Why is brioche bread so expensive? If you’ve ever tried brioche buns, you know how delicious this bread is. But is the taste the only factor that makes this bread expensive?
Brioche bread is expensive due to its ingredients. While bakers usually use water to hydrate dough, making brioche involves using milk. Brioche also contains butter, eggs, and sugar, which are not standard on other breads.
This article will discuss all the factors that make brioche bread expensive.
Why Is Brioche Bread So Expensive?
Brioche is one of the most expensive bread varieties that you buy. Still, it is delicious due to its sweet buttery flavor paired with flaky and airy crumbs.
Some assume that brioche is expensive due to its rich flavor and popularity, making it a fancy pastry. However, these two factors do not explain why brioche buns are costly.
So, why is brioche bread so expensive?
What Makes Brioche Buns Expensive?
Brioche is far from ordinary types of bread. Regular bread varieties use flour, water, yeast, and salt to make the dough. On the other hand, brioche buns consist of flour, milk, sugar, eggs, and butter. Because of these ingredients, brioche bread carries similarities with French pastries like the Danish and croissants. However, people typically pair it with both sweet and savory food.
The ingredients used for making brioche bread are also the reason for its high price. A single loaf of brioche bread needs four to five large eggs, a third cup of milk, a stick of butter, and 36 grams of sugar. These bread components are already expensive. You also need to spend money on other ingredients like flour and yeast.
By comparing the ingredients for making brioche bread to other regular bread, it is easy to understand why it is one of the most expensive.
Brioche Takes A Long Time To Make
Another reason why brioche bread is expensive is the complexity of making it. It is far from the 30-minute knead-and-rest recipes that most bread varieties use. Brioche bread can take more than 8 hours, from preparation to baking.
Preparing and kneading the brioche dough takes 45 minutes. Then, it would be best to let it rise to room temperature for 2 hours so that the dough will double in size. At this point, the butter you added to the dough has already softened, so it will flatten after you shape it.
To prevent the dough from losing shape, you must refrigerate it for 1.5 hours. It would be best to let the cooled dough rise at room temperature for another 3 hours before baking it for 35 minutes.
Most of the time you will spend making brioche involves passively letting it rest. However, kneading, relaxing, and baking it for either too short or too long can make a huge difference once it cooks.
Why Does Brioche Need Expensive Ingredients?
The brioche is the first bread that would probably come to your mind when you think of buttery, soft, and sweet bread. These characteristics are all thanks to the expensive ingredients added to the bread. The components also give the bread its fluffy structure.
However, the same ingredients that give brioche its richness also make it complicated to make. One reason is that yeast does not mix with butter and milk as quickly as it does with water and regular oil.
But if that is the case, why does brioche still need these expensive ingredients?
Why Does Brioche Need Milk Instead Of Water?
Milk plays several roles in making brioche bread taste good. The protein in milk contains fats, which helps make brioche taste richer. It also gives the bread its golden brown crust, soft and flavorful crumbs, and overall appeal.
Milk also adds nutritional properties, such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, into the brioche. (source)
The Butter In Brioche
The role of fat in any bread is to give it a mouthfeel. In the case of brioche, its fat source comes in the form of butter. The butter helps the milk by giving the bread a rich flavor while making it smooth from the crust to the crumbs.
In addition, the butter is responsible for giving the brioche tiny air bubbles. It happens when the butter melts while the bread is baking. Since the butter does not mix with milk, it coats the air bubbles that the leavening agent creates. As a result, these air bubbles cannot escape, thus making the brioche’s crumbs airy.
Moreover, butter plays a significant role even before the bread’s baking process begins. It makes the dough stretchable and easy to work with when it is still at room temperature. Once you refrigerate the dough, the butter hardens, thus allowing the dough to keep its shape.
Adding Eggs To Brioche Dough
Butter is not the only source of fat in brioche bread. Eggs, particularly egg yolks, are an excellent fat source. For this reason, adding eggs to brioche dough helps in giving the bread its great texture.
In addition, the eggs give the brioche a lot of moisture. The milk alone is insufficient to hydrate the flour when making brioche bread. Without enough liquid, the dough will crumble as you knead it. Adding eggs makes the dough flexible and stretchy, allowing you to work on it efficiently.
Moreover, the protein content of eggs has a Maillard reaction when exposed to heat. As a result, brioche bread becomes golden brown, especially when you brush the top of the bread with egg wash.
Are Brioche Buns Worth The Price?
Now this, of course, is a matter of taste. Personally, I love a good Brioche bread and for me, it is worth its price for various reasons.
Delicious And Versatile
The first reason brioche bread is worth its price is that the taste of this bread gives you endless ways to prepare it. For instance, you can use it to make sandwiches by filling them with meat and cheese slices. You can also turn brioche slices into French toast if you want a sweet and satisfying breakfast.
Additionally, you can toast your stale brioche bread and pair it with stews and other savory dishes like soups. Simply toasting your brioche slices in butter will elevate their taste and texture, making them a better pair for various dishes.
It Lasts Longer Than Other Bread Varieties
Brioche can last for several days, even without refrigeration. The reason is that the eggs and butter in the dough had partial fermentation before baking. The butter also ensures the brioche will only have tiny air bubbles. As a result, it becomes difficult for air to get into the brioche bread, thus preventing oxidation and bacterial buildup.
Additionally, the high sugar content of the bread helps preserve it.
Even better, brioche bread can last about a month if you freeze it. The reason is still due to its denseness and small air pockets. However, consuming your brioche bread as soon as possible is ideal. This way, you can ensure that the bread will not taste stale after reheating.
If you want to freeze your homemade brioche bread, you must wait for it to cool down, pack it in a ziplock bag, and place it in your freezer. On the other hand, you can simply place store-bought brioche bread in the freezer without replacing its original packaging.
Final Thoughts
Why is brioche bread so expensive? The main reason is that brioche is an enriched bread. Its ingredients are more expensive than the components of regular bread. But the good thing is that brioche is worth its price as it is delicious and does not quickly go bad.
Furthermore, brioche bread needs expensive ingredients to achieve its rich taste and soft, flaky texture. For instance, the sugar in the bread does not just give it its sweet taste but also acts as a preservative.
Did this article help you with what you need to know about brioche and how to bake it? Our comments section is open to your questions and suggestions!
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