Incomprehensible brioche recipe

"Adam Schwartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:73VQb.145377$I06.1447764@attbi_s01...

Quoted message said:

I'm trying to make brioche bread from the recipe in my copy of "The

Book

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of Bread" by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. Here is the recipe

3 cups white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 oz fresh yeast 4 tbs lukewarm milk 3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup butter, softened 2 tablespoons sugar

For the Glaze 1 egg yolk 1 tbs milk

1. Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Put the
yeast in a measuring cup and stir in the milk.
2. Add the yeast mixture to the center of the flour with the eggs and combine to form a soft
dought.
3. Using your hand, beat the dought for 4-5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Cream the butter
and sugar together. Gradually add the butter mixture to the dough in small amounts, making
sure it is incorporated

before

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adding more. Beat until smooth, shiney and elastic.

The recipe goes on, but this is as far as I got. First of all, the dough would only accept less
than 2/3 of the flour before becoming dense and cohesive. Also, I'm not sure how to beat dough
using my hand.

Considering

Quoted message said:

the density of the dough, I decided to need it. Now I have a stiff dough ball. How can I add the
butter and sugar mixture to the dough? Also, it says I'm supposed to have a soft dough, but my
dough is already as stiff

as

Quoted message said:

clay. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, Adam

I am hardly a brioche expert but I have made it from Julia Child's recipe with good results. I;'d
say your recipe is screwy - way too much flour relative to eggs (which matches the problems you
had).Here's hers:

1/3c warm milk
2.25 tsp dry yeast 1 large egg 1c unbleached all purpose flour

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer bowl. Pour over 1 more c of flour (do not stir). Let sit 30-
40 minutes to get the yeast started. Add 1/3c sugar, 1 tsp salt, 4 large eggs, 1c flour. Mix using
the dough hook, sprinkling in 1/2c more flour. Mix on medium for 15 minutes (I think "by hand" means
using a wooden spoon).

Take 1.5 sticks butter at room temp, place on wax paper, and whack with a rolling pin to soften and
smooth it. With mixer on low add butter a few TB at a time. When all butter is added turn mixer to
medium and mix for 5 min, scraping down bown as needed. Add another TB or so of flour of the dough
does not come together after a couple of min. Dough will be soft and sticky. Let rise until doubled.
Deflate and let site in fridge 4-6 hours or overnight. It is now ready to use.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the [censored] from my email address before using.

Well the brioche recipe I have from Baker & Spice Baking with Passion/ by Dan Lepard and Richard
Whittington has a clearer making process. The measurements are metric but maybe if I paraphrase the
technique you can try it with what you have.

Make the sponge: Dissolve the yeast and 25g of the strong white flour in the 50ml warm water. Cover
, leave in warm place for 30-40 minutes till bubbly etc. [Normal Biga sponge type stuff so far]

Place remaining flour in bowl *heavy-duty electric mixer* fitted with paddle and add sponge, salt,
sugar and eggs. Mix at slow speed until one lump rules them all. ~7 minutes

Add unsalted butter, increase speed to medium for about 15 minutes, when the butter will be fully
incorporated and dough, shiny and elastic.

Stick in bowl, cover,.. etc and refrigerate

The rest of it is about shaping the brioches which seems complicated for something eaten pretty
quick, but what the hey. 1 cylinder shape
+ one holey donut shape. Anyway once you have practised 3D geometry with dough, let them rise 2-3
hours or til doubled. 15-20 mins at 200 °C then down to 180°C for 15-40 minutes depending on what
sizes your brioche are.

Good luck.

il Sun, 25 Jan 2004 19:47:15 GMT, "Adam Schwartz" ha scritto:

Quoted message said:

I'm trying to make brioche bread from the recipe in my copy of "The Book of Bread" by
Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. Here is the recipe

3 cups white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 oz fresh yeast 4 tbs lukewarm milk 3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup butter, softened 2 tablespoons sugar

For the Glaze 1 egg yolk 1 tbs milk

1. Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Put the
yeast in a measuring cup and stir in the milk.
2. Add the yeast mixture to the center of the flour with the eggs and combine to form a soft
dought.
3. Using your hand, beat the dought for 4-5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Cream the butter
and sugar together. Gradually add the butter mixture to the dough in small amounts, making
sure it is incorporated before adding more. Beat until smooth, shiney and elastic.

The recipe goes on, but this is as far as I got. First of all, the dough would only accept less
than 2/3 of the flour before becoming dense and cohesive. Also, I'm not sure how to beat dough
using my hand. Considering the density of the dough, I decided to need it. Now I have a stiff
dough ball. How can I add the butter and sugar mixture to the dough? Also, it says I'm supposed to
have a soft dough, but my dough is already as stiff as clay. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, Adam

--
Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

il 26 Jan 2004 20:43:46 +1300, "Loki" ha scritto: [snip]

Quoted message said:

Stick in bowl, cover,.. etc and refrigerate

*overnight" I forgot to mention.

And no hands for most of it :-) It sounds like hard hard work if you knead the dough by hand, but
it's one way to have guilt free brioches if you've worked up a sweat making them.

--
Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Adam Schwartz said:

I'm trying to make brioche bread from the recipe in my copy of "The Book of Bread" by
Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. Here is the recipe

A better place to ask would be alt.bread.recipes

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com