Achieving Artisan Quality Brioche and Baguette

Ideally, you should use an instant-read thermometer inserted into the side of a loaf to tell when the bread is fully baked. Lean, rustic breads are done when the temperature reaches 200 to 210 degrees. Rich breads with eggs and butter, like the brioche in this class, should be baked to an internal temperature of 190 to 195 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, rely on color to judge doneness; bread should be baked until the loaf is well browned.

Brioche gets its velvety texture and rich flavor from butter—a lot of it. Many recipes contain a 50 percent ratio of butter (to flour). Compared with typical sandwich bread, which may contain up to 20 percent butter, brioche is certainly one rich bread.

The test kitchen has found that instant yeast (aka rapid-rise yeast) is the most reliable type to use. Instant yeast, which can be added straight out of the package to the other bread or pizza ingredients in the recipe, is also easier to use than active dry yeast that must be dissolved, or “proofed,” in warm water before it can be used, and much more convenient than fresh cake yeast.

Kneading is the mechanical action that develops gluten in bread dough; gluten is the protein that gives dough its resilience and strength. Without sufficient gluten development, a dough would not be able to rise and, instead, would bake up flat.

When bread dough is set aside to rise, a step bread bakers call “fermentation,” the yeast feeds on the starch and sugars in the bread dough, and they produce alcohol and carbon dioxide in the process. During this period of fermentation, flavor compounds develop that help give the baked bread full, complex flavor. Generally speaking, the longer the fermentation, the better flavor the finished bread will have. The carbon dioxide that the yeast releases during fermentation causes the dough to rise and become pillowy so that the bread bakes up with an open, airy crumb, not a flat, crackery texture.