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Twice as Tasty

Sourdough Brioche Loaves

Last week’s mother dough recipe for sourdough brioche can be used for shapes beyond rolls and burger buns – including loaves

By Julie Laing
Photo by Julie Laing.

This week’s recipe turns brioche mother dough into sliceable loaves for French toast or smearing with homemade jam. Unlike freeform Sourdough Cabin Bread, I bake brioche loaves in pans. My mother recipe makes about 2.5 pounds of dough, so it bakes well when divided into two open-topped 1- or 1.25-pound loaf pans, the most common sizes.

In my kitchen, I’ve switched to Pullman pans. Each has fairly straight sides and a slide-on lid that traps steam as bread bakes, mimicking the effect of a Dutch oven or inverted bowl and baking stone. Alternatively, cover open-topped loaf pans with heavy-duty aluminum foil; it’s less messy than pouring boiling water into a preheated pan on a oven’s lower rack.

Pullman pans usually have a similar footprint but taller, straighter sides than open pans, holding about 1.5 pounds of dough. This gives the brioche loaves a similar shape even in the larger pans. For a Pullman pan, you could scale up, baking up to 1.75 pounds of dough as a loaf and using the rest for a few rolls. With extra dough, the bread rises enough to brush the lid and create the classic square Pullman look. But don’t cram in the entire dough batch; the loaf will not cook through before the crust darkens unappealingly.

For loaves, you can skip the chilling period in last week’s mother dough recipe. Instead, immediately shape two dough balls and continue on with this week’s recipe. If you need sourdough starter, request it in the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group.

Sourdough Brioche Loaves

Makes 2 loaves

1 ball Sourdough Brioche Roll dough

Divide the dough into two equal-weight pieces. On a lightly floured surface, shape into two taut balls. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Finish shaping into taut ovals that nearly fill the bottom of two 1- to 1.25-pound open-topped loaf pans or 1.5-pound Pullman pans. Set each oval, seam side down, in its pan. Redampen the towel, cover the pans and leave at room temperature for about two hours; for a domed top in an open loaf pan, let the dough proof until it rises about 1 inch over the pan’s lip. Place the pans in the fridge, covered with the redampened towel or Pullman lids, for two hours to overnight.

To bake, preheat the oven to 450°F. If using open loaf pans, tent each with foil, sealing the foil to the pan’s rim but leaving room for the dough to expand. Bake for 40 minutes.

Remove the foil or Pullman lids and check the loaves’ temperature; an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center should register at least 190°F. If the temperature is too low or the loaf tops are pale, return the uncovered loaves to the oven for about five minutes, until fully baked and golden.

Let the loaves cool slightly, remove from the pans and finish cooling on a wire rack. Cool the bread completely before cutting; while warm, it’s still cooking inside.

Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.