BBA SOS: Rich Man's Brioche

I'm musically challenged. I love music of all sorts, but I'm really lazy about my music education. I'm the person that likes to say: "Hey, there's a song that I heard, and I really like it, but I don't know the words or how it goes" and then I'll pathetically try to hum it. This makes my sister, Adrianne, pull her hair out in frustration. I only listen to my iPod if I'm running and I never remember to plug it into the speakers in my house. I think that I just spend my time mixed up in my thoughts rather than rocking out to great songs. Luckily, though, my brother and sister love music and I'm always learning or remembering songs with them. For example, the last time that I visited my brother in New Orleans we were in his car and there was a song that I really liked. It turns out that it was "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates. Great song, no?
I made the Rich Man's Brioche for the BBA Brioche portion of the challenge. Peter Reinhart begins the recipe by refuting Marie Antoinette's famous "let them eat cake" statement. What she actually said translates to, "let them eat brioche" or "qu'ils mangent de la brioche." Actually, the origin of the statement is unknown and you can read more about it here, if you'd like. Back to the point that I was going to make though. Well, the combination of the title and this little anecdote meant that I hummed "Rich Girl" nearly the whole time that I was making this oh-so rich and delightful bread.

There are three different versions of the brioche: rich man's, middle class, and poor man's. As brioche gets it's lovely flavor and texture from the addition of eggs and butter, you might guess that the richer dough belongs to the richer man, and you'd be right. I wavered on which sort to make. I'd made middle class a couple of times before so I didn't really want to go that direction. Poor man's brioche sounded interesting, and more importantly, easier on my waistline; but, really, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? I decided that as long as I was making brioche I might as well go for the gusto, or in this case, the butter and eggs. This dough is not for the faint of heart as it's nearly 90% butter, but it's worth every single calorie.


The brioche is definitely my favorite bread that I've made in the challenge. The bagels were awesome and I loved eating them. I loved the Anadama bread, but I just love the brioche dough. It's so nice to work with, and it just smells like butter (go figure). The end result is the lightest, most melt in your mouth piece of bread you'll come across. I think that it's sort of like a croissant but I thought it was even better than the best croissant I've ever had. I don't think that I did a very good job shaping the little brioche a tetes, so I'll have to try this again. It will be a real hardship, I assure you. ;)