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Brioche Bake

Maureen Abood

Dec 15, 2017, Updated May 01, 2023

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There were many, many recipes that were, in a word, demystified for me during culinary school. First and foremost: the mother sauces. Then, butchery, and the making of smoked and cured meats. A fascination (I was, I boast, the first to step up to saw off the hoof of a 300 pound pig on the butcher block). Wine tastings opened my eyes and palate during our weekly regional wine lessons and trips to Napa and Sonoma (I know; it was tough).

But the days that struck my sweet spot, my soul food, were the baking days. We learned breads of every sort, including during the holidays when we delved into traditional enriched holiday breads. Magically, that week of the buttery breads was winter-like in San Francisco, and the gray haze outside the front wall of windows emphasized the yellow light and steam inside our little school.

We baked panettone and stollen, challah and Mexican Three Kings bread. These were delights I had always put in the “bakery” category of my mind rather than the “we make these” category.

I fell in love, amid all of that love, with the challah braiding, and also with the brioche rolls, as much for the dough itself as for its resulting breads. Buttery, airy, soft like a baby’s bottom . . . this is the kind of dough that bread-baking fanatics dream about.

Whenever I see a braided bread recipe, I go back to my culinary school happy place, and I want (no, need) to get after it. This version, a Christmas breakfast wreath which is a stunner of a twisted bread filled with almonds and rosy dried tart cherries, tops my baking list right about now, the week or so before Christmas. If I could I would clear the decks and bake these breads all day, the aroma of yeasty dough wafting through the whole house.

Last year I came across another gorgeous twisted bread that forms the shape of a star, or a flower, depending on your view. It uses a brioche dough fragrant with orange zest. The dough is rolled in circles and layered with a filling that begs practically out loud for Strawberry Jam with rose water. I’ve baked the bread both with and without the orange zest, and I promise you it’s a keeper. One orange is all that is needed to layer even more flavor into the buttery beauty.

I love how the fragrant orange reminds me of a cinnamon roll my mother used to make with orange zest and coconut. What I’d give to find that recipe again. I’ve scoured her recipe file and it’s nowhere. I’ve scoured the internet too. Nothing. I’ve also of course scoured Mom’s mental recipe file, and she says she remembers it but she does not think it included orange zest (yes it did).

If you recall these rolls from the late 70’s/80’s and can demystify them with a recipe to share with me, I will send you a prize (dead serious).

It’s a total pleasure to serve the beautiful brioche star for a holiday breakfast when your people are gathered. The dough is made in advance by a day, then you can get up early to go the distance (it takes a couple of hours but not all active time; the roll has to rise a second time after it’s shaped).

The first time I made it, I stood at the counter on New Year’s last year and the yeasty warmth of the kitchen gave me good, solid time to reflect on gifts of the year past and hopes for the one ahead. It all felt pretty mystical. This isn’t just gorgeous holiday bread at its finest; it’s spiritual bread!  So much for demystifying anything. A little mystical mystery is a lot magical.