Anyone have some brioche experience? I'm going to start experimenting by

M

Marg CDN

Well-known member
1. using less butter than Lenotre recommends in his recipe (it literally ooooozes)

2. using the Cuisinart as Paula Wolfert recommends, in order to save my KA mixer.

3. baking then freezing rather than freezing then baking, as I was not thrilled with the results of the prior process.

It's many pounds of butter away from this moment, and many pounds to be put away onto my hips. Just hoping maybe someone has some advice please.

 
Marg, I use Julia's recipe so I am not certain about the amounts of butter/flour/eggs you are using

but Julia's recipe calls for 1/2 lb butter melted and about 7 cups of all-purpose flour and 8 eggs. (other stuff too of course.) I do not get "oozing" from the butter at all and I always make it in my food processor. Since I have a large Robot Coupe bowl I make the recipe in two batches instead of trying to get it all processed in one batch- it goes together much better in two batches.

I have baked then frozen brioche- if you don't freeze for too long you will be fine. It does dry out after a long spell (longest I tried freezing for was about 3 months and I had to toast the brioche to use it) You can bring it back to room temp then warm gently in the oven to "set" the crust again. I tried once to put an egg wash on it during this process and it worked pretty well.

Good luck- and let us know what happens!

 
I've used Julia's food processor method and was disappointed...

The results were overworked and chewy. I switched to the mixer and it was much better. Julia's later recipe (The Way to Cook) uses less butter than her previous ones and it's still delicious.

(I've never made an actual brioche, though, just cinnamon rolls, kugelof, and beehive cake, where the butter content may not be as critical.)

 
Hmm- I wonder why it didn't work for you, Joe- it does for me every time. Light, delicious results

 
I think it just clogged the machine too much. It's a wet heavy dough and even when I did it in

batches, it was a big gummy glue-fest. I think it's my processor. The first "beehive cake" I made (Julia's disc of brioche dough, glazed with honey and walnuts, baked as a cake, split, doused in rum syrup, filled with rum buttercream and reassembled, serve with cream and berries YUM!) the dough was so gluten-ey that the cake came out all lumpy and irregular. An impolite guest named it "cow-pie cake" and it stuck, with everyone yelling "Yee-Haw" as they dove into a piece. But there were no leftovers.

I do use Julia's processor method for other yeast doughs, and it works just fine.

 
This really demonstrates the huge differences among recipes. Lenotre asks

for 1 entire pound of butter, 6 eggs, and 3 3/4 c. flour. Yes, no typos there.

clearly, the flavour is sensational (we love it and it is wonderful broiled...the butter just sizzles in it) with all that butter but it just seems excessive. Just look at the difference in quantities!!

I'll go look up Julia's recipe.

 
Gayle, also interesting that she trained at Lenotre's. I have to get into this

site and see if her recipe for brioche is there too.

 
No leftovers always tells the tale- LOL. I wonder though- JC's books have more than one brioche

recipe- depending on what one wants to use it for. I tried another recipe a few years back, didn't like the result and figured it was because it is so humid here. When making brioche I use only really good quality butter that is not watered down and as good quality of flour as I can get. I'm sure you both (Marg & Joe) do the same.

Marg- if you cannot find Julia's recipe I will type it out for you. Let me know if you need me to do this. Yes, it is amazing the difference in amounts of butter and eggs.

Joe- yes-it is possible the food processor had a lot to do with the results. I bit the big one a few years back and bought a Robot Coupe commercial processor. I would give up my CAR before I would give it up. The results I get with it are night and day different than when I use my Cuisinart. Maybe some day you will make the decision to do the same.

 
Wow!! What a gem of a site. Thank you again Gayle. This could cause me to move my computer

to the kitchen.

I'd love to be able to clipboard copy the text in the dropdown window.

 
No thank you Cathy. You have more fun things to do. I just looked into my

never-opened (I'm surprised to admit) little Julia Child paperback...The French Chef Cookbook. there is one recipe there that uses 2 c. flour to 1 1/2 sticks butter and 3 eggs. this is the only compendium I have of her recipes.

OH, now I don't know which I'm going to try next. Good thing I have lots of butter on hand. Maybe I'll do several.

And as you do Joe, I'll be using my KA again. I have only a lowly Cuisinart as well. My KA is only a 300 watter. I specifically bought the smaller one since I cook primarily for 2 people and in smaller volumes. It got through the process last time I made the brioche; I think I was surprised as his dough is very stiff.

Thank you for your help. I'll report back. I think I also want to do a little investigating into why Lenotre uses sooooo much butter. It isn't a typo as he breaks his recipes down into 2 or 3 sizes and the proportion is still the same.

 
Make sure you use the links on the left to check out all the chefs....

There are tons of our favorite chefs and their recipes and videos! I just love this site!

Glad you like it, too!

 
Yes, I'm sure the processor I have wasn't up to the task. The Robot-coupe is on my wish list, but

it may be awhile. (I'll whine about the FREE hors d'oeuvres I did today--a charity auction donation--another time).

I think that in "The Way to Cook," with the dough I've used, Julia decided to present ALL of the yeast and pastry doughs with the food processor, in a departure from her previous books. It's perfect for her French bread but not as perfect for her brioche, unless you have a very powerful machine.

 
I'm sorry to keep talking about the Robot-Coupe, Joe- I really am but

it is true that the machine makes a huge difference.

Case and point: yesterday I cleaned out my freezer, finding some good French bread that had been in there a bit too long. I decided to make toasted bread crumbs. I thawed the bread then tore it in hunks (yes, crust too) and tossed them in the Cuisinart ( only because the RC blade was in the dishwasher.) It was maddening! The hunks of bread got stuck between the blade edge and bowl wall and stalled the machine time after time no matter what I did. I had to stop and open it up several times and then I gave up, got the Robot-Coupe blade out, washed it and processed bread crumbs in seconds with no problems. I did three batches in about 2 minutes.

It is like the difference between digging a hole with a shovel and digging a hole with a D9. I'm sure that is why the brioche dough turns out well for me. Julia would most likely have used the old Cuisinart models when testing for her books- and those were made by RC before they sold off the name to a Japanese company who makes them now. I will stop raving now but you especially, Joe, will benefit from owning one of these some day.

 
Don't be sorry. You've convinced me with the bread crumbs. I go CRAZY

making crumbs in the Cuisinart. If the bread isn't perfectly fresh it leaves big chunks that never break down, and if you keep it running long enough for fine crumbs they get hot and sticky.

My birthday isn't until December, but I will seriously look into it,

 
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