Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Brioche Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the leaven
Separate 8 ounces of flour from the 2 pounds to make the leaven.
Mix the leaven flour with yeast and warm water to form a light paste.
Make incisions on top, cover with a cloth, and let rise near the fire for 20 minutes.
Make the dough
Create a hollow in the remaining flour and add salt, sugar, and cream (or water).
Add the butter bits and pour in the eggs one by one.
Gently work the flour into the mixture until smooth and workable.
If needed, add an extra egg or yolk to achieve the right consistency.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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
- Fine dry flour
- Provides the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise, starting in the leaven.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives brioche its rich texture.
- Eggs
- Add moisture, structure and richness, and help bind the dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps feed the yeast and aid browning.
The step that matters
Adding the butter bits. Butter that is too warm or added too fast can make the dough greasy and slack, so it may not come together or hold its structure. Gradual incorporation lets the gluten and eggs absorb the fat.
“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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