No. 3234

Large Brioche with Head—

Grosse Brioche a Tete

Have a brioche paste prepared the same as described in No. 130; put this in a vessel in a cool place and let it rise to half its size again. Then work it once more and set it in the ice-box for two hours to have it harden. Butter a tin mold six and a half inches in diameter and eight inches deep; line it with paper and butter this over. Mold a four-pound round-shaped piece of the paste, put it in the mold, then mold another pound piece and roll it on the table on one side to give it a long pear-form appearance; with dampened fingers make a hole in the center of the first paste and in it insert the pointed end of the pear; leave the mold in a moderately heated place to have the paste rise to the level of the top, then egg it over twice and put in a slack oven to cook for two hours. Unmold as soon as done, allow to cool and dress on a folded napkin. In case there be no mold at hand use a cylinder of strong paper the same diameter as the mold.

← No. 3233 Crown of Brioche Large Cakes for Entremets No. 3235 Chamounix Cake →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's version is a banquet-scale loaf — five pounds of dough in a mold eight inches deep — so the main work of translation is arithmetic and oven temperature. The technique itself is unchanged from what any bakery does today.

The hinge: keep the dough coldBrioche paste is a rich butter dough, and it can only be shaped while the butter is firm. The two hours in the ice-box is not optional resting time; warm dough will not hold a pear shape and the head will slump sideways or slide off during baking.
"Slack oven"275-300F. That is deliberately low for a loaf this size, so the center sets before the crust burns. A 5 lb enriched loaf needs an internal temperature of about 190F; two hours is plausible at that weight but check with a thermometer rather than the clock.
"Moderately heated place" for the riseAround 75-80F, not an oven. The dough goes in cold from the ice-box and needs to come up to the rim of the mold, which at this size can take two hours or more.
Scale it downFour pounds of dough for the body and one for the head fills a mold 6.5 in. across and 8 in. deep — a deep charlotte or pain de mie form, not the shallow fluted tin sold today as a brioche mold. A quarter of the recipe, about 1 lb 4 oz total, suits a standard 1-quart fluted mold.
Setting the headMaking the hole with wet fingers matters: press deep and widen the opening, then seat the pointed end of the pear well down into it rather than perching it on top. A shallow socket is the usual reason a tête bakes off-center.
Egg it over twiceBoth coats go on after the dough has risen to the rim, just before baking, and keep the wash out of the seam between head and body -- glue there restricts the rise and can crack the joint.
Brioche paste (No. 130)Use Ranhofer's own reference recipe at No. 130, a yeast-raised butter-and-egg dough. If you substitute modern instant dry yeast, use about a third the weight of the fresh compressed yeast an old formula calls for.
Paper moldThe substitute cylinder of "strong paper" works, but it must be several layers thick, buttered inside, and tied or clipped — a five-pound dough exerts real outward pressure as it rises. Stand it on a sheet pan.
Yield and serviceThe full-size loaf serves twenty or more. It was cooled and dressed on a folded napkin among the large cakes for entremets, and sliced across; day-old slices suit French toast or bread pudding.

A Little History

Brioche à tête — literally "brioche with a head" — takes its name from the small ball of dough set into the top, which bakes into the knob that identifies the shape. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete professional reference, and this entry sits among the "large cakes for entremets": show pieces made in quantity for a buffet or a course served between the roast and the dessert. The scale explains everything odd about the recipe. A five-pound brioche baked in a mold eight inches deep is a centerpiece, not household baking, and the slack two-hour oven is the price of getting heat to the middle of that much enriched dough. Brioche is often said to have originated in Normandy, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented, and it had long been a Paris bakers' specialty by the time Ranhofer trained; his instruction to improvise a mold from strong paper is the sort of practical note that marks the book as written for working kitchens rather than for readers.