Bread Atlas · Bread
Brioche Nanterre
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, real fire that builds and stays.
Ingredients
- 400 g strong white flour
- 240 g cold eggs, about 4 large
- 200 g unsalted butter at 18C (64F), in 20 g pieces
- 40 g caster sugar
- 8 g fine salt
- 8 g instant dried yeast
- 25 g whole milk
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 15 g milk, for the wash
- 10 g soft butter, for the tin
Equipment
Stand mixer · Thermometer
The skills inside
Kneading doughEgg wash & the baker’s shine
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- In a mixer with a dough hook combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast, eggs and milk. Mix 4 minutes on low, then 8-10 minutes on medium until the dough climbs the hook, clears the bowl completely and windowpanes. 4 min
- Add the butter a piece at a time with the mixer running, each one only once the last has vanished. The finished dough should be glossy and elastic and no warmer than 24C (75F); if it hits 26C (79F), stop and chill the bowl.
- Bulk 1 hour at room temperature, fold once in the bowl, then chill 6 hours or overnight at 4C (39F) until it is firm enough to handle without flour. 60 min
- Divide into 8 pieces of about 115 g, ball each one tightly against the bench, and set them in two rows of four in a buttered 25x11 cm tin.
- Prove at 24-26C (75-79F), no hotter, for 2-3 hours, until the dough fills the tin and a light press springs back slowly leaving a shallow mark. Egg wash twice, ten minutes apart. 180 min
- Bake at 180C (355F) for 30-35 minutes to an internal 92C (198F), tenting with foil if it colours early, and turn out at once. 35 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Egg wash & the baker’s shine 34 recipes
- Applied thin and even over every surface that will show, with no bare patches and no ridges or brush lines standing in it.
- Nothing pooled: no wash run down into the seams, collected in the corners, or welded to the tray around the base.
- It has not glued shut what needs to move: layers, scores, and cut edges are still free to open in the heat.
- Baked, the finish is even and glossy across the whole piece and deep gold rather than patchy, with no darker bands where the wash sat heavy.
- The shine is on the outside only: nothing inside the piece tastes of egg.
Where it goes wrong The wash went on heavy and ran into the scores and down to the tray, so the piece baked sealed along its seams, browned unevenly, and carries dark rubbery ridges where the egg collected.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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