For softer brioche, add three dessertspoons of powdered milk to your mixture.
The secret behind soft and fluffy brioche is powdered milk! It makes brioche soft and fluffy, giving it a chewy, tasty texture and a golden colour. It also ensures it keeps for longer.
Which type of powdered milk should I use?
You can use Régilait full-fat or semi-skimmed powdered milk.
How?
Use your standard recipe and mix the powdered milk in with the flour.
What quantity of powdered milk should I use to make the perfect brioche?
2to 3dessertspoons for 250g flour, to be added according to your brioche recipe.
Advice for making traditional brioche:
Use good-quality flour with a high gluten content, ideally a fine pastry flour (T45in France).
Classic French brioche recipes use half as much egg and butter as flour. For 250g flour, for example, you will need 125g eggs and 125g butter.
The type of yeast you choose, fresh or dried, does not matter very much. The important thing is to respect the proportions used and, above all, the rising times.
To make a perfect brioche, it is essential to knead the dough thoroughly: this gives the dough its elasticity. If the kneading is not done correctly and the dough is not kneaded enough or is kneaded too much, this will affect the texture of the brioche.
The dough should be left to rise in a warm place, away from any draughts.
Here’s a little tip for making sure the dough rises in the right conditions:
Cover the dough and place it in a closed and switched off oven, with just the oven light turned on. This will be enough to ensure the ideal temperature for rising.
To store the brioche and ensure it does not dry out, we recommend that you wrap it in a clean tea towel or cling film.
FAQs
If the kneading is not done correctly and the dough is not kneaded enough or is kneaded too much, this will affect the texture of the brioche. The dough should be left to rise in a warm place, away from any draughts.
Why is brioche so soft? ›
The reason brioche is so light and tastes so rich is because it's made with an enriched dough,which gives it that soft texture and amazing taste. Brioche is enjoyed around the world as an upgraded substitute for 'normal' bread – subbed in for sandwiches, toasties, burgers and more.
Why is my brioche bread so dense? ›
Your Kitchen Is Too Hot
If it's too hot within your home, your bread could be too dense upon the proofing. This is due to the yeast fermenting faster when it's warmer in space. This makes the dough rise to its maximum capacity, and then collapse.
When to add butter to brioche? ›
Once the dough has developed some strength and elasticity, add one piece of the butter and mix at medium speed until it's fully incorporated into the dough, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl if necessary, then continue adding the butter one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate fully before adding the next piece.
What is the trick to fluffy bread? ›
Potato Flakes or Potato Water
Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier.
How do you soften brioche? ›
Heat it.
Put the bread in a cold oven, then turn the heat to 300° F. Let the loaf slowly heat up for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the density and dryness of the bread. Start checking the bread after 10 minutes. Here's what's happening: The water turns into steam, which is trapped by the wrapping.
Why add butter slowly to brioche? ›
Why should butter be added slowly to brioche dough? Adding the butter into your brioche dough is a fairly lengthy process, and the butter should only be added approx. one tablespoon at a time. This is so the dough maintains the stretchy gluten we've built up, and the butter is absorbed slowly.
Is melted or softened butter better for brioche? ›
With cold butter only being used when making brioche where temperature control is critical. Softened butter is my go-to for most other bread dough types. Melted butter is something I have always avoided because it would need to be added at the beginning of mixing unlike the softened or cold butter.
What type of flour is used for brioche? ›
The Flour. Since brioche is a highly structured dough, with its interweaving web of fat, eggs, gluten and sugar, the use of strong bread flour, which has a protein content of 12.7% or above, is essential because fat, especially in high proportions, inhibits gluten development.
How can I make my bread fluffier instead of dense? ›
Add Sugar
Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.
It is possible to add too much butter to bread dough. Too much butter will result in a very soft, sticky dough that's difficult to shape, and bakes up greasy and dense.
How do you make bread airy and not dense? ›
Under-Kneading
As the yeast absorbs the flour and sugar, it releases gas bubbles, which then make the bread less dense and more airy. Long story short: poorly-kneaded bread dough manifests poor-quality texture! A typical knead-doughing stage should last about 15 to 20 minutes.
Should butter be cold for brioche? ›
Do not use cold butter, though, because butter must be at room temperature to mix in properly. Don't mix these doughs by hand—your hands are warm enough to melt the butter. Instead, use an electric mixer or, if you don't have one, try our recipe for No-Knead Brioche (see page 242).
How to tell if brioche is done? ›
Cooked internal temperature – The internal temperature of cooked brioche is 88°C/190°F. This is slightly lower than the target temperature of 93-96°C /200-205°F of most breads because it is an enriched dough (ie. high in fat). Lower fat breads have a higher cooked internal temperature.
Can you over mix brioche dough? ›
If mixed too long the dough can become loose and sticky. The water that was absorbed by the flour gets released back into the dough and the gluten structure breaks down. After this there is no way to fix it. It will be a loose, soggy, and sticky mass unable to hold in fermentation gasses.
What to do if my brioche dough doesn't rise? ›
Increasing the temperature and moisture can help activate the yeast in the dough so it rises. You can also try adding more yeast. Open a new packet of yeast and mix 1 teaspoon (3 g) of it with 1 cup (240 mL) of warm water and 1 tablespoon (13 g) of sugar.
Why is my bread not getting fluffy? ›
Do Not Over-Knead Your Dough. The over-kneading dough is a common bread making mistake, which makes gluten too tight for bread to rise, resulting in chewy bread instead of fluffy. Kneading correctly is most important to strengthen the gluten and give your bread a perfect texture.
Why is my bread not fluffy enough? ›
One of the most common reasons for dense bread is over or under-kneaded dough. Kneading your dough directly affects gas production, as it increases the rate that fermentation occurs. Without kneading, bread dough will take much longer to ferment fully.
Why won't my brioche rise? ›
The liquid was too hot, or not hot enough.
It will usually tell you to use “warm” water. The water temperature should be between 110 - 115 F degrees. If your liquid is too hot (i.e. boiling) it will kill the yeast and prevent the rise. If it's not hot enough, the yeast won't have the heat needed to bloom.
