Brioche

Brioche is a very versatile soft dough. In the past, in Beginning Pastries, we've done things like buns, brioche a tête, bread pudding, pain perdu, and made up recipes for a sweet "breakfast pizza". These two make ups are a few more applications that you can make out of Brioche; Brioche aux chocolat, brioche aux raisins, fried doughnuts, cake-y doughnuts (this one will be in a separate entry because it has a separate formula). Other popular ways of making up brioche is toast point and en croute (encrusted, like the Russian dish Coulibiac).


Formula: yields #42
77.19% Bread Flour
22.9% High Gluten Flour
8.3% Water, cold
49% Eggs, cold
2.5% Salt
12.5% Sugar
4.8% Fresh yeast
50% Butter, cold

MOP: Intensive mix
DDT: 72° F
First fermentation: 1 hour
Divide: 1#
Preshape: Light boule
Resting time: 30 minutes
Shape: varies


Brioche Aux Chocolat

• Roll out 1# of dough to approximately 8" x 10" (essentially 8" by whatever length)
• Spread a thin layer of cream, about 1/8" thick. A flavoured pastry cream is a very good choice for the filling, spread it a little over half of the sheeted out rectangle. Even the layer out.
• Spread or sprinkle chocolate chips over the pastry cream.
• Fold the rectangle in half, making a 4" by whatever length rectangle. Stretch the dough out to make two even halves, press down to seal both layers together.
• But 1 1/4" strips all the way across.
• Place strips on parchment lined sheet pan. Press the strip down leaving an imprint down the middle.
• Egg wash and final proof for an hour, or until ready.
• Bake 

Brioche Aux Raisins

• Roll out 1# of dough to approximately 8" x 10" (essentially 8" by whatever length)
• Spread a thin layer of cream, about 1/8" thick. A flavoured pastry cream is a very good choice for the filling, spread it a little over half of the sheeted out rectangle. Even the layer out.
• Sprinkle rehydrated raisins over the cream portion.
• Roll together like a cinnamon roll, or jelly roll.
• Cut 1" thick strips.
• Place strips facing up on a parchment lined sheet pan, make sure to tuck the loose end underneath the roll. Very much like you would do for cinnamon buns.
• Wet your fingers and press the outer ends down, open the shape up. It will resemble a piped rose shape.
• Egg wash revealed dough areas and let proof for an hour, or until done proofing.
• Bake at 

Brioche Doughnuts

The make up for doughnuts are really as limited as your imagination. You want to try to keep the sizes and weights the same so you can charge the same amount. But aside from that there are a few recognized styles: long john, circle, circle with hole punched out, munchkin sized holes. There are also a lot of different fillings and glazes and finishes and garnishes that you can use for the doughnut; sugar, glazed, flavoured icings, ganache, garnishes.

• Portion 1# brioche dough for approximately five 3 oz.  doughnuts.
• Sheet dough to 1/2" thick
• Use cutters (3" is a good circle size) or a chefs knife to cut your shapes
• Dock the dough if you desire, this step is not necessary though
• Proof dough for 1 hour
• Cook in clean frying oil, 360°-370°
• If you are going to dip in cinnamon and sugar dip right after you take it out of the fryer. Fill doughnuts after they cool. Glaze either hot or cool.

Strudel

Strudel is a very soft dough that is very easy to mend, and also easy yet challenging to stretch out. It gives a light final product that resembles philo dough, and because of the process can be considered a very loosely modified laminated dough. This is a dough that does not have any yeast in it.

Yields: 40 oz. (about 4 full sized strudel logs)

100% Bread Flour, 23.14 oz

50% Water, 11.55 oz

12.5% Eggs, 2.8 oz

8.3% Oil (flavourless), 1.92 oz

2.1% Honey, 13.6 g

0.7% Salt, 4.5 g

Total: 173.16%

MOP: Straight dough method

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl until fully combined. 
• Pull dough off and let rest in an oiled, covered, bowl for an hour.
• When the dough has rested, portion 10 oz pieces.
• Take each 10 oz piece and stretch it over a cloth covered bread board. Use your knuckles to stretch it gently, like you would stretch a pizza dough by hand. If parts tear then you can patch it up, but be careful not to let the dough stick to itself. The edges should have more dough then the middle.
• Cut the edges off so that you are left with a very thin, see through dough.
• Dock the dough if you are filling with a liquid based filling (like a cheese filling) otherwise you will get a lot of blow out.
• Fill the strudel on one side sparingly.
• Pick up the cloth and roll the dough over the filling, continue to roll the dough up to the end.
• Prepare a lined sheet pan so you can roll the dough off the cloth onto the sheet pan.
• Bake at 

Fillings: You can fill strudel with all sorts of fillings. Different variations might include cinnamon sugar, fresh apples tossed with spices and panco, ricotta cheese, bakers cheese (bark). To make an apple filling you would want to slice the apples thinly and toss it with panco (bread crumbs) to act as a starch, or binding agent. If you have cake crumbs you can use this as well, but make sure you decrease the amount of sugar added if you choose to use cake crumbs. Add desired spices, panco, and sugar to taste.

Columba Di Pasqua

This is a very sweet and very rich Easter holiday bread that originated in Italy. It is traditionally shaped into a cross shape. In addition to egg and butter in the formula it is also flavoured with candied orange peel, almond paste, vanilla, and then dusted with sugar after baked. This dough is also very intensively mixed. With a preferment (Italian levain), a first dough, and then a final dough. This is a very delicious bread but does require a lot of inactive labour.


This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 369
Yields: 1844.40 kg


Italian Levain*
DDT= 85°F
Fermentation Time: 4 hours (minimum)
100% Bread Flour, 123 g

Mixing First Dough

50% Water, 62 g
100% Starter, 123 g


First Dough: 
DDT= 85°
Fermentation Time: 3 hours
100% Bread Flour, 985 g
40% Water, 394 g
25% Egg yolks, 246 g
37.5% Sugar, 369 g
37.5% Butter, 369 g
Italian levain, 31.30% 308 g
0.20% Instant Yeast, 2 g


Final Dough:
100% Bread Flour, 246 g
18% Water, 44 g

Incorporated First Dough

100% Egg yolks, 246 g
75% Sugar, 184 g
50% Honey, 123 g
4% Salt, 10 g
150% Butter, 369 g
10% Cocoa butter (in small pieces), 25 g
1087.40% First dough, 2.674 kg
1 1/4 Vanilla bean
1 1/4 Orange zest
200% Candied orange peel (small dice), 492 g
50% Almond paste (frozen and in small pieces), 123 g
Total: 1844.40%


*The levain is a stiff, more stiff then pat fermenté,  preferment. Its toughness helps give strength to a high sugar and high tenderizer dough like this one.

Developed Final Dough

MOP: Intensive Mix
DDT: 78°F


Italian Levain:

• Mix Levain the night before. Mix all ingredients until combined. Like you would mix a pat fermenté dough.

First/Intermediate Dough:

• Combine all ingredients in mixer. Mix on first speed until ingredients are incorporated, roughly 4 minutes.
• Cover and let rest for 3 hours at 85°F.

Final Dough:

Add zest, honey, vanilla, flour, salt into mixing bowl. Mix ingredients, add water as necessary to hydrate the mixture. Mix until ingredients are hydrated and come together. Scrape down as needed.

When the ingredients are combined, alternate adding egg yolks and sugar in three stages. Mix until it is homogenized.

Increase to second speed until the gluten is fully developed; you can pull a windowpane with little to no gnarls in it. This should take a while because of all the tenderizers and fat in this formula. The dough will look very shiny and the windowpane will be really easy to make.

Add butter in sections/pieces, continue mixing in second speed while adding butter.
Add cocoa butter, candied orange peel, frozen almond paste in first speed until incorporated.
Pull dough off and place in oiled covered bin.

Retard for 30 minutes and then fold. The dough is still really soft so it can be folded easier in the bin.
Retard dough for another 30 minutes.

Portion dough to 500 g pieces.
Pre shape in a round. Let bench rest for a few minutes before final rounding into a greased mold.
Retard at room temperature for 7 hours (or overnight in the refrigerator).


If you let the dough sit in the refrigerator over night let it come to room temperature and then finish proofing for 2-3 hours. Bake the Columba Di Pasqua at 

Kugelhopf

This recipe is like a hybrid between a bread and a cake. The sweet dough can be made up however you want, creating a very versatile sweet product. The sponge is almost like a poolish in that it is a very liquid heavy preferment, it aides in softening up the dough (the amount of milk and butter and eggs also aide to this soft dough) giving the dough an additional lift. Traditionally this is a winter holiday bread.

This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 374
Formula: yields 15 kg


Sponge: 37%
100% Bread Flour, 2.22 kg
60.14% Water, 1.335 kg
0.10% Yeast, 2 g


Final Dough:
100% Bread Flour, 3.78 kg
32.25% Milk, 1.925 kg
15.4% Eggs, 924 kg
1.49% Osmotolerant Instant Yeast, 87 g
1.98% Salt, 119 g
16% Sugar, 960 g
28 % Butter*, 1.68 kg
30% Raisins, dark and golden, 1.8 kg
6% Rum, 360 g
Total: 250.12%


*If a recipe calls for more then 20% butter as in this formula it indicates that it will be a soft dough. Butter that is over 20% will be added after the dough is fully hydrated.




MOP: Intensive Mix
DDT: 72° F
Approximate mixing time: 30 minutes

• Add flour, milk, eggs, yeast, salt, sugar into the mixer. Mix on first speed, adjusting the liquid if necessary until the dough is fully incorporated and hydration looks correct.
• Scrape the dough down and add the sponge into the mix. Mix on first speed until incorporated and then increase to second speed.
• When you can pull a intensive mixed window pane out of the dough put the dough back into first speed and add the softened butter in small bits. The dough will look like its pulling apart when the butter is incorporating. Continue mixing until the chunks of butter are not visible.
• While this is mixing you can soak your raisins in the rum. If you have a flavourful rum you can soak the raisins longer. Strain the raisins before use.
• Add raisins into the developed dough. Incorporate on first speed in reverse, if that is an option for your mixer.
• Pull the dough off and let proof for 30 min to and hour.
• Portion the dough to 18 oz (453.6 g) for a large mold, 60 g (2.11 oz) for a small individual mold.
• Round the dough, bench the dough covered for 30 minutes.
• Butter your molds and sprinkle sliced almonds on the bottom if you desire.
• Final shape the dough into tighter rounds. If your mold is a traditional kugelhopf shape (looks like a fancy shaped bunt pan) press your finger through the dough draw out the hole a little bit and fit the dough, seem side up, in the mold.
• Proof for roughly 45 minutes, or until your finger leaves an imprint.
• Bake at

 

 

 

 

Danish Dough With Biga

Biga is another kind of pre-fermented dough. It is an Italian preferment with low hydration, and low yeast activity. It adds in elasticity and will aide in more vertical lift in the final product then a regular danish dough or a pat fermente. It does behave very similarly to pat fermente.


This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 349-350
Formula: yields 30 kg
Biga: 30%

The Biga looks very similar to the
pate fermenté dough, it is just a
little bit more sticky though.

100% Bread Flour, 5.095 kg
55% Milk, 2.804 kg
0.4% Instant Yeast, 2 g

Final Dough:
100% Bread Flour, 11.81 kg
48.01% Milk*, 5.308 kg
11.18% Eggs, 1.889 kg
11.88% Sugar, 2.009 kg
2.10% Salt, 354 g
1.38% Osmotolerant Instant Yeast, 213 g
2.79% Butter, 471 g
Total: 177.39%
*This dough has a tendency to be a little dry so make sure you have extra milk on hand. When we prepared this formula in class we added about 3% of milk into the mix to properly hydrate the dough.


MOP: Improved Mix
DDT: 75° Fahrenheit
Variables: 4 + 1 (so, five)
Biga has an additional variable of water from eggs. Because eggs has water inside of it you have to consider the temperature of the eggs when finding out the water temperature. However since it is a smaller water percentage you dont include it in the regular variables when equating for the water temperature.

Water temperature for Biga Danish = (4 variables x DDT) minus Room Temperature minus Friction Factor minus Flour Temperature minus Biga Temperature. Then, take the water temperature and subtract the egg temperature, find the difference between the two numbers and add this to the water temperature.

For instance:

Water temperature = (4x75) = 300

300 - 73° (RT) - 27 (FF) - 38° (FT) - 72.3° (Biga) = 89.7°

89.7° - 37° (Egg temperature) = 52.7

52.7 ÷ 2 = 26

89.7° + 26 ≈ 114°

• place all ingredients in mixer and mix on low speed until the dough is uniformly hydrated. Increase to a medium speed and mix for 2-3 minutes or until you can pull a window pane with very little gnarls in it. The dough should feel stiffer, so it should be a little harder to make a window pane from this dough.
• Pull off of mixer and place dough in a covered, oiled bin for proofing. Let dough (also called the detrempe) ferment in a proof box or at room temperature for 45 - 60 minutes. The dough should change in smell slightly when it is finished proofing, it should also feel slightly softer to the touch.
• Continue to process dough like you would for croissant dough.

Danish Dough

This is a straight dough danish formula. Danish doughs are going to be a little stiffer then croissants, they should feel more like a cookie dough rather then a bread dough. As with croissant dough the danish dough is mixed to an improved mix to help withstand the pressure of all the folds but not to make rolling out the dough too hard. 

This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach. Pg. 348

Formula: yields 30 kg

100% Bread Flour, 17.1 kg

46% Milk, 7.866 kg

12% Sugar, 2.052 kg

11% Eggs, 1.881 kg

2% Salt, 0.342 kg

1.3% Osmotolerant Instant Yeast, 0.222 kg

3% Butter, 0.513 kg

Total: 175.30%

Butter for roll-in: 27%, 522 g per 2 kg

MOP: Improved Mix

DDT: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Variables: 3

• place all ingredients in mixer and mix on low speed until the dough is uniformly hydrated. Increase to a medium speed and mix for 2-3 minutes or until you can pull a window pane with very little gnarls in it. The dough should feel stiffer, so it should be a little harder to make a window pane from this dough.
• Pull off of mixer and place dough in a covered, oiled bin for proofing. Let dough (also called the detrempe) ferment in a proof box or at room temperature for 45 - 60 minutes. The dough should change in smell slightly when it is finished proofing, it should also feel slightly softer to the touch.
• Continue to process dough like you would for croissant dough.

Whole Wheat Croissant with Pate Fermente

This dough has a white pat fermente in it but the pate fermente can also be made with a whole wheat flour instead of a white, bread flour.

 This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach. Pg. 343

Formula: yields 30 kg
Pre fermente: 20% pre ferment
100% Bread Flour, 3.293 kg
65% Water, 2.140 kg
2% Salt, 66 g
0.6% Yeast, 19 g

Final Dough:
80% Bread Flour, 10.080 kg
20% Whole Wheat Flour, 3.360 kg
51% Water, 6.485 kg
8% Egg Yolks*, 1.349 kg
10% Sugar, 1.756 kg
2% Salt, 270 g
0.6% Osmotolerant Yeast, 215 g
0.16% Malt, 27 g
5% Butter, 809 g

*Egg yolks tenderize the product which aides the whole wheat flour in being softer. It will however interfere with the lamination, you will not get as much of a rise but you will get more colour from the fats in the eggs.

MOP: Improved Mix

DDT: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Variables: 4

• Add all the ingredients except the preferment and 10% water into the mixer. 
• Mix on low speed, slowly adding more water and adjusting liquid until the dough is fully hydrated.
• Add the preferment in small chunks into the mixer. If you do not break up the chunks it will not fully distribute, especially important here since the preferment is a white dough.
• Put mixer into second speed and mix for 4-6 minutes until you can get an improved window pane. 
• Take the dough off the mixer and transfer to an oiled proof box. Let the dough proof for 45 min - 1 hour. 
• Continue to process the dough like in the Straight Dough Method.

Poolish Croissants

Poolish Croissants are very much like poolish baguettes in that the pre ferment gives the dough more extensibility. The dough is easier to work with and the final product will have more leavening because of the enriched dough that has a longer period to form flavours.

 This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach. Pg. 332
Formula:
Pre Ferment: Poolish
100% Bread Flour, 5.159 kg
100% Water, 5.231 kg (this is a little more then 100% because we combined the water from the final dough)
0.10% Yeast, 0.5g

Final Dough:
100% Bread Flour, 12 kg (or 26# 8.64 oz.)
Water, 32g (this portion can be just added into the poolish if you choose because the amount is so small)
34% Milk, 4.069 kg
18.5% Sugar, 2.214 kg
2.9% Salt, 0.347 kg
1.4% Yeast, 0.172 kg
0.7% Malt, 0.084 kg
5.7% Butter, 0.683 kg


When you are in production you can make streamline decisions to combine ingredients to save on time. As long as it does not effect the quality of the final product; for instance in this case combining the yeast would effect the final product so that is why you still scale 0.5g yeast, but you could make the choice to scale that when mixing instead of pre scaling.


MOP: Improved Mix
Poolish Croissant DDT: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Variables = 4 (room temperature, flour temperature, pre ferment temperature, friction factor)

Water temperature = DDT x 4 variables


A note about mixing: For an improved croissant mixture you will add the butter in the beginning of the mixing if the amount of butter is less then 20% as it is in this formula.

• Add all the ingredients except 10% water into the mixer. 
• Mix on low speed, slowly adding more water and adjusting liquid until the dough is fully hydrated
• When hydration is set put mixer into second speed and mix for 4-6 minutes until you can get an improved window pane. 
• Take the dough off the mixer and transfer to an oiled proof box. Let the dough proof for 45 min - 1 hour. 
• Continue to process the dough like in the Straight Dough Method.

Croissant Dough Mixing and Laminating

This formula is for a straight dough which means these croissants can be made in the same day, be it a very long day. Before I start with that let me give a few points about breakfast pastries. There are 3 primary laminated doughs, which means that these doughs have lots of layers that are created by folding the dough in on itself: croissants, danish, and puff pastry. Laminated doughs are also referred to as viennoiserie (fr.  in the style of Viennese doughs), essentially this term describes a fusion of bread and pastries.

 This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach. Pg. 331

Formula: yields 30 kg / portion 2 kg per person
100%  Bread Flour, 16.5 kg
38%  Water, 6.274 kg
23%  Milk, 3.795 kg
13%  Sugar, 2.145 kg
2%  Salt, 330 g
1.2%  Osmotolerant Yeast*, 198 g
0.5%  Malt, 25 g
4%  Butter, chilled, 660 g
Total: 181.7%

Butter for roll-in: 500 g per 2 kg**
*If you do not have OI Yeast on hand you can substitute it with a slightly increased amount of regular yeast
**Butter for roll in is 25% of the total dough recipe, this weight is not derived from the flour weight like the rest of the formula. FOR BUTTER you want to use a dry or European butter, this has a high fat content, 82-85%, so the butter will be more pliable.





MOP: Intensive Mix

• place all ingredients in mixer and mix on low speed until the dough is uniformly hydrated. Increase to a medium speed and mix for 2-3 minutes or until you can pull a window pane with very little gnarls in it.
• Pull off of mixer and place dough in a covered bin for proofing. Let dough (also called the detrempe) ferment in a proof box or at room temperature for 45 - 60 minutes.
• Turn out the detrempe onto a floured surface and divide and portion the dough. Roll out the detrempe to be about 1/2" thick and about the size of a half sheet pan (12"x16"). Place the rolled out detrempe on a parchment lined half sheet pan, cater wrap with plastic and place it in a blast cooler or at least 30 minutes.

• Take your 500g of butter for roll-in. Cut butter up in about 1/2" thick pieces and about 7"x12"in size, place the butter between a folded over guitar sheet (a strong clear plastic sheet). Soften the butter with a rolling pin by hitting the butter. When the block starts to loose its shape use your bench scrapper to cut the excess butter off the sides and place this on top (this also helps distribute the cold and warmer areas). Continue in this manner until the butter block feels like one solid, plastic and elastic, 7"x12" block that is 1/2" thick. If the butter starts to get warm, your finger leaves an impression when you touch it, then put it back in the cooler until its a solid cold block (when the butter is a solid block it is called a beurrage). This is really important because once you do the lock-in step you cant adjust for errors in temperature. Set the butter in the cooler until you have rolled out the detrempe.

• Roll out the detrempe to the size of the half sheet pan. At this stage you can trim the detrempe if necessary to make it a perfect rectangle. 
• Take the beurrage out of the cooler and place this in the middle of the detrempe. You want the detrempe to be the same width as the beurrage. If its too wide you can use your hands to re shape the detrempe. Fold the sides over into the middle of the beurrage. If you have a gap in the middle thats okay, you'll next want to use your bench scraper and cut the edges that feel that there is no butter. You can place these cut portions on top over the gap/seem. 
• Use your rolling pin to press the detrempe, making it and the beurrage feel like a uniform shape. The beurrage is locked-in.
• You are going to next begin tourage, laminating the dough. Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the seem is facing you. Roll out the dough so it is the length of your half sheet pan. Imagine the dough in thirds, fold the end thirds in overlapping each other. You should now have a rolled up blanket look to the dough. Cover the dough with plastic and label: 1st turn: time finished. Put the dough into the blast chiller (70 degrees) or refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
• Repeat this step two more times. You want to have a total of three turns. After your last turn refrigerate the dough and let it rest before it can be sheeted out for product make up.