Brioche with sourdough, tender brioche with a long natural fermentation, featuring a soft and fragrant dough. The brioche dough is very simple to prepare and does not require the use of large amounts of butter. You can shape it as you like into croissants, brioche col tuppo, or the classic shape of Roman maritozzi. They are, of course, different in preparation from puff pastry croissants but still very good and tasty.
Working with sourdough obviously requires hours for fermentation, but it is easy to manage by kneading the dough the night before going to bed and continuing the process in the morning to have soft brioche ready for breakfast. It’s also possible to freeze the brioche after the second rise and have them ready in the freezer; just take them out the night before going to bed, leave them on a baking tray covered with a cloth, and bake them in the morning. Another option is to freeze them after baking and let them stand for an hour at room temperature before passing them in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes before eating.
For those who love homemade breakfasts, I also remind you of other tasty recipes.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 10 Hours
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 282.38 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 53.41 (g) of which sugars 15.73 (g)
- Proteins 7.85 (g)
- Fat 5.14 (g) of which saturated 2.98 (g)of which unsaturated 2.15 (g)
- Fibers 1.24 (g)
- Sodium 174.31 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 101 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
- 2/3 cup milk (warm)
- 250 g sourdough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 lemon zest (grated)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/4 cup butter
- as needed milk (to brush the surface)
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 tsp sugar
Tools
For kneading the brioche, I recommend using a stand mixer because it requires some strength, but you can also knead by hand if you prefer. The important thing is to work the dough well.
- 1 Stand Mixer Howork
- 1 Pastry Wheel
- 1 Brush
Preparation
In the preparation of brioche, it’s important to work the dough well. It should take no less than 15/20 minutes, depending on how you knead.
Break the sourdough into pieces in the warm milk (not boiling), add the teaspoon of honey, and let the sourdough soak for at least 10 minutes. After this time, put the flour in the stand mixer, add this milk, sourdough, and honey mixture, and start turning at low speed. Gradually add the sugar, not all at once, to avoid ruining the dough. Once all the sugar is absorbed, start adding the eggs one at a time, waiting for the previous one to be absorbed, and keep turning the dough until it’s well bonded. Continue by adding the salt and finally the butter in pieces, not all at once, waiting for each piece to be absorbed. When the dough is ready, transfer it to a lightly buttered work surface and form a ball with a scraper to let it rise in a covered container.
After about 8 hours, the dough looks like in the second photo, it has more than doubled and is ready to be rolled out.
I brought the dough to a lightly floured work surface and lightly floured the surface of the dough as well to roll it out better.
Roll out the dough into a triangle a few millimeters thick if, like me, you want to shape your brioche into croissants, or you can shape them as you prefer.
To form the croissants, cut triangles with a smooth pastry cutter and make a small incision at the base of each triangle.
Roll each triangle onto itself starting from the cut base, this incision is just to bring the classic edges of the croissant outward.
When you form your brioche, place them on a baking tray covered with parchment paper, cover them, and let them rise for another 2 hours in winter and a little less in summer, for a second rise. Even for the second rise, keep them covered with a cloth.
Brush them with a little milk before baking them in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 20 minutes, until golden. Never open the oven before 15 minutes have passed.
While the brioche are baking, bring the water and sugar to a boil for the syrup, as soon as it boils, turn off.
As soon as you take the brioche out of the oven, brush them immediately with the syrup.
NOTES
Brioche with sourdough are best enjoyed warm and on the day you make them, if you want to store them, I recommend freezing them and reheating them when you want to eat them.
They are excellent just like this, or you can fill them with whipped cream, ice cream, or spreads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use this recipe without sourdough?
If you don’t have sourdough or prefer to knead with brewer’s yeast but want to keep the long fermentation, I recommend replacing the sourdough with only 4 g of brewer’s yeast and adding 170g of flour and 85g of milk to the dough.
