I love brioche, to me it’s like a good combination of bakery and pastry, quite similar to Baba-au-rum, one of my favourites. There is many kinds of brioche in France, depends on the region, festival…like brioche Normande, brioche Vendéenne, brioche douceur, brioche de Noël, even brioche with filling like brioche cœur de framboise…but today I’m making the brioche with whole wheat flour and for the first time using the orange sirup.
Step 1 Preparation of the orange sirup ( day before)
- Butter 160 gr. (use the best quality butter for the best brioche)
- Sugar 125 gr
- Water 70 ml
- Orange zeste 1 orange
- Citron zeste 1 lemon
- Grand Marnier 25 ml (or other orange-flavoured cognac)
- Vanilla extract 13-15 ml
Cook all together until boiling, except the liquor, adding at the end. Keep the sirup in the fridge for next day use.
Step 2 Preparation of fermented dough (day before)
- Bread flour 125 gr.
- Whole milk 74 ml
- Dry yeast 2 gr. (hydrated with 2 tbsp of warm water before adding)
Mix all together either by hands or in the mixer for about 5-7′. Leave the dough at the room temperature for 1 hour then in the fridge until next day use.
Step 3 Kneading
- Orange sirup (prepared day before) 390 ml (reserve around 50 ml. to add at the end of kneading)
- Fermented dough (prepared day before) 200 gr.
- Whole wheat bread flour 380 gr.
- Eggs 160 gr. (three big eggs)
- Dry yeast 2 gr. (hydrated with 2 tbsp of warm water for 10′ before adding)
- Salt 10 gr. (important for fermentation process)
Kneading for 7′ at the 1st speed then about 15′ at the 2nd speed until the dough stops sticking to the mixer’s bowl. The dough is shining, soft, sticky, very elastic when being stretched, like the chewing gum. Leave the dough to rest for 40′ at the room temperature, then put it in the plastic container, cover it and keep in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours if we want to bake in the same day, if not until tomorrow use.
Step 4 Shaping & baking
I decided to shape two small balls and and one big in baguette shape as I’d love to try to make some cuts by using the scissors for decoration purpose. After shaping, do the egg wash and leave the dough to rest for 3 hours at the room temperature (about 25oC). Before baking, do the second egg wash. The cutting is just before baking after the second egg wash.
Set the oven to 190oC and bake it within 20-30′. This brioche is super moist, if we could slice and taste it right after the oven, the texture brioche is super light as cotton candy with full of orange flavour!
Le petit renard 