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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Garlic Chili Pepper Flatbread #BreadBakers

Chewy yet fluffy, this garlic chili pepper flatbread is great on its own as a snack or serve it with your favorite dhal or curry. The garlic and chili add so much flavor to this tasty bread! 

Homemade flatbread is so easy and always turns out nicer than almost anything I can buy on store shelves. I know in a lot of homes around the world, it’s a normal part of everyday cooking but unless I’m cooking curry, I just don’t think to make it. 

Note to self: Make homemade flatbread more often! Note to anyone reading this: You should too. 

Garlic Chili Pepper Flatbread

This recipe makes six flatbreads (about 7x4 in or 18x10cm each) and was adapted from one on Taste.com.au. These little guys definitely have a noticeable heat from the peppers. You can remove the seeds before mincing your peppers to make them less spicy.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon dried active yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 3/4 cups or 218g bread flour

3/4 cup or 180ml warm water (about 100–110°F or 38–43°C)

2 hot red chili peppers

3-4 sprigs fresh parsley, stems removed

2 cloves garlic

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2-3 tablespoons olive oil 

Method

Warm the water to the required temperature and measure your flour into a small bowl. 

In a large mixing bowl, mix the yeast and sugar together with about 1/4 of the flour and the warm water. Set aside 20 minutes until foamy.

Mince your peppers, parsley leaves and garlic.

Add them along with the salt to the remaining flour. Stir to combine.

Add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture and combine using a Danish whisk or your clean hands. 

Knead on a clean surface until smooth and elastic.

Transfer the dough to a greased bowl.

Cover with a tea towel or cling film, then leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Form the dough into a stout log, then cut into 6 equal pieces. The log just makes it easier to eyeball what six equal pieces should look like. 

If you prefer to use a scale, you can skip that step. My dough ball weighed 212g so each piece was about 68g. Roll them them into balls.

Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll one ball into an oval and brush it with olive oil. 

Roll it up from the short end into a tight tube. 

Use two hands to roll the tube longer and thinner.

Coil the tube into a circle like a snail.

Tuck the end under. Press down gently. 

Repeat until you have six little swirled dough balls. 

Starting with the first one you made, use the rolling pin to form it back into an oval.

Heat a griddle over a medium high heat and cook the flatbread until puffed on top and lightly browned on the bottom. 

Turn and cook the other side. This takes just a couple of minutes on each side. 

Flip it over one last time. 

I like to put the finished flatbreads in a warm oven in a foil pouch to keep them warm. 

Repeat the rolling and cooking process for the remaining five dough balls. Serve warm. (Or eat at room temperature the next day for breakfast - OMG, still so good.)

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my Bread Baker friends to share their recipes. Our theme is Spicy Breads with Peppers. Many thanks to our host, Radha of Magical Ingredients. Check out the links below: 

• Garlic Chili Pepper Flatbread from Food Lust People Love
• Hatch Chili and Gouda Sourdough from A Messy Kitchen
• Jalapeño Popper Pizza from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Radish Stuffed Calzone from Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Pepper and Onion Spelt Flour Bread from Cook with Renu
• Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Red Chili Sourdough from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Sambal Oelek Milk Bread Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spicy Cheesy Bread from Passion Kneaded

#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 Garlic Chili Pepper Flatbread!

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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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Rough Puff Pain au Chocolat #BreadBakers

These rough puff pain au chocolat beauties are so much easier than regular puff pastry but still have the requisite flaky layers we all love so much.

When our host for this month’s Bread Baker event chose laminated dough as our theme, I really hoped to have time to make actual puff pastry. It’s something my son-in-law used to make and, in true Dai fashion, he made it look easy. I know it wasn't!

Time got away from me, as it does to most of us this time of year so I resorted to rough puff yeast dough. No regrets though. It was delicious. 

Rough Puff Pain au Chocolat

If you have access to the special chocolate batons that French bakeries use instead of chocolate bars, by all means, use them. As you can see from the photos, the chocolate does melt out somewhat but my taste testers all agreed that there was still plenty of big chocolate flavor from the dark 70 percent cocoa.

This recipe was adapted from one on Baking a Moment. 

Ingredients for 10

For the rough puff dough:

2 2/3 cups or 333g flour

1/4 cup or 50g sugar

2 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup + 1/3 cup or 188g unsalted butter, cold

2/3 cup or 160ml milk, (add up to 2 – 3 tablespoons more if needed)

For the egg wash:

1 large egg beaten with a teaspoon or two of water

For the filling: 

4 3/4 oz or 135g good quality chocolate (I used Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate. Bought 2 bars, used about 1 1/3.)

Method

Place the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together until combined. 

Slice the butter into 1/8-inch or 1/3 cm thick slices and toss in the flour mixture to coat.

Add the milk and stir together until a shaggy dough forms. 

If you still have too much dry flour showing, add the extra tablespoons of milk, one at a time, mixing well in between. 

Wrap the dough tightly in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour. This can also be an overnight rest without any problems. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a wide rectangle.

Fold it into thirds (like a letter), turn 90 degrees, and roll the dough out again. 

Repeat 4 to 6 more times, folding and rolling, until the dough has large streaks of butter in it but it is smooth and flat. If your kitchen is warm, chill the dough folded and wrapped in the refrigerator or freezer until stiff, before rolling out again. 

Wrap tightly and chill for 1 more hour, then roll it out to a rough square shape about 12 inches or 30cm wide.

Trim off any uneven edges. (Bake these rolled in cinnamon sugar for an easy treat.)

 Cut the dough into 10 rectangles (about 5x3 inches or 13x7.5cm.) I have a very hard time cutting things evenly when you can't cut halves then halves again but it's easy if you fold the two sides in and leave an equal part in the middle. 

Simply cut that middle piece out, then cut the other two pieces on the fold lines. Voilá, five reasonably even pieces! 

Cut your chocolate bars into short lengths and line a large baking pan with parchment. 

Place one piece of chocolate near the short end of each rectangle. Place another piece of chocolate about 1 1/2-inches from the other short end of the rectangle.

Roll the dough up around the chocolate pieces. Place the pain au chocolat seam side down in your prepared pan.

Cover them loosely with cling film and put the pan in a warm place. Prove until doubled in size. Alternatively, you can prove them overnight in the refrigerator then allow them time to rise at room temperature before baking the next day.

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and gently brush the pain au chocolate with the egg wash.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until puffed, golden brown, and flaky.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s Bread Baker time! Today we are sharing baked goods made with laminated dough. Check out the treats below! Many thanks to our host Kelly from Passion Kneaded.

• Cranberry Brie Appetizer Pinwheels from A Messy Kitchen
• Croissant Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Herbed Cheese Scrolls from Sneha's Recipes
• Kakaós Csiga from Passion Kneaded
• Rough Puff Pain au Chocolat from Food Lust People Love

#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 Rough Puff Pain au Chocolat! 

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