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.

(For great step-by-step pictures, see Palachinka’s post).
The recipe:

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.