Véronique’s Brioche

Véronique's Brioche

This recipe was taught to me by my dear friend Véronique, while visiting with her in France some years ago. It took me a while to get the flour, oven, etc right, but if you follow the directions, you will get a beautiful soft buttery brioche which can be eaten with your favourite jam for breakfast, or served with foie gras and jelly for an entree. I use my bread maker and mix the dough using the “Dough” setting, however it can be mixed for 15 minutes using an electric mixer with a suitable dough hook, if doing this, make sure your butter is very soft. Sorry for those who are hoping for a gluten free version… Still working on it!

Ingredients

  • 350g Plain Flour
  • 180g Butter
  • 75g Sugar
  • 4 Eggs
  • Pinch of salt
  • 40g Fresh Yeast
  • 2 tbs tepid water
  • 1 egg (extra), beaten, for egg wash

Directions

  1. Combine water and yeast and set aside to activate.
  2. Place the butter in the bottom of the mixing/baking bowl of your bread machine, then the dry ingredients, eggs and yeast mixture.
  3. Set the bread machine for basic dough.  When done, remove bowl from machine, cover with plastic and place in the fridge overnight.
  4. In the morning, knead the dough on a well floured surface (it is a sticky dough), and then shape your brioche and place in desired, baking tins (individual, ring tin or loaf tins).
  5. Leave in a warm, draught free place in until doubled in size.
  6. Turn oven to 150°C (fan-forced).
  7. Glaze brioche with egg wash and put in oven. When oven reaches temperature, bake for 15 minutes.
  8. Remove from oven and turn out from tin.
  9. Serve warm with butter and your favourite jam or jelly.

Notes

  • Use a good quality plain flour. DO NOT use bread flour.
  • Make sure the butter is at room temperature/soft.
  • Fresh yeast gives a much better result.