Food & Cooking Recipes Breakfast & Brunch Recipes Bread Recipes Brioche à Tête 4.0 (23) 2 Reviews These eye-catching breads are rich and tender. By Martha Stewart Martha Stewart Martha Stewart is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and lifestyle expert who has taught millions of people through generations the joy of entertaining, cooking, gardening, collecting, crafting, and home renovating via her eponymous magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Emmy-winning television shows, and 99 books (and counting). Based in Katonah, N.Y., where she helms her 156-acre Bedford Farm, Martha is America's first self-made female billionaire. Editorial Guidelines Updated on July 17, 2024 Rate PRINT Share Prep Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 40 mins Total Time: 13 hrs 45 mins Servings: 16 Yield: 2 large brioche This brioche recipe produces gorgeous, fluted loaves known as brioche à tête, which refers to the bread's head-like shape ("tête" translates to "head" in French). An enriched dough containing milk, eggs, and butter, the bread is rich tasting with a fluffy, tender texture and a deeply browned exterior. The dough goes through a few proofing stages, both at room temperature and in the fridge, which helps it to develop its signature yeasty flavor and unbelievably airy texture. Shaping the loaves may look complicated, but it only takes a bit of patience—and a sharp pair of scissors—to form each eye-catching bread. 19 of Our Favorite Yeast Bread Recipes, From No-Knead Loaves to Martha-Level Boules Equipment Needed for Brioche à Tête Stand-mixer: We strongly recommend using a stand-mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment to knead this bread. The dough will require nearly 20 minutes of mixing time using a stand-mixer and even longer than that with a hand-held mixer. Using a stand-mixer will also free up your hands to add the butter-sugar mixture bit by bit in step four. Brioche molds: You'll need two fluted brioche molds that measure eight inches across the top and three and one-half inches across the bottom. You can find these at specialty cookware stores and online. If you can't locate brioche molds, consider making our equally delicious recipe for brioche loaves instead. Pastry brush: To achieve the deeply browned crust that takes these loaves over the top, you'll want to brush them two separate times with a mixture of egg yolk and milk. On the second application, it's especially important to use a very light hand to keep the puffed dough from deflating. A natural or silicone brush will work equally well here. Fresh vs. Active Dry Yeast You can use either fresh or active dry yeast for this recipe. While it used to be more widely available, fresh yeast, which needs to be refrigerated and has a short shelf life, is now mostly sold on a seasonal basis, if at all. Active dry yeast is readily available. It needs to be combined with a warm liquid—in this case milk—and left to sit for a few minutes before being added to recipes. It can be stored at room temperature but will last much longer if refrigerated or frozen. Ingredients 5 tablespoons lukewarm milk (100 to 115 degrees), plus 1 tablespoon milk ½ ounce fresh yeast or 1/4 ounce 1 pound 2 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for forming dough 1 tablespoon coarse salt 6 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened, plus more for molds ¼ cup superfine sugar Nonstick cooking spray 1 tablespoon milk Nonstick cooking spray Directions Stir together milk and yeast: Place lukewarm milk and yeast in a small bowl; stir to dissolve. If using active dry yeast, let milk-yeast mixture sit until foamy, about 5 minutes, before adding to the flour mixture in step 2. Combine flour, salt, and eggs; mix in yeast mixture: Place flour, salt, and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with dough hook attachment; add yeast mixture and mix on low speed to combine and knead, about 5 minutes. Continue kneading until smooth: Scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula; knead on medium speed until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Combine butter and sugar; add to dough gradually: In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar. Add a few small pieces of butter mixture to dough; with the mixer on low, add remaining butter mixture, a little bit at a time. Increase speed and mix until shiny: When all the butter mixture has been added, increase speed and continue mixing until smooth, shiny, comes away from the sides of the bowl, and is elastic, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cover; let rise in warm place: Butter a large bowl, transfer dough to prepared bowl, and cover with plastic wrap; let stand in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. Gently deflate dough; cover and refrigerate: Lift dough from bowl and drop back into bowl to deflate; repeat process once or twice. Cover bowl and transfer to refrigerator to chill for at least 8 hours and up to overnight. Butter molds; divide dough: Butter two brioche molds that are 8 inches across the top and 3 1/2 inches across the bottom. Divide dough in half. Cut off one-quarter of each piece of dough; you should have two pieces that are about 15 ounces each, and two pieces that are about 5 ounces each. Shape large pieces of dough: Shape the large pieces into balls and place one piece in the bottom of each mold. Press two fingers into the center of each to make a deep indentation. Shape small pieces of dough: Shape the small pieces of dough into a ball and roll each at an angle into an elongated oval. Lightly flour middle and index fingers on one hand and gently press the narrow ends of the ovals into the indentation in the large ball so that only the top parts are left visible. Make egg wash and brush onto dough: In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and remaining 1 tablespoon milk. Brush dough with egg yolk mixture, reserving remaining. Cover dough; let rise in warm place: Spray two pieces of plastic wrap with nonstick cooking spray; cover dough in both molds, cooking spray-side down and let stand in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Heat oven; brush with egg wash; make cuts into dough: Preheat oven to 400°F on a convection oven or 425°F on a conventional oven. Working from the outside inward, brush each brioche very lightly with reserved egg yolk mixture. Using a pair of very sharp wet scissors, make five 1 1/4-inch deep cuts around the large pieces of dough on an angle. Bake 15 minutes; reduce oven temperature and continue to bake: Transfer molds to oven and bake until brioche just begins to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F on a convection oven or 375°F on a conventional oven and continue baking until deep golden brown and internal temperature reaches 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 20 to 25 minutes more. Let cool 5 minutes, then unmold: Remove from oven and let brioche cool in mold for 5 minutes. Unmold onto a wire rack and let cool completely. More Brioche Recipes to Try: Mini Brioche à Tête Brioche Loaves Flaky Brioche Martha's French Toast With Grand Marnier Classic Bread Pudding Originally appeared: Martha Bakes, Episode MBLB1001 Rate It PRINT Updated by Esther Reynolds Esther Reynolds Esther Reynolds is an experienced recipe developer, recipe tester, food editor, and freelance writer with over a decade of experience in the food and media industries.