Brioche: Encyclopedia - Brioche

Brioche

Brioche is a light but rich French bread made with a yeast dough and eggs, milk, butter and sugar. The crust is glazed before baking and turns a deep golden brown. The crumb is delicate and pale yellow in colour. In Paris, it is traditionally baked in a fluted tin with a smaller ball of dough placed on top, either as buns or as one large loaf, but other shapes and preparations are traditional in different parts of France. It is also served in ring-shaped and hexagonal loaves. One common variation is to add raisins to the bread.

The word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, and this bread is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe. It is often served as a pastry or as the basis of a dessert, with many local variations in added ingredients, fillings and toppings. It is also used with savoury preparations, particularly with foie gras, and is used in some meat dishes.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his 1783 autobiography Confessions, relates that "a great princess" is said to have advised, with regard to starving peasants, "S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche", commonly translated as "If they have no bread, let them eat cake", and commonly misattributed to Marie-Antoinette.

Braided brioche (brioche tressée) is similar to challah.

The pronunciation in French is (using the International Phonetic Alphabet) [bʁiɔʃ]. The pronunciation in Received Pronunciation is chiefly [briɒʃ], and the pronunciation in American English is [brioʊʃ].

Categories: French words | Breads | French cuisine

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Brioche", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki