The Brioche Edition

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Well hello there...Happy YASSSletter Thursday!

Before, we jump into this week's agenda - just want to express how incredibly awesome it was to hear from all of you in our community! Zikki and I love reading your responses, hearing your stories, learning about your background, and simply sharing in our mutual love for this gastronomic universe. Thank you for following along on our journey and for helping us build this dough-y world. 

With that being said, we will be holding fun polls often so that we always have an opportunity to connect with you all. Keep baking and stay brilliant - just let the dough take you away!

This week we are diving deep into the world of BRIOCHE !! On our hefty agenda today is:

1. 📜 History + Origin: French Brioche

2. 🍞 French Brioche Recipe

3. 🥓 BLT Sandwich Recipe

4. 🇫🇷 French Toast Recipe

5. 🐟 THE BEST Tuna Melt OF YOUR LIFE Recipe

6. 🎧 BenGingi Podcast Feature: "The Pass is Calling"

📜 History + Origin: French Brioche

As with several other 🇫🇷 French foods and drinks, including the croissant and champagne, the history of brioche is muddled by myth. In the case of the brioche, a now deeply beloved French bread, legend has it that Marie-Antoinette brought it there from her native Austria.

However this myth stands with little evidence considering that brioche has been present in French baking for centuries, well before 👑 Marie-Antoinette’s reign in the late 18th century. According to numerous sources, it is first mentioned in a text dating to the early 15th century (around 1404), and probably originated somewhere in Normandy.

Later, it spread to other regions around France as a specialty prepared around Easter.

At first, the brioche was mostly formed into simple, compact rounds or loaves, with a dense, firm crumb that was different from the flakier, more buttery brioches of the present day. According to some sources, these early brioches were typically made with sourdough starter, rather than yeast. 🤔 They also did not typically contain sugar, gaining sweetness only later, when sugar became more widely available. Isn't in wild how we take all of our currently available ingredients for granted?

During the reign of Louis XIV, bakers began producing brioches with a greater ratio of butter to flour, yielding a much richer, more indulgent bread. Butter was a luxury item at the time, so this adaptation was no accident amid rising aristocratic demand for gourmet baked goods.

The “brioche parisienne” (Parisian brioche) was popularized sometime in the 18th century, with a first recipe appearing in around 1742. One source says the Parisian version yielded a lighter, fluffier brioche, owing to the use of yeast in lieu of sourdough starter. This version is closet to the one we eat today!

Some of you may wonder what the difference is between Challah and Brioche? Both incredible and delicious egg based sweet breads. Butter! Challah is kosher and made with oil, rather than butter!

🍞 French Brioche

Brioche is one of the richest doughs I’ve ever made, yet fluffy like a cloud. Unlike the common assumption, this dough is pretty easy to make. I recommend using a stand mixer instead of kneading by hand in order to fully incorporate the butter in the dough. Using organic bread flour which contains higher protein levels, the dough results in a higher rise and more open crumb. This is very important when making brioche as the dough needs to be strong enough to handle the amount of butter used and develop a proper gluten structure to support it. If you have some leftovers please keep them. They are perfect for all the recipes below!

🥓 BLT Sandwich

This is not a regular BLT my friends! It is absolutely a beautiful sandwich composed of bacon, lettuce, and tomato - BUT the bacon is made of beef! This special piece of meat was a gift from the meat king - Max The Meat Guy. Max aged this piece of meat for 40 days, then smoked it like bacon. The flavor profile is smokey, savory, and perfectly balanced. I was so excited, I actually made a brioche bread in order to make this drool worthy BLT  featuring Kewpie mayo (delicious Japanese mayo). The result? Fabulous & Classic.

🇫🇷 French Toast 

So now for another quick glimpse of history: The name “french toast" was first used in 18th-century when an innkeeper in Albany, New York replicated the  originally French dish in 1724. The recipe — and name — were brought to America by early settlers. In France, the dish is called “pain perdu," meaning “lost bread." Why lost bread? Originally, people made French toast from stale bread in order to make use of bread that would otherwise have been thrown away.

🐟 Tuna Melt

Tuna melt is absolutely my biggest surprise in food recently. I heard about this sandwich before but was very suspicious.  I never thought of combining canned tuna with melted cheese. But honestly, it's an unbelievable combination!  The version I'm sharing with you here is inspired by the first tuna melt I have ever had, in a polish-jewish diner near my house in downtown Manhattan.

I was recently featured on the "Pass is Calling", the podcast where some of world's most successful chefs share their secrets to success. Including practical tips how you can become one of them. It was a true pleasure to speak with the host & founder of the app Gronda - Valentin, about this wild journey I've been on the last few years! If you are curious, give it a listen.

Hope you have a weekend full of YASSS! Until next Thursday Gingis.

Love, Ben xx

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#WeAreAllBREAD