let it rest for 5 minutes. Knead again for another 10 minutes, stop and let it rest for 5 minutes. Continue again for another 10 minutes, stop and let it rest 5 minutes.

At this point your dough should be almost ready, it should start coming up the dough hook of your stand mixer and separating from the sides of the bowl. After this last resting period, keep kneading until the dough is ready, it shouldn’t take much longer.

If you live in a cold and dry environment, you might need more time. So pay attention to your dough, let it tell you what it needs 😊

It took me almost 50 minutes to have the dough fully developed (without resting time).

A fully developed dough should not be sticky, should come out of the bottom of the bowl without tearing and should pass the windowpane test.

To check the windowpane test, let the dough rest a few minutes first. Otherwise, you coul have a “false negative”. The dough could tear because the gluten strands are tangled, not because they’re not ready.

When your dough is ready, let it ferment at room temperature until it almost doubles in size, after that, put in the fridge, and leave it there overnight. Mine was in the fridge for 18 h

Turn the dough onto your work surface and deflate it. Be gentle, but make sure there aren’t big air pockets.

This recipe yields one 9 in (22-23cm) springform pan and one 9.75 x 6 in (25 x 15 cm) loaf pan. If you just want the brioche in the circular pan, multiply all the ingredients by 0.75

Separate 8 pieces of 130-140 g each and shape them into balls and place them into the pans. Then shape the rest of the dough in 4 logs as wide as your pan or 2 longer logs and cut them in half (this is what I did 😉)

And now time to wait! Let the dough rise until it’s puffy; if you poke it with your finger, the dough will spring back but not immediately. That means the dough has enough gas trapped inside. Sometimes, the dough can be ready but does not necessarily double its size.

20 minutes before the brioche is ready, preheat your oven at 350 F (175 C)

Before baking, brush the brioche with egg wash. I like to use an egg yolk and a Tbsp of milk. This egg wash helps soften the crust and the brioche it’s like the one you buy in the store, but better because you made it!

Bake the brioche for 30 – 40 mins, keeping an eye on it. Bake it until it has a nice golden-brown color.

Before you dig into this tasty treat, let the brioche cool down to room temperature. This step is very important because to let the crumb finish baking, set aromas, etc. But after it cools down… oh boy!

If you can see these strands, you worked the dough well. The gluten was properly developed, the fats were successfully incorporated, and the structure of the baked brioche is very cohesive.

Happy baking!