Classic Brioche à Tête #BreadBakers

This classic brioche à tête recipe is simple to make, with very little hands on time, no stand mixer required, for a loaf that is rich and buttery. Start one day ahead. 

I own two proper brioche pans, one from my years living in Paris and yet another, believe it or not, that was purchased in Cairo, Egypt, It was made by the French manufacturer Tefal though so I guess that makes it authentic. 

If you search the internet for brioche recipes, you will find literally millions and millions. Google says an estimated 25.000,000 in fact. All the top hits seem to be baked in regular rectangular loaf pans though.

I was determined to create a classic loaf using one of my pans. Took me a bit but I finally figured out where I was going wrong! I needed to search for brioche à tête or brioche à Parisienne. Who knew? In Paris the bakeries just said brioche or possibly grosse brioche and petite brioche (sometimes with flavor options) on the boards.

Here's a little fun fact for you: While brioche in proper French translates to sweet bun, colloquially, it also means beer gut. In case you have a friend who needs ribbing in French. 

Back to my quest: I was delighted to find a video by baker extraordinaire Anna Olson making little brioche buns where she showed the proper way to make the tête or head that is supposed to poke out on top. Is my tête too small? Absolutely. Live and learn. Next time I will make it bigger! 

Classic Brioche à Tête

You can warm the whole amount of milk (3 oz or 90ml) needed, use a portion to activate the yeast then pour the rest in when making the dough. Please note that you do need to start a day ahead of when you want to bake the brioche. This gives the dough the time it needs to chill, making it easier to handle. 

Ingredients

To activate the yeast:

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup or 60ml milk, warmed to body temperature

For the brioche dough:

2 1/2 cups or 312g flour

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 eggs

1 fl oz or 30ml milk, warmed to body temperature

3 oz or 85g butter, softened at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan

For the egg wash:

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

Method

Step one is to activate the yeast. Put the yeast in a small bowl with the flour and warm milk. Stir to combine, set aside while you get the dry ingredients together.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. 

Add the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients, along with the rest of the milk and the eggs. 

Stir with a stiff spoon or Danish whisk until well combined. 

Add in butter and mix again until it is completely incorporated.

The dough will be super sticky so tidy it up as best you can into a ball using a spatula. 

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest at room temperature for one hour.

Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 12 - 24 hours to chill the dough. 

When you are ready to bake, generously butter your brioche pan with softened butter and a pastry brush. 

Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press it out. 

Fold it over a couple of times then shape it into a firm ball. 

Use the side of your hand to make an indentation near one end of the ball, like you are trying to form a neck and head of dough on a dough body. Make your small ball bigger than mine for a more authentic look to the finished brioche!

Use your fingers to create a hole through the dough.

Tuck the "head" under and up through the hole. This will give the brioche its classic shape with the knob on top. 

Place the formed dough into your prepared brioche pan. 

Cover with cling film (buttered or greased so that it doesn't stick to the dough as it rises) and leave to rise for about 2 hours. As it nears the end of rising time, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C in a fan oven or 425°F or 218°C in a conventional oven.

Whisk the egg and water together to create the egg wash. 

Working from the outside inward, brush the brioche very lightly with the egg wash.

Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F or 180°C in a convection oven or 375°F or 190°C in a conventional oven.

Continue baking until the brioche is deep golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 25 to 30 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let the brioche cool in the pan for just 5 minutes. Any longer and condensation starts to form and your crust won't be lovely and crisp. 

Unmold onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Let the brioche cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers to share their recipes. Our theme today, you might have guessed, is brioche-style bread. Many thanks to our host Kelly of A Messy Kitchen. Check out the links below. 

• Almond Cream Brioche Buns from A Messy Kitchen
• Brioche Pull-Apart Loaf from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Classic Brioche à Tête from Food Lust People Love
• Individual Orange Cranberry Brioche from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Single Rise Brioche Dinner Rolls from Sneha's Recipe

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Classic Brioche à Tête!

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Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread #BreadBakers

This rosemary onion socca aka chickpea flatbread is super easy to make and even easier to devour. The crispy edges and golden bottom are superb. This had us standing around, picking up just one more piece. And maybe just one more. All right, this really is the last one! And it's gone.

Despite living in France for three years, I had never come across socca until a couple of years ago when I was researching gluten free recipes for another edition of Bread Bakers. It sounded delightful but I didn’t have any chickpea flour (and was too lazy to go shopping) so I chose to make something else. 

It popped back into my mind when our host for this month’s Bread Baker event chose flatbreads as our theme. As you can see from the photos, bread really doesn’t get any flatter than socca! There are no leavening agents so it doesn’t rise at all. 

I checked out several recipes for this French regional bread and while all of them had varying amounts of chickpea flour, water and oil, none had baking powder so I had to conclude that this is correct. 

Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread

It’s best to start ahead by several hours or even the day before you want to make this as the batter needs time to be its best. This recipe is adapted from one on New York Times Cooking. If your local grocery store doesn't carry chickpea flour, try an Asian or Indian shop where it might be labeled besan or gram flour.

Ingredients

1 cup or 118g chickpea flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup or 240ml lukewarm water

4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil

½ medium onion

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, small tender leaves or chopped bigger leaves

Method

Put the chickpea flour in a bowl; add the salt and pepper. Slowly add the lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Whisk in 2 tablespoons olive oil. 

Cover or pour into a jar and let sit for 12 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. The batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream. I like using a clean pint jar which fits better in the refrigerator. It also makes mixing easier, as you’ll see later. 

When you are about ready to bake the socca, finely slice your onions. 

Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a large iron skillet and pan fry the onions until crispy, about 8-9 minutes. 

Add in most of the rosemary, reserving just a little for sprinkling on the socca before baking, and give it a quick stir. Fry for one minute. 

Remove the onions and rosemary from the pan and leave them to cool. 

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 450°f or 232°C. Once hot, add two more tablespoons of olive oil to the iron skillet and put it in the oven for about 5 minutes. 

Mix the onions and rosemary into your socca batter. (If you’ve also put your batter in a jar, this is super easy. Add them in, screw the lid on tight and give the jar a good shake.) 

Immediately pour the batter into the hot pan. Sprinkle on the reserved rosemary leaves. 

Bake for 10 -12 minutes, or until the socca is firm and the edges set.

Heat the broiler/grill and brush the top of the socca with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil. 

Set the pan a few inches away from the heat source, and cook just long enough to brown it in spots. 

Cut the socca into wedges, and serve hot or warm.

Enjoy! 

Since it’s the second Tuesday of the month, it’s BreadBakers day! Many thanks to our host Kelly of Passion Kneaded who chose flatbreads as our theme. Check out all the links below. 

• Eggless Keto Naan from Sneha's Recipes
• Focaccia Bread Art from Passion Kneaded
• Magical Oreo Paratha from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Nan-e-Barbari from Ambrosia
• Rosemary Onion Socca - Chickpea Flatbread from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Pizza Bianca from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Rosemary Onion Socca

– Chickpea Flatbread!

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Trini Fry Bakes #BreadBakers

Light and fluffy, Trini fry bakes are easy to make with just a few simple ingredients. They are one of my favorite snacks from my childhood years in Trinidad. Why they are called bakes when they are always deep fried, I cannot tell you. It remains a mystery to this day.

We moved to Trinidad when I was five years old and thanks to my mom’s adventurous spirit, I was introduced to so many new foods that have become part of our family menu, like curry, fried wontons, stuffed crab, tamarind balls and salt prunes.

My older sister and I were in enrolled in a small school not far from our new home and my mom got busy finding out where to shop and otherwise outfit said home. One of the first things she did was to hire a local lady to help her care for our five-month-old baby sister and to help clean and cook occasional meals. 

I’d get home from school, shuck my uniform and shoes in favor of shorts and bare feet, then run to the kitchen for a snack. On days when bake dough was in evidence, I could hardly wait to hear it hit the oil. I’d retire to the back garden to eat my hot puffy treasure in peace. Good times. 

In Trinidad, fry bakes are eaten with an assortment of other ingredients from plain butter and cheese to fried eggs, smoked herring or saltfish and tomatoes. Fry bakes are also one half of the classic shark and bake, essential to any beach day on the island. 

Trini Fry Bakes

I have adapted my recipe from several I’ve found on the internet, primarily Cooking with Ria and Triniinxisle. Some recipes use baking powder as the only rising agent and some either require yeast or list it as an optional ingredient. 

Ingredients

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

3/4 cup or 180ml warm water

2 cups or 250g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2-3 cups or 480-720ml canola or other light oil for frying

Method

Put the yeast in a small bowl with a pinch of sugar. Add a couple of tablespoons of the warm water and set aside to proof. The yeast should start to bubble up if it is active. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add the butter and use your fingertips or a pastry blender to work it into the flour mixture. 

While stirring with a wooden spoon or Danish whisk, slowly add water into the flour and mix until the dough starts to leave the bowl’s sides. You may not need quite all the water. 

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface to knead for a few minutes. Or use a stand mixer instead of hand kneading. Knead the dough in the mixer for several minutes or until it starts to pull away from the sides.

Form the dough into a large ball in a bowl and cover the bowl with cling film or a plastic shower cap. Let it rest for a minimum of about 30 minutes. You can refrigerate for several hours or overnight. This helps to create a fluffier result.

When you are ready to fry the bakes, divide the dough into 8 small "golf" ball sized pieces. My dough weighed 498g so each ball weighed 62g.

On a lightly-floured surface, using your clean hands and/or a rolling pin to flatten the balls out into disks about 4x6 in or 10x15cm.

Pour oil into a medium sized pot on medium heat. For the most accurate judge of oil temperature, use a thermometer. Deep fry temperature is 380°F or 193°C.

I like to use as small a pot as will fit my bakes comfortably, one at a time, to minimize the amount of oil I have to use. I add just enough oil to reach my thermometer so I know that the temperature reading is accurate. 

When your oil reaches the correct temperature, put the bake in the hot oil. When it floats and turns golden on the bottom, quickly turn it over to brown the other side. This takes about 30-45 seconds on each side. I have seen recipes that shallow fry the dough but then how do you know when they float? My childhood experience is that the bakes were always deep fried. 

Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the fry bakes to a paper towel-lined plate. This helps absorb the excess oil. 

If you aren’t serving these hot as they come out of the oil, you can put the plate in a warm oven. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my Bread Baker friends to share their recipes, Many thanks to our host today, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe who challenged us to make fry breads. Check out the links below:

• Mixed Flour Instant Bhatura from Sneha's Recipe
• Trini Fry Bakes from Food Lust People Love
• Tangzhong Doughnuts from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Banh Tieu from Magical Ingredients

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Trini Fry Bakes!

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Egyptian Mahlab Bread #BreadBakers

Puffy and crispy yet chewy around the edges, this Egyptian mahlab bread is sprinkled with kalongi aka nigella seeds for flavor and decoration. 

First, I have to tell you that this bread doesn’t actually contain mahlab. I haven't even been able to figure out why this particular kind of bread is called mahlab. It has nothing to do with cherries or the spice made from the kernel in their pits. 

Suffice to say that it is Egyptian so it fits this month’s Bread Bakers theme of Mediterranean breads and that’s gonna have to be good enough for me right now. If someone has more info, please let me know. 

Egyptian Mahlab Bread

This recipe is adapted from several I found online. It makes 8 mahlab breads. For some reason, they all didn’t puff up but even the flatter ones were still delicious. 

Ingredients

For the bread dough:

1/2 cup or 120ml warm water

3/4 teaspoon dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 cups or 187.5g flour

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the egg wash:

1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon milk

For flavor and decoration: 

Kalongi aka nigella seeds

Method

In your mixing bowl, mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar. Set aside for a few minutes to make sure your yeast is active. It should start to foam up.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour and salt. 

Add the flour and salt to the warm water/yeast bowl a little at a time and stir well until you form a soft smooth dough. I have a Danish whisk that is perfect for this job. 

Knead the dough by hand for several turns then form it into a ball. Place it in an oiled bowl and let it rise for an hour or until doubled in size. 

As you can see from this photo, I let mine over prove but no harm, no foul. Life got in the way. Just punch it down and carry on. 

Divide the dough into eight equal pieces. Mine each weighed about 38g.

Use a cupped hand to roll them into balls against the countertop. 

Roll out the balls to a 1/4 inch or 6mm thickness, brush the tops with the egg wash.

Sprinkle the seeds on top.

Let the little dough circles rest for about 10-15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C. They will rise again slightly. 

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the bottoms are nicely browned.

Remove from the oven. If you'd like the bread crunchier, leave it to cool completely. 

Enjoy!

As mentioned above, it’s Bread Baker time! Yep, it's the second Tuesday of this new year (and month) and that means it’s time for my Bread Bakers to share their recipes. My daughter Cecilie chose the theme of Mediterranean bread and I was grateful since my brain wasn’t working so great. Fortunately, a lot of my fellow bread bakers are more organized than I am. Check out all their links below:

• Bazluma from Magical Ingredients
• Cheese Fatayer from Sneha's Recipe
• Egyptian Mahlab Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Halloumi Cheese, Olive, and Mint Bread from Cook with Renu
• Ka'ak Asfar from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pita from Passion Kneaded
• Scones with Za'atar and Feta from Palatable Pastime
• Sourdough Man'oushe (Za'atar Flatbread) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Vasilopita from A Messy Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Egyptian Mahlab Bread! 

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Sweet Sourdough Pumpkin Buns

These sweet sourdough pumpkin buns are soft, fluffy and flavorful. Sweetened with brown sugar, they are the perfect bread to serve with to your Thanksgiving feast. 

I am here to tell you that my sourdough starter, John Dough, is a survivor! I abandoned him in my Houston refrigerator in May and when I got back in September, I fed him a couple of times and he is back to normal. Go, John, go! 

I had a back up plan, though. In her fabulous book, The Sourdough Whisperer, Elaine Boddy gives useful and easy to follow instructions on how to dry out a sourdough starter for foolproof transport. I tried it with Jane Dough (my Jersey, CI starter) before I headed back here to Houston but then I didn’t need to use it when John revived.

What that means though is that I have dried sourdough starter to share, if a friend happens to need some or if John Dough gets into a slump. I can highly recommend connecting with Elaine if you love baking with sourdough and/or want to get started. Her books are great for experienced bakers and beginners alike. Plus she’s a really nice person. Tell her Stacy from the delicious. group sent you!

Sweet Sourdough Pumpkin Buns 

The dough for these sweet buns uses a fed sourdough starter. Your dough will rise nicely but there isn’t a pronounced sharpness from the starter. This recipe was adapted from one on Aberle Home.

Ingredients for 12 buns

1/2 cup or 113g FED sourdough starter (100% hydration)

1/4 cup or 60ml milk, lukewarm

1/2 cup or 120g canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)

2/3 cup or 132g dark brown sugar

1 large egg

2 3/4 cup or 344g unbleached bread flour

1/4 cup or 56g butter, softened

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Optional to finish: 2 tablespoons melted butter

Method

In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the fed starter, milk, canned pumpkin, brown sugar and egg until well combined. 

Sift in the flour and mix again until there is no dry flour showing. 

Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Mix in the butter and salt until thoroughly combined. 

Knead on medium speed (or in the bowl by hand) for an additional 8-10 minutes or until the dough becomes very smooth and elastic. You might need to scrape the bowl down a time or two at the beginning to incorporate butter that has stuck to the sides. I did. 

This is a really soft dough. Form it into a ball as best you can in the bowl, and cover. Allow to rise at room temperature until it has doubled in volume or overnight in the refrigerator. (If you do an overnight cold prove, allow time for the dough to come back to room temperature before continuing with the next steps.) 

I did a slow overnight rise for this batch of buns because I believe that the extra time also makes the dough more manageable. 

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and divide it into 12 pieces (weigh dough for uniform buns - my whole dough ball weighed 864g/12 = 72g for each bun.) 

Dampen your hands with a little water so the dough doesn’t stick to them then form the dough into a tight ball by pinching the sides to the bottom. Cup your hand around the dough ball and push it around gently to create a nice round ball. 

Repeat to shape remaining pieces of dough. 

Place the balls in a baking pan lined with baking parchment, leaving room for them to rise. Ideally, they will touch once they have risen. For these buns, I used a 9x13 in or 23x33cm pan. Cover them with cling film and leave to rise for about 45-55 minutes.

If it’s cold in your kitchen and you have a microwave, put water in a microwavable bowl and heat it to almost boiling. Set the pan of buns on top of the bowl and leave the microwave closed for the rising time. Works like a charm. 

Near the end of your rising time, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Bake the buns on the center rack for 12-15 minutes or until they are lightly golden on the edges. (The centers should read 185°F or on an instant-read thermometer when done.) Cool in the baking pan on a cooling rack. 

These are divine served warm. I like to brush them with some melted butter. You might like to as well. 

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers to share their recipes. Since Thanksgiving is nigh, we are sharing breads that would be excellent additions to your Thanksgiving feast. Check out the list below. Many thanks to our host Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen.

• Crispy Sage and Garlic Parmesan Rolls by A Messy Kitchen
• Easy Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Keto Coconut Flour Sandwich Thins by Sneha’s Recipe
• Sourdough Cloverloaf Rolls by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sweet Sourdough Pumpkin Buns by Food Lust People Love
• Thanksgiving Stuffing Rolls by Karen’s Kitchen stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Sweet Sourdough Pumpkin Buns!

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