poor man's brioche

Many of us make bread at home, or we are used to preparing different pastry recipes. But few of us have tried to prepare our own brioches. Miriam, a food blogger from El Invitado de Invierno and an expert in everything related to bread, suggests that we prepare it today. On this occasion she has used the ideal ceramic mould for brioche from Emile Henry . Below she tells you how to do it.

Maybe you shouldn't think that brioche is what they sell you in most shops, no, no, no. Brioche is a wonderful bun with tons of eggs and butter, that if made with love and correctly smells like nourishment, and tastes fantastic. And it doesn't need to be covered in sticky glazes or anything to look the way it should. A few brush strokes of egg to make it shine, maybe some granulated sugar and it's done.

The term "poor man's brioche" comes from the fact that the amount of eggs and butter used to enrich the base will cost us more or less money for the bun. And it will cost us more or less to knead it as well, because the more fat the dough has, the less manageable it is. Therefore this is the easiest brioche we can make; the recipe comes from Peter Reinhart's book The Baker's Apprentice.

Ingredients

For the preferment:

• 65 g of baking flour
• 5 g dry baker's yeast (or 15 g fresh yeast)
• 120 ml whole milk

For the final dough:

• Preferment
• 3 large eggs (about 190-200 g)
• 30 g of sugar
• 10 g of salt
• 400-420 g of baking flour
• 120 g softened butter
• 1 egg to paint.

Elaboration

1. We start by preparing the preferment. We mix all the ingredients, cover and let it ferment. After a while it will be risen and bubbly (the time it takes to see it ready will depend a lot on the temperature of the kitchen and the state of the yeast, but with that amount of yeast it can take around an hour approximately).
2. When the pre-ferment is ready, add the eggs, sugar and salt and mix well. Then add the flour (starting with 400 g) and mix well. Start kneading, by hand or with a food processor or bread maker ; you will get a rather hard dough, but don't worry because when you add the butter it will become much thinner. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.
3. Knead for one minute and let the dough rest, always covered, for about 10 minutes. Repeat the short kneading and rest for another time. Then start adding the softened butter (be careful, not melted or softened) in pieces, until the dough has absorbed it all.
4. From here we knead in 1-2 minute increments, with 10-15 minute breaks in between, as many times as necessary to obtain a smooth and elastic dough, at least four times. We form a ball with the dough, transfer it to an oiled bowl, cover it and let it double in volume.
5. When it has doubled, we transfer it to the counter, press it well with our hand to remove any bubbles, and divide it into two equal portions. We shape the portions according to the mould we are going to use; we can mould it in the shape of a brioche à tête like the one in the photos (although this time the tête or little head has been a little spread out for me), for which we make a ball with 2/3 of the dough, which we will put in the mould. With the remaining third we make the small ball, which we will mould in the shape of a teardrop. To join both portions of dough, we sink a finger into the large ball, making a hole in the centre where we will introduce the tip of the teardrop, almost until it touches the bottom of the mould. We let the dough ferment again; in this second fermentation it should almost triple its volume.
6. When the dough has risen, brush it with beaten egg and place the moulds in the oven preheated to 210° (without air) with the bottom heat on. Bake the brioches for 20 minutes. After this time they will have risen and lower the temperature to 180°; bake for another 15 minutes. If they brown too much, cover them with aluminium foil.
7. When they are done, we take them out and when the molds can be handled, we remove them from the molds and let them cool on a rack.