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The Many Uses of Brioche

It being eminently French, and every French cook making brioche by a different reeeipt--usually with more butter than the foregoing--as might be expected, this unsweetened kind of cake figures considerably in French cookery. One says it is a spongy kind of cake resembling Bath buns. Another says it should be rich, yellow and like a sponge, whence it takes its name. One mixes raisins, currants and shred citron in it for lunch and tea bread, and makes it in various fancy shapes and twists, also in large cakes. Another bakes the dough in form of round rolls, cuts off the top, takes out the crumb and fills with chicken or other meat, or, bakes in little moulds like oval gem pans, removes the inside and places in the shell or timbale thus made a cooked bird with its gravy and dishes a pyramid of these on a napkin. Still another steeps slices of brioche in orange syrup and fries them in closed in batter as fritters; and at a costly and elegant dinner given in New York, on last Christmas, "brioche crusts, with fruit" appeared among the pastries. But the following sweet varieties might be employed for that.

One point in bread making that, like handmoulding, can only be learned through practice is the right pitch of lightness to be allowed. Some stress has been laid on the lightness, sponginess and large size of rolls and loaves, because of the aversion we all have to heavy bread, which is ruinous to health. The inexperienced are cautioned against running to the other extreme. There is a point when the rolls have reached a certain height they begin to settle out of shape and to crack open. A little before this is the time to bake. Butter rusks of our pattern should open and curl backwards in baking, therefore should not be brushed over with butter when panned as rolls are.