Unprecocious Salted Butter Brioche

aka Perfectly Developed, In Its Own Good Time,

Salted Butter Brioche

(Jump to the recipe file here.)

I just posted the best chicken salad recipe I have ever found, but it was so quick, so easy, I felt it wasn’t a full blog post, and I’ve already posted how to make croissants (which pair so classically well with Classic Chicken Salad), so I decided to post this Salted Butter Brioche recipe by Erin McDowell of Food 52 and Bake It Up A Notch, in case you’d like to make it to go along with your Classic Chicken Salad.

(By the time I’m writing this post, we only have half of the loaf left for dinner because Kevin and I each ate a big slab with some butter so I could get some photos of the cutting into it.)

I love Erin McDowell’s Bake It Up A Notch, and I must say, I’m completely jealous of the fact that she’s been baking far longer than I have been and that she thought of the name ‘Bake It Up A Notch.’ That’s what I live for: taking the things we have to do every day just to that next level. Her recipes are all so reliable and tested and true. Professional recipes, tested by a really smart person, who has great taste, that’s what Erin McDowell’s recipes are. You should check her out any time you’re in the mood to learn a ton about bread and pie, specifically.

Here goes!

Unprecocious Salted Butter Brioche

You’ll Need:

• 361 g (3 cups) bread flour
• 50 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
• 10 g (1 Tbs) instant yeast
• 2 g (½ tsp) sea salt
• 3 eggs
• 76 g (1/3 cup) whole milk
• 170 g (3/4 cup) salted butter at room temperature

For the Egg Wash:

• 1 egg + 1 Tbs water

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, measure in your 361 g bread flour, 50 g granulated sugar, 10 g instant yeast, 2 g fine sea salt, 3 eggs, and 76 g whole milk and start the mixer on low just to start to combine.

After about 2 minutes on low, once it’s combined and also won’t splash out of the mixer, increase the speed to medium and mix for another 4 minutes.

Now add your room-temperature butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Once the first tablespoon is combined, add the next, continuing until it’s all incorporated.

Know that it’s a very sticky dough; that’s part of what makes it so deliciously, amazingly buttery.

(I used a block of butter, and while I did cut it into chunks to let it come to room temperature, my room was still a bit chilly, so my butter was room temp on the outsides, but still a little too cold on the inside chunks. I proceeded right on ahead ahead anyway, but my weird mixer (my bowl lifts up and down, instead of the head lifting out of the way, and I find it sometimes really struggles getting to the bottom of things) just could not get to the bottom of the bowl to incorporate everything, even after stopping to scrape the bottom of the bowl.

Now I mentioned before that this dough is very sticky, so it’s not completely surprising, but no worries! I just plopped my dough onto the countertop and used my God-given dough hooks… …my hands! The best dough hooks ever. (And the counter was a cinch to clean up with a bench scraper.)

I share this little, minor, sort-of-a-hiccup because, I want to let you know that the dough is sticky, but so worth it, so hard to mess up irretrievably, and so worth coming up with a solution if you’re mixer can’t quite finish the job.

I kneaded the dough on the counter for about 5 minutes until I could feel that all the butter was incorporated.

Whether finishing the kneading by hand, or if mixing completely by machine, once the dough is uniform and shiny, though still sticky, place it into a buttered bowl and cover with a dish cloth and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

Then cover with plastic wrap and move it to the refrigerator overnight (or at least 8 hours).

(The resting time on the counter lets much of the gluten protein in the dough develop.

Then, the chilled, lengthy resting time in the fridge gives the finished bread the most intense flavor – and the most amazing smell literally 5 minutes after it makes it into the oven.)

Once your dough has had its lengthy, 8-hour rest in the refrigerator, prepare a 9×5 inch loaf pan with a thin layer of butter.

And brush a sheet of plastic wrap with a neutral flavored oil.

On a very lightly floured surface, using your hands (no need for a rolling pin with this one, as this dough is still cold, pretty stiff and rolls wherever you want it to go) roll the dough into a ball and pat it into a rectangle, then shape it into a log, pinching the seams very tightly as you roll, to give a tight seal to the edges, especially that final edge.

Press the loaf into your lightly-buttered 9×5 inch loaf pan and cover with your greased plastic wrap.

 (Erin McDowell, again, has a really great demonstration for how to roll this brioche: go to 34:51 of this linked video for a really detailed demonstration of how to shape your brioche, if you’re interested.     I did not watch this little snippet as a refresher before shaping my brioche, and I did get a steam-escape pocket along the top of my loaf, but, honestly, it’s so delicious nobody is going to mind; I kind of like the look of it, because at first glance you can see that golden, yellow, buttery interior beyond the deeply-golden crust. The only drawback to my steam-escape pocket, is that I am teaching you how to make the most amazing Unprecocious Salted Butter Brioche, and deep down, I’d like at least one photo of the absolute perfect loaf. That’s it! That’s the only drawback.)

Place your formed, covered loaf in a warm-ish, draft-free environment until it has risen about ½ inch above the sides of the loaf pan. This takes time: about 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours.

Near the end of your rising time, preheat your oven to 375˚F.

Once your loaf has risen above the pan, make an egg wash by beating 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Lightly brush the top of your brioche with a thin layer of egg wash.

Bake in your preheated 375˚F oven for 30 – 35 minutes.

The crust will get very crusty and deeply browned. Don’t be afraid! (When it’s done, it should sound hollow when tapped on the top.)

Allow the brioche to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy this bread any way you want! With butter… just plain… with Classic Chicken Salad… and then another slice with butter, for good measure.

I have no idea how long this loaf lasts. I baked mine this morning, and it’s half gone before dinner.

––Becky

Download the recipe file here.