There’s something so wonderful about the smell of bread baking in your oven at home. The aroma fills the kitchen and you’re waiting with so much anticipation it hurts. And if you’re baking Brioche, oh my . . the smell of the butter alone when you first slice into it makes the overnight refrigeration and waiting all worth it.
I love the transformation that you see happen. I mean going from this dough . . .
To this. . .
to this . . . which doesn’t look like much at all . . .
But then you get to pull this glorious loaf out of the oven.
If you’re a home baker, you must bake this bread. It’s not difficult (if you use your trusty stand mixer) and just takes some planning, time and attention. Like all good breads do. . Now, I’ve baked brioche before, but in the form of a sticky bun. And after seeing Nancy’s post, I pinned her recipe and vowed to bake Dorie’s Brioche Loaves . . and what better occasion than for Twelve Loaves?
If you look at Nancy’s brioche, you see perfection. I mean come on!!! Look at those gorgeous, perfectly baked loaves? And I love that she showed us step-by-step what to do. So, you simply must print out the recipe card down below but use Nancy’s photos as a guide when baking this brioche.
And because this is for Twelve Loaves and our theme this month is strawberries, I had to make fresh strawberry jam (or sauce) to accompany this lovely bread. I always buy Driscoll’s Organic Strawberries. Love them!
This is perfection with strawberry jam my friends.
This brioche was so tasty with the strawberry jam. . the soft, flaky buttery brioche with the sweet, chunky fresh strawberries on top. Oh my!! so good! I ate two slices immediately and then had to put the rest away (after cutting some up for my girls) in fear of eating an entire loaf! I read online that you can freeze these baked loaves if you need to. It says to “wrap the freshly baked brioche bread tightly in aluminum foil while it’s still warm from the oven, placing the foil-wrapped bread in a plastic bag (or ziploc) and you can place the wrapped brioche bread in the freezer and store the brioche bread for up to two months.” I read this a little too late, plus I had to take photos, and wrapped my brioche after it had already cooled down considerably but we just ate some yesterday, after letting it come to room temp just on the counter and toasted it a bit in the toaster oven, and the brioche tasted delicious!
I hope you enjoy!
Brioche Loaves
Ingredients
For the brioche:
- 2 packets active dry yeast or 4 1/2 teaspoons if using from the jar
- 1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
- 1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature but still slightly firm, cut into 2-tablespoon-size chunks
For the egg wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Pour the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Add in the flour and salt, and fit the mixer with the dough hook attachment. Using the plastic covering or a kitchen towel, cover the mixer. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses (just to dampen the flour), remove the towel and increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, or just until the flour is moistened.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, followed by the sugar. Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 3 minutes, or until the dough forms a ball.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You’ll have a dough that is very soft, almost like a cake batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, for about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (lightly greased with butter), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, for about 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.
- Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, for about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
- The next morning, butter and flour two 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch pans. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 2 equal pieces. (I waited about 15-30 minutes after removing the dough from the fridge so the dough was easier to work with). Cut each piece of the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece into a log about 3 1/2 inches long. Arrange 4 logs crosswise in the bottom of each pan. Place the pans on a baking sheet and cover the pans lightly with wax paper and leave the loaves at room temperature until the dough almost fills the pans, for about 1 to 2 hours.
- Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. (Note: Nancy baked her loaves at 390. You know your oven best).
- To Make the egg wash: Beat the egg with the water. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the loaves with the glaze.
- Bake the loaves until they are well risen and deeply golden, about 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pans and turn the loaves out onto the racks. Invert again and cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
Source: Gotta Get Baked
Fresh Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 large lemon zested and juiced
- 1 pint fresh strawberries hulled and halved
Instructions
- Combine the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved. Add the strawberries and continue to cook over very low heat for 20 minutes, until the strawberries release some of their juices and the mixture boils slowly. Pour carefully into 2 pint canning jars and either seal or keep refrigerated. Use immediately, or follow Ina's proper canning guidelines below. See link below.
Source: Ina Garten from The Food Network
Twelve Loaves for March!
Choose a recipe featuring strawberries. It can be a bread accented with fresh or dried strawberries, strawberry preserves. Whatever you bake (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, braids, flatbreads, etc) have fun and let’s have a delicious month of bread with STRAWBERRIES. Let’s get baking!
We have a fabulous line-up for you this month because we are celebrating STRAWBERRIES! You need to take a look at all the fabulous recipes down below!
- Strawberry Almond Quick Bread by Renee from Magnolia Days
- Strawberry Bread with Rhubarb and Bananas by Renee from Kudos Kitchen
- Brioche Loaves with Fresh Strawberry Jam by Alice from Hip Foodie Mom
- Strawberry Buttermilk Scones by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Balsamic Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls by Felice from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
- Framboise Muffins with Strawberry Jam by Rossella from Ma che ti sei mangiato
- Strawberry Dessert Rolls by Dionne from Try Anything Once Culinary
- Strawberry Hazelnut Buttermilk Quick Bread by Heather from girlichef
- Strawberry Swirl Sweet Rolls by Donna from Cookistry
- Strawberry Bread by Holly from A Baker’s House
- Strawberry Cheesecake Sweet Bread by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins by Deepti from Baking Yummies
- Strawberry Danish by Karen from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Strawberry Bagels by Lora from Cake Duchess
- Strawberry Pound Cake by Kathya from Basic N Delicious
If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do!
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this March, 2014, and posted on your blog by March 31, 2014.
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess. #TwelveLoaves runs so smoothly thanks to the help of the lovely Renee from Magnolia Days and this month, me!
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