Thermomix France Plaited Brioche

Brioche is a traditional French sweet breakfast treat, made from flour, eggs, sugar and milk. It’s that funny-shaped thing that vaguely resembles a Dalek in fancy dress, a channelled lump with a ball on top, you know? In a more romantic vein, you’ll very often see beautiful brioche adorning the display cases of French bakeries or boulangeries in Paris and all around the country. This recipe for a plaited brioche comes from Thermomix France and is so fast and easy to make it is used in the basic TM31 demonstration because it shows the kneading function of our Best Friend in the Kitchen and also encourages guest participation to plait it into one or more lovely – and delicious – brioches. So grab some friends or the kids and have a brioche party!

Thermomix France Plaited Brioche
This is a very easy and very versatile recipe for a real treat. Serves 8 and can easily be halved to serve just 4. There are lots of ways to jazz it up, too so be sure to look at Madame Thermomix’s Top Tips at the end of the recipe. Requires 8 minutes in the Thermomix and 30 minutes rising time.

Ingredients
200 g milk
80 g sugar
40 g fresh yeast
1 tsp. orange blossom water or other liquid flavouring (optional)
650 g plain flour, divided 350 g + 300 g
4 eggs + 1 yolk to glaze
80 g butter, diced
1 tsp. fine sea salt
Optional: chunky sugar, chocolate chips or other decoration

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 50° C or its lowest temperature. Weigh milk, sugar, yeast and optional orange blossom water if using into your TM bowl and warm through 2 minutes/37° C/Speed 2.
2. Add 350 g flour, the whole eggs and salt and mix 15 seconds/Speed 5.
3. Add remaining 300 g flour and the diced butter and Knead 6 minutes : lock lid, set time for 6 minutes and push the Kneading/Interval button (the funny-looking one that looks like a wheat sheaf).
4. Dust a board or your work surface with flour. Remove the dough from your TM bowl by turning it over onto the board and giving the little knurled knob on the base a couple of turns in each direction to loosen the dough. There’s quite a lot of dough in there! Remove the base of the bowl and let the blade drop out, then carefully remove the blade from the dough. You will have a lovely, sticky dough at this stage.
5. Divide the dough into 3, roll out each bit into equal “ropes” and plait or braid into a lovely tress*. Place your plait(s) on a lightly floured or baking-paper-line baking tray. Mix the egg yolk with 1 tsp. water and glaze your brioche(s) with a pastry brush.
6. Place your tray of brioche(s) into the oven at 50° C or its lowest temperature and rise for 30 to 35 minutes. You may discover a monster in your oven 😉 Top with your chosen decoration, very very gently pressing them into the dough so as to make topping stick but not flatten the plait.
7. Increase oven temperature to 160 ° C and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
8. Let cool for a few minutes – if you can wait that long! – and enjoy your brioche with a glass of milk, a cup of hot chocolate, a lovely cup of coffee or your favourite cuppa. It’s absolutely divine when still warm…

Madame Thermomix’s Top Tips:

1. *At this point of the recipe you can decide to make more than one very large brioche, so use your imagination and adapt the shapes to your needs. You can make two plaited brioches for 4 people each (divide the dough into 6 equal portions), or get the kids together and let them use their imagination to make different shapes. I made one large plaited brioche for breakfast and some hamburger buns for dinner.
2. If you make half a recipe you could use a brioche mould, or a tray of mini brioche moulds if you have one.
3. Make this dough just before bedtime and rise your shaped brioche overnight in the refrigerator for an amazing mid-week or weekend morning treat. Think birthday breakfast for a loved one, Valentine’s Day, Christmas morning, or “just because.”
4. Top with chocolate chips before baking and make an amazing Chocolate Chip Brioche.
5. Add dark and white chocolate chips during kneading and make a chocolate-laced brioche…
6. Go savoury and shape your brioche dough into burger buns or pull-apart rolls and top with black pepper, sesame seeds, cayenne pepper, herbes de provence, or other herbs, nuts or spices.
7. Here’s a good one: Divide your dough into lots and lots of small balls, put one in the bottom of each cup of several muffin tins, pop in a square of chocolate, and top with another ball of dough. How good will that be to bite into a fluffy brioche and discover melted chocolate inside?
8. Brioche is a wonderful gift to bring along to a friend’s house for coffee or any other invitation or reception. It’s rather unusual outside of France, it looks very impressive and you don’t have to tell them how easy it was to make 😉

Bon appétit !

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