BRIOCHE À TÊTE. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page.

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1 BRIOCHE À TÊTE Makes 1 dozen By Dennis W. Viau; modified from by a recipe from Julia Child s French Chef TV show. Brioche is a delicate and buttery french yeast bread. Brioche are typically baked in fluted molds, but the dough can be baked in loaf pans, shaped into round loaves, or even shaped into a ring and baked. Brioche à tête refers to the rolls or loaves with a head on top. Ingredients: 1 packet (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast 3 tablespoons water or milk; heated to 110 F (43 C) ½ tablespoon sugar 3 large eggs (2 ounces/55g each); room temperature 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups sifted flour (9 ounces/255g) 6 ounces (170g) cold butter (1½ sticks) 1 egg Directions: Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar. If the eggs are cold place them in a bowl with warm tap water for 5 to 10 minutes. Knead the butter until soft, but do not warm. Beat the eggs to mix well. Combine the dissolved yeast, eggs, salt, and flour in a large bowl and mix to combine. The dough will be wet and sticky. Place the dough on a clean surface and knead until smooth. It will be very sticky. Working a little at a time, combine pieces of the kneaded butter with the dough and knead until thoroughly combined. Continue until all the butter is used. The dough will be very soft and sticky. If the dough becomes oily, place in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill. Here s a trick: To cool the counter top, place plenty of ice cubes in a ziplock bag and let sit on the counter for half an hour. Knead the dough on the cooled surface to help prevent the butter from becoming oily. Place the dough in a bowl, cover, and let rise in the refrigerator 4 to 5 hours. The rising will be very slow because the dough will be cold, but the dough needs to become solid to shape in the next step. Divide the risen dough into quarters. Remove one quarter and return the remaining dough to the refrigerator. Shape the quarter section into a short log, divide into three equal portions, and shape each piece into a brioche à tête as follow: Using the side of your hand like a saw, roll the dough near one end to almost separate a small portion. Then turn the roll on end, grasping the smaller section with your fingers. Push down with your hand into the larger piece of dough, pushing all the way down to the bottom. Spread your fingers a little, letting the smaller piece drop into the bottom section. Place in a brioche mold or the cup of a cupcake pan. Continue with all the remaining dough. Cover and let rise about an hour (at room temperature). Mix an egg with 1 or 2 teaspoons of water to make an egg wash. Brush each brioche with egg wash. Bake at 400 F (200 C) for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool. Serve the same day. Brioche can be frozen and heated later. 1 The Step By Step guide begins on the following page

2 1 STEP-BY-STEP 2 Two big differences you ll notice between making brioche and making bread: Brioche dough contains eggs and plenty of butter. 2 Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar and let sit for a few minutes. If the yeast is good the mixture will get foamy. Meanwhile, beat the eggs until well blended.

3 3 3 Combine the flour, salt, yeast, and eggs together in a large mixing bowl. Blend with a spoon or spatula. This mixture will be sticky. So don t expect a soft and pliable bread dough. 4 Transfer the mixture to the counter. Start kneading with your hands. This is very sticky dough, so expect it to stick to your hands and the counter surface. Don t start adding flour, thinking it needs to be drier. It is supposed to be very sticky. I like to knead with one hand and hold a plastic scraper in the other to keep scraping the dough off the counter, and off my hand, as I work with it. After about 5 minutes of kneading it will be more elastic, but still very sticky.

4 5 4 Here is my brioche dough after about 5 minutes of kneading. As you can see, it came together and is smooth. Although it is sticky, by working quickly it sticks very little to my hands or the counter. 6 The next step is to start working in the butter. Start by kneading the cold butter a little, until it is pliable. Then, working with a little butter at first, about a tablespoon, knead it into the dough until well incorporated. You can then work with larger and larger portions of butter as you knead it into the dough. If you thought it was sticky before, this is when it gets really sticky. Here s a trick. I am using a piece of Corian countertop that was the cutout for my sink. I put it in the refrigerator the night before so that it would be a cold surface on which to knead the butter and then add it to the dough. You can also put plenty of ice in a ziplock bag and cool the surface of your counter before working with the dough. This helps prevent the dough from getting oily on a warm day. Corian is a registered trademark of Dupont.

5 7 5 Here is my sticky mass of dough with all the butter incorporated. It is too limp and sticky to form into brioche at this point. After it is refrigerated for several hours it will be much easier to work with. 8 Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 hours. Although the refrigerator is cold, the dough will rise, albeit much more slowly than it would in a warm place.

6 9 6 Here is the dough, fresh from the refrigerator after rising for more than four hours. Compare this picture to the one in the previous step and you ll see that dough did indeed rise. 10 Use a knife or spatula to divide the cold dough into four sections. Work with one section and return the remaining dough to the refrigerator. (If it warms up it will return to that unworkable sticky state again.) Roll the cold dough into a little log, divide it into three equal portions, and shape each into a brioche roll. Work quickly to keep the dough cold. See the next step for forming the brioche with a head on top.

7 11 7 Using one side of your hand like a saw, roll the dough, separating a small section, but do not remove it entirely. (You will probably need to flour the surface of your counter to prevent sticking.) 12 Holding the head in your fingers, turn the dough upright. Push down with your fingers into the larger section of dough, all the way to the counter. Then spread your fingers slightly, making a little well for the head to drop into.

8 13 8 Place the shaped dough in a brioche mold or the cup of your muffin pan. Continue until all the brioche are shaped. 14 Place the brioche tins on a baking sheet. (This step is obviously unnecessary if you are using a cupcake pan.) Cover with plastic and let rise 45 minutes in a warm place.

9 15 9 After the brioche have risen, mix an egg with 1 or 2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl and blend well. Using a pastry brush, coat each brioche lightly with the egg wash. Bake the brioche in a 400 F (204 C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. 16 Here are my finished brioche à tête, fresh from the oven. Brioche should be eaten the same day, while they are still very fresh. They can be frozen when cooled and heated for serving later.

10 Conclusion Brioche are a lot of work, but they are excellent for learning some of the finer points of baking. Working with dough this sticky requires a little more skill and some extra steps than for making bread. The results are worth all the extra effort because brioche are rich and delicate. Either eat them plain, or break them open and spread them with your favorite jam or jelly. 10