Buttermilk Brioche Sandwich Bread, My Paperback Cookbooks & My Newsletter!
Hi friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new in this space. I’ve been busy publishing my two cookbooks, Cooking with the Seasons and Yiayia’s Greek Sweets in PAPERBACK! Yiayia’s book spent almost a week as the #1 new release in its category on Amazon and it’s still in the top 5. I know…my mind was and still is blown! To keep the good vibes rolling, I decided to launch an email newsletter! Alex at A Joy in the Kitchen will be your one-stop shop for all things cooking, kitchen, home, and dining out, from that food-loving friend you can trust, me! If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do! I’ll be sharing occasional free recipes (like this one, which went out in my first post earlier this week) with all newsletter subscribers, as well as exclusive recipes and discounts for paying ones. Okay, enough about me, let’s get to this beautiful bread!
I’ve got a running list of packaged foods that I buy a lot of from the store, but that I want to start making more of from scratch. Two of them are sandwich breads and jams…my kid eats a lot of PB&J, okay? A couple weeks ago, I tried making this very easy brioche from Ali Stafford. With her guidance and encouragement (she’s great about answering questions on Instagram!) I swapped out the milk with Kate’s buttermilk, and buttered the loaf pans generously for fear that they’d stick when I tried to turn them out. Luckily, that didn’t happen, and instead I was left with two lofty loaves of bread that were…dare I say…perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I made two more loaves again the following week, and have the same task on my to-do list for this weekend as well.
If you're new to bread making, you really only need a few things to succeed:
A food scale that reads grams
Good quality all-purpose flour (I only use King Arthur!)
Solid loaf pans
Reliable yeast
Once you've armed yourself with these tools and ingredients, you're ready to begin. Follow the recipe below and you'll have two loaves of fresh bread ready to be devoured, in just a few hours time.
Buttermilk Brioche Sandwich Bread - Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients:
768 grams all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur) + more for shaping
15 grams kosher salt
8 grams instant yeast
77 grams granulated sugar
440 grams lukewarm water
2 large eggs
125 grams buttermilk (I use Kate's)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted + 2 tablespoons, softened, for greasing the pans
Instructions:
In a very large bowl, combine flour, salt yeast, and sugar, whisking to combine.
In a medium bowl, combine warm water, eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter, whisking to combine.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until a very wet dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Note: Per Ali's teachings, I preheat my oven for 1 minute at 350°, then turn it off. This warms the oven ever so slightly and creates the perfect proofing box environment to let your dough rise.
Once the dough has risen, remove it from the oven and set it on the counter. Generously butter two standard loaf pans, each with 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter. Preheat the oven to 375°. Generously flour your work surface and hands. I typically use about 1/2 cup for this process. This is an extremely wet and sticky dough, so use more flour than you think you'll need. Better safe than sticky.
Turn the dough out onto the floured surface, sprinkle the top with flour, and use a bench scraper to fold it up and over itself on all sides. You want to handle the dough as little as possible with your hands. Continue folding the dough up and over itself 1/3 at a time, rotating until you have a somewhat uniform and very large ball of dough. Cut the dough into two equal pieces, shape them into long ovals, and place them into the buttered pans.
Rise the loaves on top of the stove, uncovered, for an additional 45 minutes. Once the loaves have crested the tops of the pans, bake for 40 minutes or until a digital thermometer reads at least 205° when inserted into the middle of the loaf.
Turn the loaves out of their pans immediately and cool completely on a wire rack, before slicing and serving with whatever your heart desires.
This bread is beautiful for making grilled cheese, French toast, and even homemade croutons as a garnish for your favorite soups or salads. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have been.
