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Brioche Ring
Dissolve in a teacupful of warm water a half ounce of German yeast and mix into a stiff paste with about half a pound of flour; put in a pan with a little warm water on the bottom to prevent sticking, cover and place in a warm place to rise. Mix together half a pound of flour, about eight ounces of butter, three eggs, a little salt and sugar, and work thoroughly with the hands for twelve minutes or so; after which add three eggs gradually when quite smooth and soft and work in the dough for ten to twelve minutes. Pull into small pieces, put in a basin and let it rise in a warm temperature to nearly double its original size; then beat it well with floured hands on a floured table, flatten and fold it several times and put it in a basin in a cool place for several hours. Then roll it once more and again place in a cool place for one hour. When quite firm shape into a ball, place on a baking-sheet, flatten it and form a hollow in the center, making a ring; glaze it and bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes.
This is a classic sponge-method brioche at roughly equal weights of flour and butter, written for a professional bench hand who already knew the dough. The critical points are the long cold rests, which are what make the dough workable at all.
- The hinge: keep it coldA dough with half a pound of butter to a pound of flour is unmanageable at room temperature. The "cool place" rests would have meant a larder or icebox; a refrigerator serves. Several hours after the folds, then an hour after the final roll, gives dough firm enough to shape into a ring that holds its edge.
- German yeastNineteenth-century recipes commonly call compressed fresh yeast "German yeast." Half an ounce is about 14 g fresh; roughly 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant dry yeast is the equivalent. A teacupful is somewhere around 5 fl oz of water at blood heat.
- Total quantitiesFlour comes to one pound in two additions, about 3 1/2 cups. Eggs total six, not three: three go in with the butter and flour, three more once the dough is smooth. Butter is 8 oz, worked in cool and pliable rather than melted.
- The spongeThe first stiff paste of yeast, water and half the flour is a sponge. The recipe puts a little warm water in the bottom of the pan to keep the paste from sticking; a covered bowl in a warm place does the job. Expect around 45 minutes to an hour, until domed and slack.
- Twelve minutes by handThe two long working periods are developing gluten in a dough too rich to come together quickly. A stand mixer with the dough hook does it in 8 to 10 minutes per stage on medium-low; the dough should clear the bowl and pull into a windowpane before the second batch of eggs goes in.
- "Pull into small pieces"The recipe does not say why; the pieces go into a basin together to rise, and the folding step that follows redistributes everything anyway.
- A hot ovenRead this as 400 to 425F. Twenty-five minutes suits a single ring of this size; the crust should be deep brown and the center of the dough 190F. If the top colors before the crumb sets, drop to 375F for the last ten minutes.
- Glaze and yieldGlaze means egg wash — one beaten egg with a spoonful of milk or water, brushed on just before baking. A pound of flour with this much butter and egg makes a ring of roughly 2 1/2 lb baked, enough for 10 to 12.
Brioche is a French enriched bread often associated with Normandy, where the butter came from; the name is usually connected to the old verb broyer, to work or pound, though the derivation is not settled. Shaped as a ring rather than the familiar fluted brioche à tête, it is a couronne — a crown. Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's celebrated maître d'hôtel, published his cook book in 1896, and the recipe reads as bench notes rather than domestic instruction: no bowl sizes, no pan dimensions, and the assumption that the reader knows what a properly worked brioche feels like. "German yeast" was the common period name for compressed fresh yeast, then still a relatively recent commercial product.