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Brioche Paste

A rich yeast dough made with flour, butter, eggs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Brioche Paste

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brioche Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the starter

  1. Place one-quarter of the flour on a clean surface and form a well in the center.

  2. Add the yeast and dissolve it with a little tepid water.

  3. Mix in enough water to form a soft paste and knead into a round ball.

  4. Place the ball in a large stewpan, score it with a knife, cover, and let it rise in a warm place.

Make the dough

  1. On a clean surface, place the remaining flour and form a hollow in the center.

  2. Add salt and sugar, pour in a little water to dissolve, then add butter and six eggs.

  3. Mix everything well with your hands until fully combined.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it is kneaded and risen.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives the dough its rich flavor.
Eggs
Add protein for structure and richness, and fat that softens the texture.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a touch of sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Letting the starter rise in a warm place. The yeast needs a warm, undisturbed environment to ferment properly; if it is too cold the dough rises slowly, and if it is too hot the yeast can die, leaving the brioche dense.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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