Dough with a Thousand Faces

As I mentioned yesterday, the utility of brioche dough goes far beyond the standard muffin-with-a-topknot mini-bread you might have for breakfast at your local pastry shop (though that’s pretty darned fabulous). Most of the time brioche is baked into much larger loaves, sometimes in an extra-large brioche mold, but most often in a standard loaf pan. It makes sandwich bread like you wouldn’t believe, and stale leftovers (I’ve never seen any, but I assume they’re possible) make fabulous pain perdue which is the French way of saying, er…French toast. Literally it means “lost bread”.

That however is only the beginning of brioche. Slices can be cut to make layers for fruit and ice cream desserts. It makes fantastic challah, monkey bread and kugelhopf. And if you’ve never tried it in sticky bun form, well, let’s say I’m deeply, deeply sorry for your loss. All the wasted years. So lose no more time, my brother and sisters, master this dough now while you’re still young.