Brioche Paste

Ingredients

• eight ounces of this from the remainder to make the leaven
• two ounces more than
• an ounce of yeast
• an ounce of salt
• a gill of cream
• a pound of butter as free from moisture as it can be
• three slight incisions across the top
• one six fresh eggs freed from the specks
• 2 lbs
• salt

Directions

1. The _brioche_ is a rich, light kind of unsweetened bun or cake, very commonly sold, and served to all classes of people in France, where it is made in great perfection by good cooks and pastry cooks. It is fashionable now at English tables, though in a different form, serving principally as a crust to enclose _rissoles_, or to make _cannelons_ and fritters. We have seen it recommended for a _vol-au-vent_, for which we should say it does not answer by any means so well as the fine puff-paste called _feuilletage_. The large proportion of butter and eggs which it contains render it to many persons highly indigestible; and we mention this to warn invalids against it, as we have known it to cause great suffering to persons out of health. To make it, take a couple of pounds[114] of fine dry flour, sifted as for cakes, and separate eight ounces of this from the remainder to make the leaven. Put it into a small pan, and mix it lightly into a lithe paste, with half an ounce of yeast, and a spoonful or two of warm water; make two or three slight incisions across the top, throw a cloth over the pan, and place it near the fire for about twenty minutes to rise. In the interval make a hollow space in the centre of the remainder of the flour, and put into it half an ounce of salt, as much fine sifted sugar, and half a gill of cream, or a dessertspoonful of water; add a pound of butter as free from moisture as it can be, and quite so from large grains of salt; cut it into small bits, put it into the flour, and pour on it one by one six fresh eggs freed from the specks; then with the fingers work the flour gently into this mass until the whole forms a perfectly smooth, and not stiff paste: a seventh egg, or the yolk of one, or even of two, may be added with advantage if the flour will absorb them; but the brioche must always be _workable_, and not so moist as to adhere to the board and roller disagreeably. When the leaven is well risen spread this paste out, and the leaven over it;

2. Footnote 114:

3. It should be remarked, that the directions for brioche-making are principally derived from the French, and that the pound in their country weighs two ounces more than with us: this difference will account for the difficulty of working in the number of eggs which they generally specify, and which render the paste too moist.

4. Flour, 2 lbs.; yeast, 1/2 oz.; salt and sugar, each 1/2 oz.; butter, 1 lb.; eggs, 6 to 8.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Eggs	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.