Comments on: Brioche à Tête

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:16:19 +0000

Devon’s World Famous Uncle – The basic building blocks of bread are even more minimal: flour, water, salt, and yeast/leavening (these produce a “straight dough”). The right ratios definitely have an effect on the final product, but even more so, time is the single biggest contributing factor. Time is what helps you develop gluten, the protein that makes dough chewy, and it’s necessary for fermentation, which gives flavor and good crumb structure. There are whole books on the subject, but if you are new to bread making, I recommend that you read this article from Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey (of Sullivan St. Bakery) via the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html . They will get you started on a basic loaf and explain a little more about what goes on when you make bread.

The inclusion of other ingredients, such as sugar, eggs, butter, milk, etc. make something called an “enriched dough”. The principles of the straight dough still hold true with enriched doughs, but the order that you mix ingredients is important, and it becomes essential to use a stand mixer to help you do the work because they require tons of additional kneading to get gluten to develop despite the addition of fats and sugars, which actually inhibit the formation of gluten. This is why the butter gets added gradually, and the salt and sugar are reserved in the mixing process to allow the gluten to develop.

Everything I’ve said here is just the tip of the iceburg. Depending on how much time you want to devote to cultivating your own delicious carbs, I recommend that you do a little reading: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, Artisan Bread Baking in 5 Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzburg, and My Bread by Jim Lahey are all good titles.

By: Devon's World Famous Uncle

Devon's World Famous Uncle — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:48:55 +0000

Would you say that yeast, flour, salt, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, are the basic building blocks of all bread and that by shifting the amount of each, I can make different stuff? In other words, is that all I need to buy. I’m off Atkins for a few weeks and if I’m ever going to do it, it would be now. I’d rather experiment than follow a recipe, but would that basically work?

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:24:53 +0000

Eddie – The best way to get better is to just dive in! Let me know if you need advice along the way, always happy to help!

Joan – I’m a huge fan of King Arthur and I’d never bake with anything else.

By: KAFbakers

KAFbakers — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:10:05 +0000

Thank you for sharing this recipe from King Arthur Flour. Love you step by step photos. Makes it very easy to follow. Joan@bakershotline

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:23:44 +0000

Those brioche are beatiful! I’ve started to work up the courage to make attempts at bread and pastry, so I’ll have to give these a try in the near future. Btw, the new site design looks great!