It wasn't cake that Marie Antoinette wanted to feed to the masses. Her instructions were actually, "Let them eat brioche." Brioche is certainly as rich and buttery as cake, but that's where the similarities end.
Brioche is definitely more of a bread than it is a cake. For one thing, it's yeast-risen and has a chewy, bread-like interior. It's also far less sweet. Brioche gets a few tablespoons of sugar, but the focus is more on enriching the dough with eggs and butter. Lots of eggs and butter.
The result is a bread that is not exactly sweet and not exactly savory, which makes brioche a fantastic bread for any meal of the day. Smeared with jam or sliced into French toast, it's breakfast. Split open and stuffed with sandwich meat and cheese, it's lunch. Served as small rolls alongside a braise or soup, it's dinner. Brioche doesn't make a bad midnight snack, either!
Brioche can be a bit tricky to make at home, at least without a standing mixer. In culinary school, we were taught how to make it by hand - working the butter into the wet dough by smearing them together against the counter and then getting it to form into a cohesive ball by repeatedly throwing it down on the workspace. Trust me, it's much easier to make in the standing mixer.
Traditionally, brioche is formed into loaf-sized or smaller dinner roll-sized "brioche à tête" ("tête" translates as "head" - perhaps in honor of Marie Antoinette?!). These are large balls of dough with a small round knot positioned on top. But certainly there's no rule that says you can't make brioche as a regular sandwich loaf or round sandwich buns.
Curious to try it at home? Take a look at these recipes:
• Basic Brioche from Epicurious
• The Simplest Brioche from La Tartine Gourmand
• Brioche by Hand from Gourmet
What do you like to do with brioche?
Related: Good Morning! Kugelhopf Breakfast Rolls
(Image: Flickr member arnold inuyaki licensed under Creative Commons)
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Brioche is my most favorite French pastry, way better than croissants (although I do love those too). When I go to Paris, a brioche is always the first thing I want.
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day has a lovely brioche dough. I've tried it - the result has fantastic taste and texture, but I found it to be too wet to shape the brioches properly. I want to try it again.
The Bread Baker's Apprentice also has 3 brioche recipes, and I've been wanting to try them for a while.
My favourite bakery does an AMAZING savory brioche with garlic and chives, and I think Parmesan sprinkled on top. It's really delicious, so I'm going to use that "basic brioche" recipe and see if I can replicate this savory taste.
Also, for the sake of historical accuracy: on the tour of Versailles, they tell you that there is actually no proof that Marie Antoinette ever said any such thing (whatever the wording). Basically it's believed to be a myth, one which people keep perpetuating for some reason ...
Your picture's of a brioche sucrée, or sugar brioche...any recipes for that? I've been looking for years for a good one in English and have struck out (none have been sweet enough).
I use a half whole wheat pastry flour, half white flour mixture for my brioche. With the dough setting on my bread maker, it's a snap to put together! Here's my recipe:
http://operagirlcooks.com/2010/06/02/whole-wheat-brioche-buns-recipe/
"Let them eat cake (or brioche)" actually has a history older than Marie Antoinette. It was attributed to French princesses before her, and probably would have been attributed to French princesses after her if her reign hadn't end so... abruptly.
Oh! And Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day has a couple of lovely brioche recipes that are SUPER easy!
Liana, I was about to say the same thing. Poor Marie Antoinette, people just loved to put words in her mouth.
chgoeditor--have you found any recipes from reputable sources in either French or Italian? I've been practicing my language and bakery/cookery skills at the same time lately, and if you've got a compelling source, I'd give it a try and share the results!
Jenny--There seem to be more recipes available in French, but I haven't spent time looking at them.