A while back I made some Brioche, from a Paul Hollywood recipe, it turned out very well indeed, as you can see here. Today I decided that I would use the same recipe to try to make some Brioche à Tête, which are rolls, with a little ‘head’ on them.
I did check out some specific recipes for these, but I decided to use the Hollywood recipe again, and just adjust the instructions after the dough had been rested in the fridge overnight.
I cant claim that the result look as good as the professionals, but they turned out well enough, and taste great. Also I don’t have Brioche tins so I used a muffin tin instead, which doesn’t give the pretty fluted edge, but still works fine.
If you try to make these, and follow the recipe below, using a muffin tin you should get about 16 buns/rolls.
Brioche à Tête
Ingredients:
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
7g salt
50g caster sugar
10g instant yeast
140ml warm full-fat milk
5 medium eggs
250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
Method:
Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for a further 6 – 8 minutes, until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough.
Add the softened butter and continue to mix for a further 4 – 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough will be very soft.
Tip the dough into a plastic bowl, cover and chill overnight or for at least 7 hours, until it is firmed up and you are able to shape it.
Lightly dust the worktop with flour and tip out the dough onto it
Knock the dough down and fold it into itself a few times.
Roll the dough into a sausage and divide into 16 pieces, about 75grams each.
Grease your muffin tins.
Heat the oven to 185c/165 c Fan/ Gas Mark 4 1/2/ 362F
Roll each piece of dough into a sausage, about 3 inches long.
Using the side of your hand roll and indentation into the dough, dividing into 1 third, to 2 thirds. Roll gently, stretching the neck of the indentation slightly.
Flatten the larger part of the dough and make a hole in the middle, with your thumbs.
Pull the head, which is attached to the neck of the dough, through the hole and gently form the roll into a round, place in the muffin tin, as level as possible.
Gently press the head into the rest of the dough,
Repeat the process for all the remaining 15 portions of dough
Cover and allow to rest until they have doubled in size
Using a beaten egg brush the buns to lightly cover and then sprinkle some preserving sugat(or any that has those nice large granularity)
Place in the oven, on the middle shelf, and bake for 15 minutes
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about one minute.
Tip out onto a cooling rack.
