The olive oil brioche that I bring you today has nothing to envy to the classic sweet of French origin enriched with butter. In this brioche you will find all the benefits of the previous one but with the extra virgin olive oil.

The light, ethereal and tasty crumb that comes out with just a few ingredients is spectacular. Its golden crust will make you fall in love from the first bite. Of course, this brioche has a downside... You will not be able to stop eating, it is totally addictive!

To make this brioche, I have opted for an Emile Henry ceramic mold of about 23 centimeters. I have chosen to divide the dough into 3 equal parts for a simple reason; By baking 3 rolls of dough in the same mold, we can then individually separate these pieces, thus obtaining 3 brioche loaves.

In this way we can keep the pieces individually wrapped in plastic wrap and a freezer bag. They freeze great and when you need a slice, just pull out a piece and cut the slices of your choice. Even if the piece is frozen, don't worry, slices can be cut without any problem. Then, you have several options; put in a toaster directly or let defrost at room temperature.

It is very important that you use the right flour to make this brioche. You need a strong flour , with a minimum percentage of 13% protein. To find out the percentage of protein that a flour has, it is as simple as looking at the nutritional information that comes on the package and looking for proteins in the table.

T&G acacia wood shovel , Birkmann bread scraper and Pallarès carbon steel knife

Ingredients

• 500 g of strong flour (13% protein)
• 10g instant baker's yeast (not to be confused with Royal chemical yeast)
• 10g of salt
• 100g of honey
• 70g extra virgin olive oil
• 2 eggs L + 2 yolks
• 150 ml of water at 46 ºC

To brush:

• 1 egg yolk with a little water

Preparation

1. Place the flour in the bowl of the mixer and without stopping stirring add the salt, the yeast and pour in the honey, olive oil, the eggs and the yolks.
2. We are gradually adding the water at 46 ºC mixing at low speed with the hook accessory until we finish the water.
3. We continue to knead at medium/low speed for about 7 minutes until the dough is smooth, shiny and no longer sticks to our hands. Let the dough relax for about 5 minutes.
4. After this time we do the membrane test . This consists of stretching a piece of dough between our fingers, and if the gluten is well developed, a kind of translucent membrane will remain when it is held up to the light. If it breaks when you make it, it means that you need more kneading.
5. Form a ball and place it in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size. Approx. 2 hours.
6. Turn the dough out onto the countertop and tap a couple of times to remove excess gas.
7. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. With the help of a roller , stretch each one of them, leaving a rectangle with a width equal to the mold that we are going to use. Once each of the doughs is rolled, we will obtain 3 rolls of brioche dough.
8. On a mold with parchment paper at its base, place the 3 rolls, one next to the other. Let rise at room temperature in a large plastic bag for 1 hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 175 ºC heat up and down.
10. Beat the egg yolk with a little water. We brush all the dough.
11. Bake for 10 minutes at 175ºC. After this time, lower the oven temperature to 150ºC and bake for 15-20 minutes. The brioche should be golden, shiny and with an internal temperature of about 87 ºC.
12. Let the brioche cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.
13. Once cold, the crumb will have settled and we will be able to make slices perfectly.

T&G acacia wood shovel and ceramic tray Emile Henry

Note: This olive oil brioche, as it is without anything else, is exquisite. It is ideal for both sweet and savory accompaniment. And if you let it harden for a few days you will get some wonderful French toast .