I tried.
I tried to make brioche this weekend. The right way - making the dough and letting it sit overnight in the fridge. Everything seemed to be going well. The butter incorporated, the dough felt right. But this morning when I went to punch it down, it looked either dry or frozen. Dry is bad, frozen is potentially recoverable. I moved the dough to the other fridge.
This afternoon, it looked about the same. I brought it out to the counter and divided it. I wanted to make the classic little brioche à tête - a larger ball with a smaller ball sitting on top. They were rolled out, stacked, and proofed. When they were ready (and they did proof, so whatever happened last night wasn't too bad), I brushed them with an egg wash and baked them.
The little "heads" promptly fell off. Some fell completely off the pan and were lost, others just fell to the side so the resulting breads looked like BB-8's lying on their sides. They split on the sides, too, but not the tops. That may be a sign of underproofing or that my oven wasn't hot enough. Or both.
The rest of the dough became cinnamon rolls that will get reheated and iced in the morning for breakfast. They will taste just fine, but they don't look right, either. I'm rather disappointed. Some of it may be the oven but I think more of it is technique. Apparently I need to work on this some more.
I tried to make brioche this weekend. The right way - making the dough and letting it sit overnight in the fridge. Everything seemed to be going well. The butter incorporated, the dough felt right. But this morning when I went to punch it down, it looked either dry or frozen. Dry is bad, frozen is potentially recoverable. I moved the dough to the other fridge.
This afternoon, it looked about the same. I brought it out to the counter and divided it. I wanted to make the classic little brioche à tête - a larger ball with a smaller ball sitting on top. They were rolled out, stacked, and proofed. When they were ready (and they did proof, so whatever happened last night wasn't too bad), I brushed them with an egg wash and baked them.
The little "heads" promptly fell off. Some fell completely off the pan and were lost, others just fell to the side so the resulting breads looked like BB-8's lying on their sides. They split on the sides, too, but not the tops. That may be a sign of underproofing or that my oven wasn't hot enough. Or both.
The rest of the dough became cinnamon rolls that will get reheated and iced in the morning for breakfast. They will taste just fine, but they don't look right, either. I'm rather disappointed. Some of it may be the oven but I think more of it is technique. Apparently I need to work on this some more.
Chef thinks the problem might have been that my yeast was too old or tired.
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