Brioche bread is a versatile dough that can be baked into smaller forms or larger loaves. It's enriched with eggs, butter, and a little extra sugar than ordinary bread recipes. It's best eaten fresh - but you can slice it, freeze it, and use later, too. Make sure to reheat before eating. It's SO good as baked french toast style bread pudding or in a bread pudding recipe. This dough spreads. I made the mistake one time of putting a double batch in 3 loaf tins instead of 4, and ended up with it rising up and over the sides of my pans while baking. Whoops!
Brioche Bread - the dough below baked into two loaf tins
Brioche danishes filled with homemade vanilla pudding and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar before baking. (These spread when made on a flat sheet).
Brioche dough made into rolls.
Basic Brioche - Gluten Free Style
In a mixer, combine dry ingredients:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour (or extra 1/2 cup brown rice flour)
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 tsp rapid-rise yeast
Add and mix in 1 minute:
1 1/4 cup milk, warmed (not hot)
4 egg whites + 2 eggs OR 4 eggs
Add, beating in 1 Tbsp at a time:
6 Tbsp butter, softened (not melted)
Beat dough 5-6 minutes, until nice and smooth.
Place dough in a buttered bowl (3-4 quart bowl works well). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough has doubled. I find if I make this with cold milk, I can let it rise overnight. If I use warm milk (as listed), it takes 2-4 hours to rise. **NOTE: I've also completely skipped this step, and while I like the texture just a bit more when it has a double-rise, I've also risen and baked the bread immediately and it was still delicious.**
Remove dough from bowl and shape in desired pans - making sure your pans are well-buttered or lined with parchment paper. For loaves, line two bread pans with parchment paper. Fill halfway with batter. After re-shaping, let dough rise in a warm location until doubled. It's fine to leave uncovered during the rise, but you can also cover loosely with plastic wrap - but make sure the dough does NOT touch the surface of the dough.
I have made this dough both covered and uncovered during rising - do yourself a favor and don't bother covering the bread. It'll turn out great either way - and you won't have to worry about the plastic touching the top of the bread and pulling off the top when you remove it.
Once dough has doubled in size, bake at 350 F for 1 hour for loaf pans. The crust will be a dark brown, but not burnt. The loaves tend to sink a bit in the center during baking or end up with a flat top.
Brioche loaves fresh from the oven. The tops of the loaves tend to be either slightly rounded, flat, or a bit sunken in the middle - it tends to vary depending on the day, but most loaves look flat on top. And the taste is the same for all.
For smaller danishes, scoop into desired tins (whoopie pie tins or just parchment-lined cookie sheet). The dough does spread during baking, so it's helpful to have something with some form. You can fill it with custard (make homemade vanilla pudding, leave out 1/2 cup of the milk), jam, or leave them plain. The smaller brioche bakes tend to bake more like 20-25 minutes at 350 F.
Small rolls made in whoopie-pie tins (with a mini loaf made from some extra batter). Baked ~20 minutes.
Batter in larger whoopie-pie tins, spread to make a hollow in the center for homemade vanilla pudding or jam.
Honestly, add more pudding than this and spread it around a bit more before you let it rise, then bake.
You can make the danishes on a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, but they'll spread a bit during baking. These were delicious topped with homemade vanilla pudding and cinnamon-sugar before baking. It's also great with pudding and jam together, or just jam.
We ate these warm and cold. I really liked them with a bit of jam alongside the pudding, too.
For brioche loaves, remove from tin and parchment paper and cool on wire racks. I prefer this bread fresh - within the day it's made. However, you can slice and freeze if you aren't going to be using it immediately, especially if you're wanting to use it in something like baked french toast. It's absolutely amazing as a baked french toast - like a delicious bread pudding. Yum! Enjoy!
Mmm... look at that flaky dough.
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