World Bread Day 2009 – Brioche Loaf

Zorra invites us to bake bread for World Bread Baking Day 2009.

Although I am not as bread-savvy as many of our fellow food bloggers, I’ll happily chime in with a recipe I’ve borrowed from Palachinka, a

Brioche Loaf

I followed her recipe almost precisely, only slightly upping the sugar amount, adding a little more flour, and brushing the loaf with milk instead of egg.

When I put the pieces into my loaf pan, I was sure the pan could easily have housed at least 50% more of the dough, but when I took it from the oven, fluffed up and airy, I wasn’t so sure about that anymore.

Palachinka’s Brioche Loaf
slightly adapted by Foodfreak

Starter:

15 g fresh yeast
60 g milk
60 g flour

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add flour and combine. Leave covered in a warm place until it doubles it’s volume.

Dough:

275 g flour
3 eggs
5 g salt
40 sugar
120 g butter, at room temperature

milk, to brush

Add all the ingredients to the starter and knead into smooth dough. Kneading by hand will take about 20 minutes (I had my stand mixer knead for 10 minutes) After you’re done, measure 2 equal pieces of dough. Flatten each piece into ellipse shape.

Fold longer sides over and roll up. Place rolled dough into slightly oiled loaf pan. Cover and leave in a warm place until it fills the hole pan.

When the dough is fully risen, brush it with milk. Bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 25-30 minutes.

The taste is wonderful, and it is especially lovely with homemade peach & vanilla jam.