Brioche (made in bread maker)

In where I am, there was a bakery that sells really really nice breads and buns. But it closed down many years ago. It sold a loaf, known as the butter loaf. I miss it very much. It is slightly sweet and yellow in color (probably because of the butter) and is very soft and buttery. I tried to look for a recipe for butter loaf, but none that comes close to it. So I searched for brioche instead, cos a brioche, too is made with butter and is slightly sweet and has that yellow-tinge to it.

 

I used my faithful bread machine to combine all the ingredients, cos with the amount of egg and butter in this recipe, I knew this would be another tacky recipe to knead by hand. The thing about brioche, it's very very delicious, but the dough needs to sit (or rise) in the fridge for at least 8 hours. To me, that's quite a good thing, cos I can prepare the dough in the bread machine the night before, and bake it the next morning for breakfast. The whole house smells like a bakery when the brioche is in the oven.

 

My brioche made in the bread machine is a recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, but halved.

 

This is the order I place the ingredients in the bread machine:

 

• 3 eggs, medium size
• 3tbsp luke warm milk
• pinch of salt
• 3tbsp molasses sugar
• 480g all purpose flour
• 1tbsp yeast
• 120g butter, chopped into cubes (added only when all the above ingredients has combined thoroughly in the bread machine)

1. Let the bread machine knead it for about 15min.
2. Let rise in the bread machine for one hour, or the dough has doubled its size. 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.
3. Generously butter or grease a loaf pan. Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces, form each piece into a ball. Place the balls of dough in the loaf pan, side by side.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together an egg yolk and 1tbsp of milk. Brush top of dough with egg wash, reserve the remaining egg wash mix.  
5. Let the dough sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1hr.
6. Preheat oven to 195deg C (fan forced). Brush the loaf very lightly with reserved egg wash mix. Sprinkle with molasses sugar.
7. Bake the brioche until just begins to turn golden in color, about 15min. Reduce temperature to 175deg C and continue baking until deep golden color, 20-25min more.