Brioche

Ingredients

• about 4oz. of sifted flour
• loz. of German yeast
• 12oz. of flour
• a teaspoonful of salt
• two tablespoonfuls of water
• lOoz. of butter
• six eggs

Method

1. 1

   Make a sponge with flour and yeast.

2. 2

   Knead into a ball and let rise.

3. 3

   Mix in more flour, salt, sugar, butter, and eggs.

4. 4

   Let rise again, shape, and bake until golden.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Bread, cakes, and biscuits (1902) by S. Beaty-Pownall, page 97. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a teaspoonful of salt; then knead well, moistening the dough as it stiffens with a little fresh cream. Now turn this dough out on to a pastry board and pull it to pieces, gathering these pieces together again and reworking it, kneading it well till it forms a smooth dough free from any lumps. Roll this dough then into a ball, wrap it in a floured cloth, and leave it all night in a cool place or in the cellar. It should have risen to nearly twice its original size before it is used. Now put it on the board, nip off a small piece to form a kind of central knob or flower, and shape the rest of the dough with your hands, giving it a sort of twist as you do so, into a round and fix the knob in the centre. This cake should rise slightly towards the centre in the outer twist. Now put the cake on a well-buttered tin, draw some lines or patterns on it with the point of a knife from the sides to the centre, brush it well over with yolk of egg, and bake in a sharp oven. These cakes require quick, sharp baking, and the least slackness in the oven will make them heavy and sad. Baba. — Prepare a dough for this with lib. of flour, lOoz. of butter, 2oz. of caster sugar, loz. German yeast, eight eggs, and a teaspoonful of salt, setting a sponge and working it up precisely as for brioche paste, until the dough and the sponge are thoroughly mixed together. Then work into it ooz. carefully stoned Muscatel raisins, loz. finely shredded candied peel (citron is best), half a gill of either brandy or rum, and a pinch of saffron previously infused in half a gill of boiling water. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly into the dough ; then butter a mould well, half fill it with the dough, and set it in a moderately warm place to rise till it reaches fully up to the top of the mould, baking it to a nice FOREIGN CAKES. 153 golden colour in a moderately hot oven. Turn it out and serve. If preferred, the spirit may be omitted altogether or replaced by liqueur syrup. Abroad, a baba is usually served as a dinner sweet, and is sent to table hot with a rich jam sauce, or a fruit or liqueur syrup poured over it. It is of Polish origin, and is the same class of cake as a savarin, or brioche. Brioche. — Put about 4oz. of sifted flour on the pastry board (or, better still, if at hand, the pastry slab), make a hollow in the centre and pour into this loz. of German yeast dissolved in a little tepid water ; work it together, adding, if necessary, a little more warm water to get it just to a soft mass. Be careful to use as little water as possible. Now knead it all up into a ball and put it into a delicately clean pan capable of holding at least three times as much, cover the lid down closely, and set it in a moderately warm place to rise. It does not need to be hot, in fact, in ordinary summer weather it may stand anywhere in the kitchen out of the draught, except close to the fire. Mean- while, put 12oz. of flour on the board, hollow it out as before, and into this hollow put about a teaspoonful each of salt and sugar, and dissolve it with two tablespoonfuls of water; now mix in lOoz. of butter and six eggs

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.