Brioche loaf

Serves:

Ingredients

• 20g yeast
• 4 tbsp warm water
• 60g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 500g (3 1/3 cup) strong (bread) flour
• 6 eggs
• 300g softened butter

Method

Activate your yeast with the water and half the sugar.

Add to flour and mix with your dough hook – adding your eggs one at a time until it is smooth and elastic (approx. 10 mins in electric mixer).

Beat the softened butter and remaining sugar together and slowly add this mixture to the dough, a little at a time. Continue to mix for 5 mins making sure the dough is smooth and glossy.

Cover your bowl with a tea towel and rest in a warm place for a couple of hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

Knock it back and cover with tea towel and place in the refrigerator for another couple of hours.

Knock it back again on a lightly loured bench and mould into a ball. Line the saucepan with a sheet of buttered greaseproof paper, twice the height of the saucepan.

Place the dough in the saucepan and lightly glaze the top of the brioche with an egg wash.

Leave for 20 mins in a warm place to rise once more and then bake for 40-45 mins in a preheated oven 170C or 150C fan-forced.

Place on a wire rack to cool and then slice and serve with your favourite jam.

Find more bread recipes

• Irish soda bread
• Mushroom and haloumi turkish bread
• Soft poppyseed milk bread
• Turkish bread pizzas
• Brioche
• Zucchini bread
• Banana bread

Serving Suggestions

Note

• The fresher your eggs and the better butter you use, the better and yummier your brioche.
• Extracted from Produce to Platter: Yarra Valley & The Dandenongs (Smudge Publishing, $34.95), now available at all good book stores or online at Smudge Publishing.