Traditional French brioche 🇫🇷 🍞

I tried many brioche recipes in the last weeks and I have to say that without surprise the one of my grandmother is the best! It’s called Brioche Mousseline. So here is the recipe, I hope you will enjoy is as much as my family does ♥️

Ingredients:

• 175 g flour
• 2 eggs
• 85 g butter
• 15 g fresh yeast – you can also use dry instant yeast
• Pinch of salt
• 20 g sugar

Instructions:

1. Crumble the fresh yeast in a bit of milk or water (2 tbsp) in a glass.
2. Wait 10 min for the yeast to be ready.
3. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl.
4. Add salt, sugar and eggs. Mix all together.
5. Then add the butter (cold and cut in small pieces) and the yeast mixture. Mix again, a lot as the butter as to blend in the mix, around. 5 min. If you have a kitchen robot it’s ideal.
6. The result can be quite sticky but it’s alright.
7. First proofing: cover with plastic wrap and let the dough grow in a warm place (few hours).
8. Let it one night at the bottom of your fridge (or around 6 hours).
9. The dough should have at least doubled in size, or even tripled!
10. Take your dough, roll it delicately on a floured surface in a square shape. Not too thin and don’t push too much. You might need to add lot of flour if it’s too sticky, use a spatula to help you.
11. Fold it in two, two times, very delicately. Like if you were folding a paper in 4 so you obtain 4 layers. This is going to help the brioche to form layers and be softer, this is my grandmother secret!
12. Repeat this 2 times (roll and fold in 4).
13. Roll it once again as a rectangle (same width as your pan) then roll it delicately (do not push too much) as a roll, cut small pieces and place in your pan. I cut 4 pieces for mine, I use a rectangle loaf pan.
14. Second proofing: let it grow in a warm place for at least 3 hours, it can be more. The brioche should grow again and fill the entire mould.
15. Optional: you can brush the top of your brioche with some eggs or milk if you want a shiny result.
16. Finally place your brioche in your cold oven and bake for 30min at 175°C.
17. Let it cool before unmolding.

You can also add some chocolate spread, chocolate chips, Nutella, nuts, dried fruits… Whatever you fancy inside! I advise the version with chocolate spread and crushed hazelnuts, you braid your brioche in this version (Babka).