Brioche–An Old World French Classic

Brioche has stood the test of time to remain one of France’s central pastries. It has many variations and adaptations in other cultures. Real brioche contains, in addition to the ingredients of a basic French bread, honey, eggs and ample butter.

Marie Antoinette, if she said it, said “let them eat brioche,” by the way, not “cake”.

If you can afford it, use raw, organic honey. Here we used honey from a wonderful apiary in Tennessee called Poor Hollow Bee Farm.

I used the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for the brioche dough.

Ingredients for Brioche Dough

Flour 7 ½ cups

Salt 1 ½ tablespoons

Yeast 2 packages

Eggs 8

Honey ½ cup

Butter 3 sticks (24 tablespoons)

Water 1 ½ cups

Recipe:

Combine yeast and lukewarm water, about 100 degrees, in a large bowl and stir. Add all other ingredients and mix well, using either your hands, a spoon, a food processor with dough blade, or a standing mixer with dough hook as I’ve used here. Transfer mixture into a plastic container, large enough for mixture to double, about 7 quarts. After several hours, when dough has risen, you can transfer container into refrigerator.

The pastry dough being churned in a standing mixer with dough hook.