CookEat Recipe
Small Fluted Brioches
Small rich egg-and-butter brioches, individually risen in fluted moulds and baked with a golden glaze.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 300 g strong white wheat flour, plus about 10 g for dusting the starter and moulds; 160 g butter: 150 g for the dough and 10 g for the moulds; 30 g fresh baker’s yeast, not dried yeast; 20 g caster sugar; 5 g salt; 6 eggs for the dough; About 35–45 ml lukewarm water for the starter; 10 g icing sugar for dusting the moulds; 1 extra egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water for glazing.
Step 2
Mix the fresh yeast into 75 g taken from the measured flour with enough lukewarm water to make a small firm round starter. Dust a small pan with a little of the extra flour, set the starter in it and cut a cross in the top. Cover and leave at room temperature until doubled, about 20–30 minutes. Keep the eggs and butter cool until needed.
Step 3
Make a well in the remaining 225 g measured flour. Put the sugar, salt and one egg in the centre and mix these with your fingertips. Add the 150 g dough butter in small pieces and incorporate the flour, first with a blunt knife and then with your hands. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Step 4
Add the doubled starter and work the dough thoroughly by hand. Add the remaining five eggs one at a time, working each in completely before the next. Continue working and stretching in the bowl until smooth, elastic and cohesive, about 20–30 minutes overall. The dough is very soft; do not stiffen it with extra flour.
Step 5
Cover and let begin to expand at room temperature for about 20 minutes, then refrigerate at 4°C or colder until visibly well risen, approximately doubled. Check from two hours onward; an overnight rise may take 8–12 hours, but move to shaping earlier if ready. This controlled cold rise replaces an extended warm rise. Keep the combined warm mixing, shaping and proofing time after adding eggs below two hours.
Step 6
Grease about 20 small fluted metal moulds, each about 100 ml capacity, with the remaining 10 g butter and dust with the remaining extra flour mixed with the icing sugar. Stir the risen dough down gently and divide between the moulds, filling no more than halfway; use an additional mould if needed. Cover and let become well puffed and approach the rims, allowing up to 30–40 minutes at room temperature only within the two-hour total. Otherwise finish covered in the refrigerator, checking by volume rather than a fixed clock.
Step 7
Heat the oven to 180°C. Brush the risen tops lightly with the extra yolk mixed with a teaspoon of water and bake for about 15–22 minutes, until golden and a wooden skewer comes out without wet dough. Allow a few extra minutes if baking straight from the refrigerator. Cool in the moulds for about 5–10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Serve warm or cool completely.
Step 8
For lard-prepared moulds, replace only the 10 g mould butter with 10 g fresh lard; retain the full 150 g butter in the dough, flour-and-icing-sugar dusting, rising and baking method. The listed duration allows an overnight rise; proofing speed and any additional cold final rise change the total.
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