MDC base (500g flour)
- 500 g flour T45
- 50 g sugar
- 20 g fresh yeast (or 8g dry)
- 10 g salt
- 300 g eggs (~6 eggs)
- 250 g butter, room temperature
Smaller batch (300g flour)
- 300 g flour T45
- 40 g sugar
- 12 g fresh yeast (or 6g dry)
- 6 g salt
- 90 g eggs
- 90 g whole milk
- 90 g butter, room temperature
Brioche is an enriched dough where the fat (butter) must be added only once the gluten is fully developed — added too early, it coats the proteins and blocks structure. The overnight cold rest is the key step: it develops flavour and makes the dough firm enough to shape cleanly. Do not skip it.
Method
Mixing
- Combine flour, sugar, yeast, salt, eggs (and milk if using the smaller batch) in the mixer with the hook. Mix low 4 min, then medium 6–8 min until the gluten network is developed — the dough should stretch without tearing.
- Add butter in 2–3 additions, room temperature, mixing on medium. The dough will break apart initially — keep going. It should pull away from the bowl walls and look glossy when ready.
Bulk fermentation
- Round the dough in the bowl, cover, and rest 30 min at room temperature.
- Fold once, then refrigerate overnight (10–12h). This is the key step for flavour and workability.
Shape
Nanterre: cut 7 pieces of ~50g each. Ball each one, place in quincunx in a buttered loaf tin.
Tressée: cut 2 cords of ~300g each. Roll each to ~50cm. Braid and prove on a baking sheet.
À tête: cut 6 pieces of ~50g. Roll each to elongate, then form head and body with the edge of your hand. Press firmly into the fluted moulds with a floured finger to define the neck.
Proof & bake
- Proof at 26–28°C with humidity (oven with a bowl of hot water), 1h30–2h. The dough should look pillowy and jiggle when the tray is tapped. Do not exceed 28°C or the butter seeps out.
- Brush with egg wash (yolk + a splash of cream or milk). Bake at 180°C for 16–25 min depending on size. Cool on a wire rack.
- Optional: brush with syrup immediately on exit from the oven for shine and moisture.
Background
The overnight cold fermentation is the most important step in brioche — without it, the dough tastes yeasty and flat and is too soft to shape cleanly. The cold firms the butter inside the dough and develops the flavour compounds that come from slow fermentation. A brioche made the same day is noticeably inferior.
The butter must go in only once the gluten is already developed — added too early, it coats the proteins and blocks gluten formation. The dough will look broken when butter first goes in and gradually come back together. The dough is ready when it pulls cleanly from the bowl walls around the hook and feels satin-smooth. If it never pulls clean, the butter went in too early or there is too much hydration.
Proof temperature must stay below 28°C. Above this, the butter starts to seep out of the dough (beurrage) — the brioche will look greasy and the crumb will be dense. A turned-off oven with a bowl of hot water sits at roughly 26–27°C and is the most reliable proofing environment at home.
Mistakes I've Made
- Adding butter too early. The dough never develops proper gluten — it stays sticky and loose, never pulls from the bowl.
- Proofing too warm. Butter seeps out, brioche bakes greasy with a dense crumb.
- Under-proofing. Dense crumb, no oven spring, taste of raw yeast.
- Skipping the overnight rest. The dough is hard to shape when warm and tastes strongly of yeast after baking.
- Not proofing long enough with levain. When using sourdough starter, minimum 9h proof — 7h is not enough.
Sources
- Brioche | Boulangerie Pas à Pas —
- Pâte à Brioche | MDC —
- Viennoiserie | Cyrille —
- Brioche Cappuccino | Stuyft —