No. 3268

Flutes of Brioche

Flutes en Brioche

Take some brioche paste (No. 130) hardened on ice; divide it into two-ounce pieces and roll each of these into a string on the table, having them six to seven inches long; range them at once on a baking sheet at short distances apart and egg them over twice, then cook in a hot oven, and when removed pass a knife under to detach them from the sheet.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A slender breakfast roll made from ordinary brioche dough, shaped like a breadstick rather than a fluted mold. Almost everything here depends on the dough being cold enough to roll without tearing.

Brioche paste (No. 130)Ranhofer's cross-reference is to his standard brioche dough, a yeast-raised rich dough of flour, butter and eggs. Any rich brioche dough will behave much the same way; Ranhofer's own proportions are given at No. 130 rather than here.
"Hardened on ice"This is the hinge. Brioche dough at room temperature is too slack to roll into a clean string; it must be thoroughly chilled — an overnight rest in the refrigerator, or two to three hours until firm — so the butter stays solid while you work it.
Two-ounce piecesAbout 57 g each, rolled to six or seven inches. Ranhofer says to range them 'at short distances apart', so he expected them close together on the sheet rather than widely spaced.
"Range them at once"Meaning shape and pan them without delay, before the dough warms. Ranhofer mentions no second proof on the sheet, though his silence is not proof that none was given.
"Egg them over twice"Two coats of beaten egg, the second applied after the first has set, give a deeper brown gloss. Do not let egg pool at the base or it will glue the flute to the pan.
A hot ovenRanhofer gives no temperature; in a modern oven roughly 425F answers to 'hot'. Expect colour in something like 12 to 15 minutes, and check early, since a thin rich dough goes from brown to burnt quickly.
Detaching themThe knife under the base is not fussiness — the egg wash and butter caramelize onto the sheet. Parchment removes the problem entirely.
YieldA pound of brioche dough gives eight flutes. Serve them warm, ideally the day they are baked.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a record of a great American French kitchen, and its breakfast-cake section gathers a number of shapes made from rich yeast doughs. Flûte is simply French for flute, used of any long slender loaf, and the word was later attached to a thin Parisian loaf, though its proportions relative to the baguette vary. Nothing about the recipe is fluted in the sense of ridged; the name describes the silhouette.