2 eggs (one for making dough and one for egg brushing)
40g milk
80g liquid whipping cream
6g orange blossom extract
Cold butter (around one third of an average rice bowl)
Sliced almonds (for topping)
Instructions
Step 1: Mixing dry ingredients
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl to remove lumps so that mixing this ingredient become easier.
Place the other dry ingredients (sugar, baking powder and salt) into the mixing bowl.
Use a spatula to combine the dry ingredients.
Step 2: Adding wet ingredients
Crack open 1 egg onto the dry mixture obtained above.
Pour the milk and liquid whipping cream into the mixing bowl.
Use the spatula to incorporate the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.
Drizzle the orange blossom extract on the mixture and mix it a bit more then move to kneading step. You don’t need to mix the mixture too carefully at this step because the kneading step will do this work.
Step 3: Kneading dough and letting it rise (first rise)
Transfer the flour mixture obtained above onto a non-stick kneading/rolling mat. You can used a floured working surface, but be careful that you may unintentionally add more flour to the dough, which is not good for the brioche texture.
Knead the dough for 3 minutes then fold the cold butter into the dough and keep kneading for 10 more minutes or until a small ball of dough does not fall apart when you gently stretch it out with two hands.
Shape the dough into a ball, place it in a big bowl and cover the bowl with food wrapping film.
Let the dough stand at a warm place for 1 hour. After this resting time the dough should double or nearly double in size.
Step 4: Shaping the brioche loaf and letting the dough rise more (second rise)
Take the dough back to the kneading mat and cut it into 2 equal portions (around 330g each) to make 2 loaves of brioche bread.
For each loaf, shape a braided loaf by dividing the dough into 3 parts then roll them out into 3 strings of the same length. Next, braid the strings and hide two ends beneath the braid as demonstrated below.
Grease the inside of two loaf pans with butter and flour them, then place the braided dough into the pans.
Stir the remaining egg into a small bowl and brush it onto the loaves.
Sprinkle some sliced almonds on top to enrich the brioche taste.
Cover the loaf pans with a dry and thick towel and let the dough stand until it reaches the top level of each pan.
Step 5: Baking the brioche loaves
Once the loaves has reached the required size, place the loaf pans on a baking sheet and put it into the oven.
Bake the loaves at 180 degrees C for 30 to 35 minutes, until the loaf tops turn light golden brown.
Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let the brioche loaves cool in the loaf pans for 5 to 10 minutes then remove the brioche loaves from the pans to a cooling rack for more cooling.
I really love the smell of freshly-baked buttery brioche bread combined with orange blossom extract and baked almonds. It is so attempting that I can’t wait until the brioche loaves is completely cool to slice them off and taste them. So wonderful!
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