“Do you have brioches by any chance?”, I asked to the clerk while choosing with what to accompany my expresso macchiato.

“Of course, there are here, right in front of you”, the clerk replied, indicating the cornetti (Italian croissants) exposed on the counter . 

I thanked her and chose a glazed cornetto, avoiding to explain the outstanding difference between a cornetto and a brioche. 

Brioches are neither cornetti nor croissants, even if in Italy those terms are used interchangeably. Brioches are sweet buns that, differently from cornetti and croissants, are not layered. Example of Italian brioches are the Roman maritozzo or the polacchina. 

But brioches are very popular in the entire European continent. In fact, almost every European country has its own typical brioche: French Nanterre francese, Finnish pulla, Swedish kanelbulla, Polish babka and so on.

Generally speaking, brioche dough consists of flour, eggs, milk, sugar, and butter. The proportions among the ingredients might vary, so that we have brioches richer in butter and less sweet (French Nanterre) and on the other way around (Italian maritozzo).

Selection of the flour

Strong. This has to be the flour for brioches. You do not need a super strong flour, but select one with at least 13% of proteins content. 

Leavening

There are multiple options. The direct method with yeast is perfect, but you can also try a biga or even dare a slow leavening with sour dough. 

Making a pre-yeast like biga favours the activity of the yeasts.

The leavening can be split into different steps to enhance the rising of the dough. Part of the leavening can be accomplished in the fridge to enrich the aromatic bouquet of the brioche.

Kneading

When kneading the brioches, the same rules of panettone apply:

1. making a pre-yeast (biga, poolish) helps with the rising of the dough. Remember that fats (eggs, butter) and salt limits the activity of the yeasts. Therefore, mixing all ingredients together, as recommended in certain recipes, is not ideal.

2. eggs or yolks must be added one by one. The fats limit the formation of the gluten net, therefore the rule is adding one egg, let it absorb into the dough and let the dough to torque. Then add another egg and so on, till depletion.

3. the butter must be always added at the end, for the reasons mentioned on point 2.

Next week, we will start with the practice :)