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
- Combine water and yeast and set aside to activate.
- Place the butter in the bottom of the mixing/baking bowl of your bread machine, then the dry ingredients, eggs and yeast mixture.
- Set the bread machine for basic dough. When done, remove bowl from machine, cover with plastic and place in the fridge overnight.
- 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).
- Leave in a warm, draught free place in until doubled in size.
- Turn oven to 150°C (fan-forced).
- Glaze brioche with egg wash and put in oven. When oven reaches temperature, bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and turn out from tin.
- 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.