EASY HOMEMADE BRIOCHE BUNS | HOW TO MAKE BRIOCHE BREAD

So for those of you who don't know, basically what makes a brioche bun different from other types of buns is that it contains eggs, butter, and milk. So you end up with a little bit more tender, sweeter product. Plus, you get a nice flaky golden brown crust. So it's almost like a mix between a bread and a pastry in a way. I mean definitely airing more on the bread side, but you get the idea. It adds a nice little sweet element to your burger, plus it still holds up really well under a lot of condiments and toppings. So let me show you how to make them. So we're gonna start off this time by adding a cup of milk to a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and heating it to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 38 degrees Celsius. The reason we want it heated is just to speed up the activity of the yeast, which will ultimately help our dough to rise a little bit faster. So now just add 8 grams of quick rise yeast along with 12 grams or about a tablespoon of sugar, which will give the yeast something to feed on, again speeding up the rise time. Next we're going to combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. You could do this by hand of course, but the stand mixer is going to make this a lot easier, especially when we have to start kneading. So add 560 grams of bread flour along with 36 grams of sugar and 8 grams of salt and whisk or stir together to combine. By the way, if you're wondering why I have a band-aid on my finger, I was involved in an unfortunate mandolin accident the other day, so be careful with these things folks. These things are dangerous and definitely don't look up when you're using it. Just, just trust me on that one. Anyways, back to the recipe. Now by the time that's done, you can revisit your milk mixture, and at this point you should see at least a thin layer of foam forming at the top, which indicates that your yeast is healthy and active. If you don't see this foam, well I hate to break it to you, but your yeast might be dead. If that's the case though, I'd just give it a bit more time, but if you still don't see that foam, you may just want to run to the store and get some new yeast. But assuming your yeast is alive and well, just add it to the flour mixture and stir using your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment until it starts to come together. Then add four whole eggs and continue to mix on medium-low speed until those are fully incorporated as well. Next, add one whole stick or a half a cup of softened butter. It's important to soften it so that it properly mixes into the dough. It's not like a pastry where we need to keep it cold to preserve the flakiness of the dough, it'll be just fine softened. Now we'll have to knead very thoroughly to develop some good gluten in the dough, so continue to mix on medium speed for about eight to ten minutes, or until the dough is smooth and silky and has some nice stretch to it. It will be a very sticky dough, but that's what we want, so don't add more flour yet. It might be hard to handle if this is your first time working with a dough that's hydrated, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. One tool that makes a huge difference here, and I'd even argue is essential if you make a lot of dough, is this flexible bench scraper. I'll link the one I use in the description below, but really any one like this will work. It's just a flexible piece of plastic. Anyways, we'll just want to remove the dough from the stand mixer bowl onto a lightly floured surface, and you can see that using the bench scraper, I'm able to get pretty much every last bit of dough out of the bowl. So just try to shape the dough into a ball as best as you can, and then place it into a greased container to let it rise until doubled in size. Personally, I like to use a cambro container like this one because it's see-through, and it also has measurements on the side so you can see exactly when the dough has doubled in size. Obviously this video isn't sponsored, I just like to use that type of container. So take note of your starting point, which for me is slightly less than one quart, so I'll be letting it rise until it reaches close to two quarts. This will be pretty quick, especially if you let it rise in a warm environment. It should only take about 30 minutes to an hour. I like to proof my doughs in my oven with the light on to achieve that warm environment, so that's exactly what I'm going to do here. It is a pretty quick rise, but it should still leave you with plenty of time to hit the like button on this video and subscribe if you haven't yet. So after about a half an hour, my dough has doubled in size, so I'll just remove it from its container, again onto a pretty lightly floured surface, and you'll see why we want a lightly floured surface momentarily. So divide it up into eight equal sized pieces, or feel free to divide it into more pieces, like maybe 16 if you're looking to make slider buns, but I'm going to make full-size buns, so I'm doing eight pieces. Once the dough is divided, we'll form each piece into a nice taut ball using a lightly floured bench scraper along with your hands, just like so. This step is very important to achieving nice looking buns with a proper structure, and this is why we don't want our surface to be too floured, because we actually want the dough to stick a bit so it'll fold underneath itself. Again, this might be a bit tough at first, but you'll get the hang of it the more you do it. As you form the dough balls, place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for a very brief second rise. This one's actually optional depending on how dense or fluffy you like your buns, but I usually like to let them rise for at least 10 to 15 more minutes. So I'll just dust them all with a generous amount of flour, because the last thing we want is to ruin these beautiful buns by letting the plastic wrap stick to them as they rise. So once they're floured, just cover the tray in plastic wrap to prevent the dough from drying out, and set them aside to rise for the desired amount of time. You'll also want to start preheating your oven at this point to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. So while those are rising, we're just going to prepare our egg wash to brush onto the buns before baking, which really couldn't be more simple. You'll just beat one egg along with about a teaspoon of water, and that's it. So by the time that's done, I'm happy with how much my dough has risen, because remember, it'll rise even more as it bakes, so you don't want to let it poof up too much. So I'll just brush the egg wash generously all over the buns using a pastry brush, and I also like to add a little sprinkle of flaky salt over top to add some extra flavor, but that part's up to you. Now we'll just go throw these bad boys in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the tops are deeply golden brown, which should take about 25 to 30 minutes. Keep in mind that if you're making eight buns like this on a standard size tray, they will end up touching a bit, so if you want the crust to remain completely intact, you'll probably want to bake them in smaller batches.