What is Brioche?
Brioche is a rich French bread with a high butter and egg content. It has a dark, golden flaky crust and a tender crumb inside. Brioche can be made into a loaf or into individual rolls. If brioche is on the menu, you bet I’m ordering it. Brioche’s enriched yeast dough gets its color and flavor from the amount of butter and eggs in the recipe. While this bread requires quite a bit of effort and patience, I believe it’s well worth the trouble.
Brioche, like many other breads, requires very few ingredients. There are many steps in the instructions with a couple of rising times, but the time spent making this bread is well worth it. While the eggs and butter lend much of the rich flavor, the overnight proofing of the dough allows for further flavor development. The yeast slowly works its magic overnight creating more complex flavors.
What is Brioche used for?
Brioche is wonderful as is. I could eat endless slices of this bread at room temperature. It’s also fabulous toasted with a little jam or nut butter. It’s fantastic used in bread pudding recipes. But in my opinion, the best way to enjoy sliced brioche bread is when it’s used in a sandwich, especially a BLT. There’s something heavenly about the combination of buttery bread with crispy bacon, cold lettuce, juicy sliced tomatoes, and creamy mayonnaise.
Allow the brioche to cool to room temperature before slicing. The bread needs time to rebuild its structure. If you slice the brioche while it’s warm, you’ll end up with squished, gummy slices. Have patience and you will be rewarded!
Here are some more bread recipes that might interest you:
Dutch Oven Bread White Sandwich Bread Milk Bread Rolls Rich Egg and Butter Bread Honey Whole Wheat Bread Sweet Challah Bread Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread Cinnamon Swirl Bread
