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 ↓
Paris Jockey-club Recipe for Brioche
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Sift the flour and set aside ¼ of it.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Mix the dissolved yeast with the reserved flour to create a sponge.
Let the sponge rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Make the dough
Make a hole in the remaining flour.
Add salt and sugar to the hole.
Dissolve the salt and sugar with 2 tablespoons of water.
Beat the butter and 4 eggs together.
Add 3 more eggs one at a time. Mix well after each egg addition.
Combine the sponge with the egg mixture.
Mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Cover the dough.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for 4 hours.
Fold and shape
Turn the dough out onto a board.
Spread the dough. Fold the dough over itself 4 times.
Return the dough to the bowl.
Let the dough rise for another 2 hours.
Repeat the spreading and folding process.
Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
Shape the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other. Form the larger piece into a ball with a depression for the smaller piece.
Bake
Make 2-3 gashes on top with a sharp knife.
Bake until golden brown.
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.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten structure that holds the brioche's rich dough together.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces gas through fermentation, making the dough rise and become light.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft crumb.
- Eggs
- Add richness, moisture and structure, helping the dough set and turn golden.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Mixing in the butter and eggs. Cold or very soft butter and eggs added too fast can break the emulsion and stop the dough from coming together. Adding the eggs one at a time and mixing well lets the dough absorb them gradually, keeping it smooth and elastic.
“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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