“[Brioche Bread] is a loaf that is especially good for delicate sandwiches…It is also a delicious egg bread by itself, easy to make and pleasant in flavor.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread
For some reason, I have a hard time pronouncing the word “brioche.” Besides a bread, it is also a knitting stitch (my other hobby) so I have lots of opportunities to mangle the pronunciation. Luckily, this bread is easier to make than to say.
Here are the ingredients:
Note the two full sticks of butter (one is hidden by the eggs). These will be important later. Since I used salted butter, I eliminated the salt in the recipe.
Brioche is unique in that it does not require any kneading. I simply melted the butter, mixed it with the yeast, sugar, water, eggs, and flour, and let the dough rise. After an hour, I had to “shape into loaves.” Fine, I thought, I’ve done this before. Then I picked up the dough.
It was the consistency of a giant grease ball. I pulled the oily mass into two pieces, wadded each one into an approximate loaf shape, and put them in pans to rise again. After about 45 minutes, they had doubled in size and were ready to be baked.
The bread was done after 25 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees.
Now, I like butter as much as the next person (see: Helen Evans Brown’s Corn Chili Bread). However, Brioche Bread tasted more like butter with some flour mixed in than bread. It was edible when spread with homemade jam, but I couldn’t stomach it plain. And the idea of a slice of Brioche Bread with butter makes me feel ill.
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