Brioche

Lore & Background

Brioche is considered a Viennoiserie for its inclusion of eggs, butter, liquid (milk, water, cream, and sometimes brandy) and occasionally sugar. Along with pain au lait and pain aux raisins, it forms the non-laminated subgroup of Viennoiserie. Brioche is often baked with additions of fruit or chocolate chips and served on its own or as the basis of a dessert, with many regional variations in added ingredients, fillings, or toppings.

The first recorded use of the word in French dates from 1404. It is attested in 1611 in Cotgrave's A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, where it is described as 'a rowle, or bunne, of spiced bread' and its origin given as Norman. In France, it developed as 'a sort of bread improved since antiquity by generations of bakers, then of pastry-makers ... with some butter, some eggs, sugar coming later ... it developed from the blessed bread [pain bénit] of the church which gradually became of better quality, more and more costly, less and less bread; until becoming savory brioche.'

Although there has been much debate about the etymology of the word and, thus, the recipe's origins, it is now widely accepted that it is derived from the Old French verb brier, a Norman dialectal form of broyer, to work the dough with a broye or brie (a sort of wooden roller for kneading); the suffix -oche is a generic deverbal suffix. Pain brié is a Norman bread whose dense dough was formerly worked with this instrument.

Reader's Guide

Brioche has numerous uses in cuisine and can take on various forms, served plain or filled, as coulibiac, or with many other different savory fillings, such as fillet of beef en croute, foie gras, sausage, or cervelat lyonnais. Brioche can also be served with sweet fillings, especially fresh fruits, vanilla cream, or jam. Stale brioche can be topped with frangipane to make bostock. Brioche is commonly used for hamburgers.

Brioche à tête or parisienne is perhaps the most classically recognized form: it is formed and baked in a fluted round, flared tin; a large ball of dough is placed on the bottom and topped with a smaller ball of dough to form the head (tête). Brioche de Nanterre is a loaf of brioche made in a standard loaf pan. Instead of shaping two pieces of dough and baking them together, two rows of small pieces are placed in the pan. Loaves are then proofed (allowed to rise) in the pan, fusing the pieces. The dough balls rise further during the baking process and form an attractive pattern.

Brioche dough contains flour, eggs, butter, liquid (milk, water, cream, and sometimes brandy), leavening (yeast or sourdough), salt, and sometimes sugar. A common flour-to-butter ratio is 2:1, but historically, brioche of varying degrees of richness (from the 'rich man's brioche' with a flour-to-butter ratio of 3:2 to the cheaper pain brioché with a ratio of 4:1) have existed at the same time. The Roux Brothers used a ratio of 700 g (1.5 lb) butter to 1 kg (2.2 lb) flour.

Did You Know?

• The first recorded use of the word 'brioche' in French dates from 1404.
• Brioche is often baked with additions of fruit or chocolate chips.
• Stale brioche can be topped with frangipane to make bostock.
• The saying 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche' is commonly misattributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette.