No. 3269

Brioches for Breakfast

Brioches Pour le Dejeuner

Small brioches can be baked in small channeled molds or else simply laid on a baking pan. In both cases they must be rolled into balls. Have some raised brioche paste (No. 130) that has been hardened on the ice; invert it on a floured table and shape it into large rolls; cut these across into equal pieces and mold them into balls with the hands; lay them at some distance apart on tins or else each one in a separate mold; flatten down the center with a damp finger and introduce into this cavity a small piece of the same dough molded the shape of a comma; this is to form the head of the brioche. Let the dough rest for ten minutes, then egg over the brioches and bake them for twenty minutes in a brisk but not too fierce oven; after removing keep them for ten minutes at the entrance of the oven before serving.

← No. 3268 Flutes of Brioche Breakfast Cakes No. 3270 English Buns and Hot Cross Buns →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is the small brioche à tête, and the page assumes you already have Ranhofer's raised brioche paste (No. 130) chilled and ready. Everything here is shaping and baking.

The dough it depends onNo. 130 is Ranhofer's raised brioche paste, a rich yeast dough of flour, butter, eggs, yeast and a little milk and sugar; the exact proportions are given on that page, not this one. A modern brioche dough in the usual range of butter to flour will behave broadly the same way.
"Hardened on the ice"Means thoroughly chilled, ideally overnight in the refrigerator. This is the hinge of the whole recipe: warm brioche dough is unmanageably slack and the butter smears out during shaping. Work with it cold and firm, and return it to the cold if it softens.
Channeled moldsFluted tinned-steel brioche molds, still sold as brioche à tête tins. Butter them well. Laid free on a baking sheet the balls spread wider and flatter, which is fine but less shapely.
Setting the headThe text says to flatten the center with a damp finger and seat the comma-shaped piece in that cavity. Pressing the finger well down rather than leaving a shallow dimple helps; a head anchored only in a dent can slide sideways in the oven.
The ten-minute restThe text allows only ten minutes for cold dough about to meet a hot oven. In a warm modern kitchen a longer final proof, until the pieces look visibly puffed and feel airy, may suit better.
"Brisk but not too fierce"The book gives no temperatures; a hot but moderate oven, in modern terms somewhere around 400-425F, fits the description. Twenty minutes suits small pieces; they are done when deep brown and fully set in the center. The text calls for a single egg wash.
Resting at the oven mouthTen minutes in the residual warmth at the open oven door let the crumb set and dry slightly in a coal range. A wire rack in a warm kitchen does the same work; do not seal them up hot or the crust goes soft.
YieldThe recipe gives no yield; a pound of dough would make something like eight to ten small brioches at this size. They are best eaten the day they are baked.

A Little History

The small brioche with its knob of dough on top is the brioche à tête, and the shape is old enough that French bakers argue about the etymology of the name rather than the form; it is generally traced to Norman butter-baking traditions, with the word itself often linked to brier, an old verb for kneading dough. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, put it in The Epicurean (1894) among his breakfast cakes because a restaurant that served French breakfasts to American customers needed a roll that was rich enough to please and quick enough to shape from a batch of paste made the day before. The instruction to chill the dough hard before shaping is the professional detail here: Ranhofer's kitchen had ice to spare, and the whole method of shaping cold and proofing briefly is how a busy bakeshop turns one mixing into hot rolls at eight in the morning.