Have you ever wondered how a recipe is created? Or how the idea for Elderflower Brioche Bread came about? Often, the answer is simpler than expected. Talking with Carlotta, a colleague and food blogger, we practically confess to each other daily via chat, hours of chatting and laughter, sharing the joys and pains of our passion, I found out she was preparing Pitta cu maiu, or a flatbread with elderflowers. And it sparked my desire for fragrant, typically spring recipes!
I then remembered that years ago, I had made some elderflower muffins that my family loved. Later, during a motorcycle ride with my boyfriend, I confidently returned home with some little white flowers that turned out not to be fragrant at all. So, they weren’t elderflowers. Disappointed and puzzled, I turned to my community and asked: if you have elderflower plants nearby, could you let me know so I can raid them? Many responded, I have to say you all are always so present and super willing, and I found the elderflowers thanks to Paola, a colleague. Her sister picked them for me, a big full bag, super fragrant and beautiful. So, very happy, I started thinking about my recipe to present on the blog.
After thinking about it, the lightbulb went off, I love brioche breads, adore them, and just returned from Paris where I enjoyed pain perdu every morning for breakfast, and so…. I couldn’t prepare anything else, I desired and thus obtained a tall, soft, and fragrant brioche bread which I think is the best of recent years!!! Try it to believe it, there’s even a video recipe to make it together with me! I’ll also reveal a few tricks to always get a soft brioche like mine, perfect for breakfast or snack. And as Aunt Laura says “if you add a spoonful of Nutella it’s even better!”
Next time, however, we’ll prepare pain perdu together because now I simply can’t do without it! Oh, and I bought a madeleine mold which I hope to make soon. France has captured me once again with its sweets: croissants, crepes, apple tarte tatin, macarons, eclairs, rolls, pancakes, and many more. A sweet dream on every corner of Paris!
Before moving on to the recipe, I’d like to remind you that there are other brioche recipes I’ve made over the years on the blog. I’ve already confessed that I love them, and below are the other proposals. From the classic one to those with jam or Nutella, the plumcake with chocolate chips, and the Easter Dove with Nutella version. Irresistible!!!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 4 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
- Energy 213.16 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 36.18 (g) of which sugars 8.99 (g)
- Proteins 7.01 (g)
- Fat 4.82 (g) of which saturated 2.67 (g)of which unsaturated 1.66 (g)
- Fibers 1.07 (g)
- Sodium 59.92 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 75 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for a Brioche Bread with 10-inch mold
With these quantities you can make two 9-inch loaf brioche breads or a ring with a 10-inch mold.
- 2 1/4 cups Manitoba flour (previously sifted)
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (previously sifted)
- 5 g dry yeast (active)
- 1/3 cup water (room temperature)
- 3 tbsp brown sugar (in my case coarse)
- 1 tbsp honey (in my case acacia)
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 1/3 cup milk (in my case skim and room temperature)
- 2 tbsp butter (room temperature, cut into pieces)
- 1 pinch salt
- as needed elderflowers (to taste)
- 2 tbsp milk (room temperature)
- as needed brown sugar
- as needed elderflowers (to decorate the surface)
About 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour to use for kneading on the wooden board.
If you don’t have dry yeast but have fresh yeast, you will need about 12 grams.
Keep some vegetable oil nearby to grease the ring pan and your hands during some of the recipe steps.
Optional the sugar grains if you don’t want to use more brown sugar. You can also replace the milk to brush the surface of the brioche with water at room temperature or with an egg white. In this case, the surface may be darker.
Tools to Prepare Brioche Bread
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Work Surface
- 1 Mold
- 1 Scale
- 1 Oven
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pastry Scraper
- 1 Brush
- 1 Tea Towel
- 1 Small Bowl
If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can prepare this recipe by working all the ingredients in the same order they are added to the bowl. Work by hand using a bowl with high edges to help you with the dough and prevent it from spreading on wooden boards. Apply a good amount of pressure during the kneading phase and oil your hands to prevent sticking.
Steps for the Super Soft Elderflower Brioche Bread Recipe
We start this recipe by placing all the ingredients we will need on the work surface, including the butter which we will let soften at room temperature after cutting it into pieces. We will need milk, water, and an egg always at room temperature. We will sift the two flours after weighing them with the scale. We also place the stand mixer near us and proceed.
Dissolve the dry yeast, or fresh yeast if you prefer, in the water and pour into the stand mixer bowl. Then pass the milk into the small bowl where we weighed the water to clean any yeast residues. Continue stirring with the spoon and add the coarse brown sugar. Then it’s the turn of the honey, a good heaping tablespoon. Now put aside the spoon and proceed like this.
Turn on the machine and with a spoon start adding the flours. Gradually, to let the machine work. I added about 7 tablespoons. Then add the elderflowers so they can blend well with the rest of the dough. Then proceed by adding a few more tablespoons of flour, we will never turn off the stand mixer during this phase.
Break the egg and add to the bowl, then the remaining amount of flour. Now the crucial part of the recipe. The part where you need to be patient, have a coffee, listen to a song, and let the machine work. For this reason, I always recommend a stand mixer for this type of recipes, it works and we check that it’s doing well.
The butter will now be softened, which will shorten the preparation time. Add one piece at a time, only when the first is incorporated can you add the second, and so on. Without rushing, I recommend most brioche breads do not rise well and do not have that nice softness we enjoy so much due to poorly melted butter.
Once the last piece of butter is well incorporated, we can turn off the stand mixer. Dust the wooden board with some flour, oil your hands with vegetable oil, and place the dough on top of the flour. With energetic movements, quickly work the dough and create a nice ball. These steps are very clearly shown in the video recipe.
Now take a bowl with high edges, grease the bottom and sides with vegetable oil, and transfer our dough into it. Cover with a tea towel and place in the oven to rise for two hours. No light or anything else will be needed. Just ensure the oven remains well closed for two hours. If you can, because you have time, aim for three hours for the first rise.
After this time, we will take the dough back to the lightly floured wooden board. As I mentioned under the ingredient list, we will need some all-purpose flour and vegetable oil for two different moments of the preparation phase of this elderflower brioche bread recipe. Quickly work the dough, always keeping the spherical shape.
Take a metal pastry scraper, cut the dough, and make six balls of equal weight. Now, if we’re making two loaf brioche breads, we’ll use three balls for each mold, creating the classic braid. Grease the bottom and edges of each loaf pan. From the spherical shape of the six balls, we will make six rolls. For each loaf, work three rolls, unite the three ends, braid the dough, close the three ends placing the braid in the mold. Repeat these steps with the other strips of dough. Cover the two loaves with a tea towel and place them back in the oven to rise for another two hours.
If you’re making the 10-inch ring like mine, do it this way. Grease the bottom of the mold and all the edges with vegetable oil. Work each ball with your hands and place it in the mold, one next to the other. This step is also very clearly shown in the video recipe above. Then cover with the tea towel and place back in the oven for the second rise, again for two hours.
After this time, we can turn the oven on to 350, maximum 375 degrees Fahrenheit, in static mode.
While the oven reaches the right temperature, we can focus on the surface of the brioche. Brush with room temperature milk, if you prefer you can also use water or an egg white. Sprinkle with elderflowers to taste, then I recommend a light dusting of sugar, I preferred coarse brown sugar but if you don’t have it, white will work just as well. As with the dough of the recipe, you can replace brown sugar with white.
Now we’re ready to bake. I recommend setting the timer for about 25 minutes and then checking with a toothpick for doneness and continuing if necessary. Check with a stick every minute recommended. We must not let our brioche dry out too much, both internally and externally. We must leave the right amount of moisture inside. My elderflower brioche bread was cooked after 28 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from the oven our breakfast dessert and let it cool before removing from the mold.
The same goes for the loaf breads, in this case, the two brioche breads might be fully baked around 25 minutes, as the molds are smaller and the braided dough is of lesser thickness.
You just need to decide whether to dust the brioche bread with powdered sugar or enjoy it as it is. We preferred it without, as I would then keep it for a few days to enjoy in the morning for breakfast. I just have to remind you that I wait for you every day in my kitchen with the recipe of the day and many other curiosities from the food world. I wish you all a good appetite!!!
Storing Elderflower Brioche Bread
After completely cooling the elderflower brioche bread and removing it from the mold, we can store it in a cake container. Those classic ones with the plastic cover, for about three or four days. It will remain soft and fluffy, mine was still like freshly baked after three days.
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