FOOD BY REGION_FRANCE

FRANCE

A Pithivier (Pithiviers in French) is a round, enclosed pie usually made by baking two disks of puff pastry, with filling stuffed in between. It has the appearance of a hump and is traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards with the point of a knife, and scalloping the edge.

The filling is always placed as a lump in the middle of the bottom dough layer, rather than spread on it, because it would then liquefy and leak during baking. 

The pie is traditionally finished with a distinct shine to the top of the crust, by egg-washing beforehand, or by caramelising a dusting of confectioner's sugar at the end of baking, or both. 

Whilst the filling of the Pithivier is often a sweet frangipane of almond paste, (optionally combined with fruit such as cherry or plum), savoury pies with a meat or cheese filling can also be labelled as a Pithivier. The term is sometimes used incorrectly on English menus to mean 'pie', especially in upscale restaurants.

It is commonly assumed that the dish originates from the town of Pithiviers, France.

Mille -Feuille

The mille-feuille (French pronunciation: ​[mil fœj], "thousand sheets"), vanilla slice, custard slice, also known as the Napoleon, is a pastry of French origin.

Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream, or jam are substituted. The top pastry layer is dusted with confectioner's sugar, and sometimes cocoa, or pulverized seeds (e.g. roasted almonds). Alternatively the top is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) stripes, and combed.

History

The exact origin of the mille-feuille is unknown. François Pierre La Varenne described a version in Le Cuisinier françois, 1651. It was later improved by Marie-Antoine Carême. Carême, writing in the early 19th century, considered it of "ancient origin".

Composition

Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry, and two layers of crème pâtissière. The top layer is coated with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. In later variations, the top is glazed with icing, in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) strips, and then combed. 

Today, there are also savoury mille-feuille, with cheese and spinach or other savoury fillings.

Variant Names And Forms

According to La Varenne, it was earlier called gâteau de mille-feuilles (English: cake of a thousand sheets), referring to the many layers of pastry. Using traditional puff pastry, made with six folds of three layers, it has 729 layers; with some modern recipes it may have as many as 2,048.

The variant name of Napoleon appears to come from napolitain, the French adjective for the Italian city of Naples, but altered by association with the name of Emperor Napoleon I of France. 

The Larousse Gastronomique does not mention the Napoléon, although agateau napolitain is listed, with a note that while the cake itself is not often seen, small biscuits known as fonds napolitains are still made, decorated with butter cream or conserves. There is no evidence to connect the pastry to the emperor himself. In France, a Napoleon is a mille-feuille filled with almond flavoured paste.

The authentic Australian Napoleon slice has pastry on the bottom, a layer of strawberry jam, a layer of sponge cake about 3 cm thick, another layer of jam, a layer of cream topped by a layer of puff pastry and spread with vanilla icing.

In Italy, it is called mille foglie and contains similar fillings. A savoury Italian version consists of puff pastry filled with spinach, cheese or pesto, among other things. Another important distinction of the Italian variety is that it often consists of a layer of puff pastry with layers of sponge cake as well (e.g. from bottom to top, puff pastry, sponge cake strawberries and cream and then puff pastry).

In the United Kingdom, the cake is most often called a "vanilla slice" or a "cream slice", but can, on occasion, be named "mille-feuille" or "Napoleon" on branded products.

In Canada, mille-feuille is more commonly named 'gâteaux Napoléon,' or 'Napoleon Slice,' (in English Canada) due to the country's long French history. It is sold either with custard, whipped cream, or both, between three layers of puff pastry. Almond paste is the most common flavoured variety. 

There is a French Canadian way where the mille-feuille is done with graham crackers instead of puff pastry, and where pudding replaces the custard layer.

In South Africa and Zimbabwe, it is called a "custard slice".

In Sweden as well as in Finland, the Napoleonbakelse (Napoleon pastry) is a mille-feuille filled with whipped cream, custard, and jam. 

The top of the pastry is glazed with icing and currant jelly. In Denmark and Norway, it is simply called Napoleon-cake.

In the German speaking part of Switzerland and also in Austria it is called "Crèmeschnitte".

In Hungary it is called "kremes". Its version "francia krémes" (French Napoleon) is topped with whipped cream and caramel.

In Belgium and the Netherlands, the tompouce or tompoes is the equivalent pastry. Several variations exist in Belgium, but in the Netherlands, it is iconic and the market allows preciously little variation in form, size, ingredients and colour (always two layers of pastry, nearly always pink glazing, but orange around national festivities).

In the Spanish milhojas, the puff pastry is thin and crunchy. They are often far deeper than solely of three layers of the pastry, and reach up to .5 feet (0.15 m) tall.

In Hong Kong, the 拿破侖 (Napoleon pastry) is layered with butter cream, chiffon cake and, occasionally, walnuts.

In Iran, the pastry is called "شيرينى ناپلئونى" (Shirini-e Nâpel'oni, literally "Napoleonic Sweet Pastry") after Napoleon Bonaparte. It consists of thin puff pastry and often topped with powdered sugar.

In Chile milhojas, various layers of puff pastry are layered with dulce de leche and confectioner sugar on top.

In Poland, the local variant of the pastry is called kremówka, or napoleonka. They consist of two layers of pastry, between which is thick cream. The whole pastry is then covered with powdered sugar.

In Slovenia, the local variety of the pastry is called kremna rezina.

In Greece, the pastry is called "Μιλφέιγ", which is the transcription of the word mille-feuille using Greek letters. The filling between the layers is cream whereas Chantilly cream is used at the top of the pastry.

In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, it is consumed regularly. It is called "mille-feuille" also.

Competitions

An annual competition for the best vanilla slice baker is the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph held in Ouyen in western Victoria. Judging criteria include "when tasted, should reveal a custard with a creamy smooth texture and a balance of vanilla taste with a crisp, crunchy pastry topped with a smooth and shiny glaze/fondant"

Cream Brulee

Crème brûlée (pron.: /ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ/; French pronunciation: ​[kʁɛm bʁy.le]), also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, orTrinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is normally served at room temperature.

The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla, but is also sometimes flavored with lemon or orange (zest), rosemary, chocolate, Amaretto, Grand Marnier, coffee, liqueurs, green tea, pistachio, coconut, or other fruit.

History

The exact origins are uncertain, and there have been debates as to whether the dessert's origins lie in France or Britain.

The earliest known reference of creme brulee as we know it today appears in François Massialot's 1691 cookbook, and the French name was used in the English translation of this book, but the 1731 edition of Massialot's Cuisinier roial et bourgeois changed the name of the same recipe from "crème brûlée" to "crème anglaise". In the early eighteenth century, the dessert was called "burnt cream" in English.

In Britain, a version of crème brûlée (known locally as 'Trinity Cream' or 'Cambridge burnt cream') was introduced at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1879 with the college arms "impressed on top of the cream with a branding iron", The story goes that the recipe was from an Aberdeenshire country house and was offered by an undergraduate to the college cook, who turned it down.

However, when the student became a Fellow, he managed to convince the cook.

Cream Catalan

In Catalan language; Crema catalana ('Catalan cream'), crema cremada ('Burnt cream') or crema de Sant Josep, is a Catalan dish similar to crème brûlée. It is traditionally served on Saint Joseph's Day (March the 19th) although nowadays it is consumed at all times of year. 

The custard is flavored with lemon or orange zest, and cinnamon. The sugar in crema catalana is traditionally caramelized under an iron broiler or with a specially made iron, not with a flame. Sometimes Crema Catalana is baked with a pineapple on top (crema Catalana amb pinya).

Technique

Crème brûlée is usually served in individual ramekins. Discs of caramel may be prepared separately and put on top just before serving, or the caramel may be formed directly on top of the custard, immediately before serving. 

To do this, sugar is sprinkled onto the custard, then caramelized under a broiler / salamander or with a blow torch.

Cream caramel

Crème caramel (French: [kʁɛm kaʁaˈmɛl]), flan [flɑ̃], or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top. The dish is eaten throughout the world.

Crème caramel used to be ubiquitous in European restaurants; food historian Alan Davidson remarks:

In the later part of the 20th century crème caramel occupied an excessively large amount of territory in European restaurant dessert menus. This was probably due to the convenience, for restaurateurs, of being able to prepare a lot in advance and keep them until needed.

Etymology of names

Both crème caramel (French 'caramel custard') and flan (ultimately from Old German flado meaning 'cake') are French names, but flan has come to have different meanings in different regions.

In Spanish-speaking countries and in North America, flan refers to crème caramel. This was originally a Spanish usage, but the dish is now best known in the United 

States in a Latin American context. Elsewhere, including in Britain, a flan (French flan pâtissier) is a type of tart somewhat like a quiche, usually containing a thick egg custard with either sweet or savoury flavouring.

'The Modern English word flan and the earlier flawn come from French flan, from Old French flaon, in turn from Medieval Latin fladonem, derived from the Old High German flado, a sort of flat cake, probably from an Indo-European root for 'flat' or 'broad'.The North American sense of flan as crème caramel was borrowed from Latin American Spanish.

Preparation, cooking and presentation

Preparation

Crème caramel is a variant of plain custard (crème) where sugar syrup cooked to caramel stage is poured into the mold before adding the custard base. It is usually cooked in a bain-marie on a stove top or in the oven in a water bath. 

It is turned and served with the caramel sauce on top, hence the alternate French name crème caramel renversée.

Imitations

An imitation of crème caramel may be prepared from "instant flan powder", which is thickened with agar or carrageenan rather than eggs. In some Latin American countries, the true custard version is known as "milk flan" (flan de leche) or even "milk cheese", and the substitute version is known as just "flan".

Region varieties

Latin America

Most notably in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, but also in some neighbouring countries like Panama, crème caramel is usually eaten with dulce de leche.

In Venezuela, and Brazil it is often made with condensed milk, milk, eggs and sugar caramelized on top. The Venezuelan version is known as "quesillo" and in Brazil, it is known as "pudim de leite condensado" (lit. condensed milk pudding).

In Chile it is often eaten with dulce de membrillo too (a quince gelatin spread) or leche condensada.

Cuba

Cuban flan known in Spanish-speaking countries as "Flan de Cuba" is made with the addition of the whites of two eggs and the flavoring of a cinnamon stick.

A similar Cuban dish is "Copa Lolita", a small caramel flan served with one or two scoops of vanilla ice-cream. Other variations include coconut or rum raisin topping.

Puerto Rico

Often Caribbean flan's are coconut based and called "Flan de Coco" made with both condensed milk and coconut milk. A variation with rum is called "Coquito."

Philippines

In the Philippines, flan is known as leche flan (the local term for the originally Spanish flan de leche, literally "milk flan"), which is a heavier version of the Spanish flan made with condensed milk and more egg yolks. 

Leche flan is usually steamed over an open flame or stove top, although rarely it can also be seen baked. Leche flan is a staple in celebratory feasts.

A heavier version of leche flan, tocino del cielo, is similar, but has significantly more egg yolks and sugar.

Vietnam

Crème caramel was introduced by the French and has been common in Vietnam. It is known as bánh caramel, caramen or kem caramel in northern Vietnam or bánh flan or kem flan in southern Vietnam. 

Sometimes black coffee can be poured on top when served, giving the dish a new tone and distinctive flavour.

Malaysia

Crème caramel is a very popular desert dish in Malaysia, first introduced by the Portuguese in the 1500s. It is sometimes also called "caramel pie" in the country. Sold year-round, it becomes especially popular during the Ramadan fasting month and is sold at almost every street bazaar or pasar Ramadan during that month.

Japan

Packaged crème caramel is ubiquitous in Japanese convenience stores under the name purin (プリン?) (i.e., "pudding"), or custard pudding.

India 

Caramel custard, a Raj favourite, is a milk mixture baked in a dish with sweet caramel lining its base.

Baguette

A baguette (pron.: /bæˈɡɛt/ French pronunciation: ​[ba.gɛt], feminine noun) is "a long thin loaf of French bread" that is commonly made from basic lean dough (the dough, though not the shape, is defined by French law). 

It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust.

A standard baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres (2 or 2⅓ in) and a usual length of about 65 centimetres (26 in), although a baguette can be up to a metre (40 in) long.

History

The word itself was not used to refer to a type of bread until apparently 1920, but what is now known as "baguette" may have existed well before that. In the French language, the word has long been applied to many elongated objects that are not bread, such as baguette magique (magic wand), baguettes chinoises (chopsticks), or baguette de direction (conductor's baton).

Though the baguette today is often considered one of the symbols of French culture viewed from abroad, the association of France with long loaves predates any mention of it. Long, if wide, loaves had been made since the time of Louis XIV, long thin ones since the mid-eighteenth century and in fact by the nineteenth century some were far longer than the baguette: "loaves of bread six feet long that look like crowbars!" (1862); "Housemaids were hurrying homewards with their purchases for various Gallic breakfasts, and the long sticks of bread, a yard or two in length, carried under their arms, made an odd impression upon me." (1898)

A less direct link can be made however with deck ovens, or steam ovens. Deck/steam ovens are a combination of a gas-fired traditional oven and a brick oven, a thick "deck" of stone or firebrick heated by natural gas instead of wood. 

The first steam oven was brought (in the early nineteenth century) to Paris by the Austrian officer August Zang, who also introduced the pain viennois (and the croissant) and whom some French sources thus credit with originating the baguette.

Deck ovens use steam injection, through various methods, to create the proper baguette. 

The oven is typically heated to well over 205 °C (400 °F). The steam allows the crust to expand before setting, thus creating a lighter, airier loaf. It also melts the dextrose on the bread's surface, giving a slightly glazed effect.

An unsourced article in The Economist states that in October 1920 a law prevented bakers from working before 4am, making it impossible to make the traditional, round loaf in time for customers' breakfasts. 

The slender baguette, the article claims, solved the problem because it could be prepared and baked much more rapidly, though France had already had long thin breads for over a century at that point.

The law in question appears in fact to be one from March 1919, though some say it took effect in October 1920: "It is forbidden to employ workers at bread and pastry making between ten in the evening and four in the morning." The rest of the account remains to be verified, but the use of the word for a long thin bread does appear to be a twentieth century innovation.

Manufacture and styles

The "baguette de tradition française" is made from wheat flour, water, yeast, and common salt. It does not contain additives, but it may contain broad bean flour (max 2%), soya flour (max 0.5%), wheat malt flour (max 0.3%). Standard baguettes however may contain a certain number of additives.Depending on those used either in the original flour or in making the bread itself, a baguette (or any other French bread) may not be considered vegan or kosher.

While a regular baguette is made with a direct addition of baker's yeast, it is not unusual for artisan-style loaves to be made with a poolish, "biga" or other bread pre-ferments to increase flavor complexity and other characteristics, as well as the addition of whole wheat flour or other grains such as rye. 

French bread is required by law to avoid preservatives, and as a result bread goes stale in under 24 hours, thus baking baguettes is a daily occurrence, unlike sourdough bread which is baked generally once or twice a week, due to the natural preservatives in a sourdough starter.

Baguettes are closely connected to France and especially to Paris, though they are made around the world. In France, not all long loaves are baguettes; for example, a short, almost rugby ball shaped loaf is a bâtard (literally, bastard), or a "torpedo loaf" in English (its origin is variously explained, but undocumented), another tubular shaped loaf is known as a flûte (also known in the United States as aparisienne) flûtes closely resemble baguettes and weigh more or less than these, depending on the region, and a thinner loaf is called a ficelle (string). (None of these are officially defined either legally or, for instance, in major dictionaries, any more than the baguette itself.) 

French breads are also made in forms such as a miche, which is a large pan loaf, and a boule, literally ball in French, a large round loaf. Sandwich-sized loaves are sometimes known as demi-baguettes, tiers, or sometimes "Rudi rolls".

Baguettes, either relatively short single-serving size or cut from a longer loaf, are very often used for sandwiches (usually of the submarine sandwich type, but also panini); Baguettes are often sliced and served with pâté or cheese. 

As part of the traditional continental breakfast in France, slices of baguette are spread with butter and jam and dunked in bowls of coffee or hot chocolate. In the United States, French Bread loaves are sometimes split in half to make French bread pizza.

Baguettes are generally made as partially free-form loaves, with the loaf formed with a series of folding and rolling motions, raised in cloth-lined baskets or in rows on a flour-impregnated towel, called a couche, and baked either directly on the hearth of a deck oven or in special perforated pans designed to hold the shape of the baguette while allowing heat through the perforations. 

Generally American style "French bread" is much fatter and is not baked in deck ovens, but in convection ovens.

Outside France, baguettes are also made with other doughs; for example, the Vietnamese banh mi uses a high proportion of rice flour, while many North American bakeries make whole wheat, multigrain, and sourdough baguettes alongside French-style loaves. 

In addition, even classical French-style recipes vary from place to place, with some recipes adding small amounts of milk, butter, sugar, or malt extract depending on the desired flavour and properties in the final loaf.

Croissant

A croissant ( ⁱ/krəˈsɑːnt/ or /ˈkwʌsɒŋ/; French pronunciation: [kʁwa.sɑ̃] (  listen)) is a buttery flaky viennoiserie bread roll named for its well known crescent shape. 

Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.

Crescent-shaped food breads have been made since the Middle Ages, and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since old times.

Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries and patisseries. In the late 1970s, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed but unbaked dough made them into a fast food which can be freshly baked by unskilled labor. 

Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food, and today 30–40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries are frozen.

This innovation, along with the croissant's distinctive shape, has made it the most well known item of French food in much of the world. Today, the croissant remains popular in a continental breakfast.

Origin

The Kipferl – ancestor of the croissant – has been documented in Austria going back at least as far as the 13th century, in various shapes. The Kipferl can be made plain or with nut or other fillings (some consider the rugelach a form of Kipferl).

The "birth" of the croissant itself – that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of Kipferl, before the invention of Viennoiserie – can be dated with some precision to at latest 1839 (some say 1838), when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese Bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris. 

This bakery, which served Viennese specialities including the Kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators (and the concept, if not the term, viennoiserie, a 20th century term for supposedly Vienna-style pastries). The 

French version of the Kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.

Alan Davidson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Food, found no printed recipe for the present-day croissant in any French recipe book before the early 20th century; the earliest French reference to a croissant he found was among the "fantasy or luxury breads" in Payen'sDes substances alimentaires, 1853. 

However, early recipes for non-laminated croissants can be found in the nineteenth century and at least one reference to croissants as an established French bread appeared as early as 1850.

August Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time after, and was mentioned in several works of the time: "This same M. Zank...founded around 1830], in Paris, the famous Boulangerie viennoise". 

Several sources praise this bakery's products: "Paris is of exquisite delicacy; and, in particular, the succulent products of the Boulangerie Viennoise"; "which seemed to us as fine as if it came from the Viennese bakery on the rue de Richelieu".

By 1869, the croissant was well established enough to be mentioned as a breakfast staple, and in 1872, Charles Dickens wrote (in his periodical "All the Year Round") of:

the workman's pain de ménage and the soldier's pain de munition, to the dainty croissant on the boudoir table.

The Viennoiserie technique was already mentioned in the late 17th century, when La Varenne's Le Cuisinier françois gave a recipe for it in the 1680 – and possibly earlier – editions. It was typically used, not on its own, but for shells holding other ingredients (as in a vol-au-vent). But it does not appear to be mentioned in relation to the croissant until the twentieth century.

Origin stories

Fanciful stories of how the Kipferl—and so, ultimately, the croissant—was created are widespread and persistent culinary legends, at least one going back to the 19th century. However, there are no contemporary sources for any of these stories, nor does an aristocratic writer, writing in 1799, mention the Kipferl in a long and extensive list of breakfast foods.

The legends include tales that it was invented in Europe to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces at the Battle of Tours by the Franks in 732, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent; that it was invented in Vienna in 1683 to celebrate the defeat of the Ottomans by Christian forces in the siege of the city, as a reference to the crescents on the Ottoman flags, when bakers staying up all night heard the tunneling operation and gave the alarm; tales linking croissants with the kifli and the siege of Buda in 1686.

Uncooked croissant can also be wrapped around any praline, almond paste or chocolate before it is baked (in the last case, it becomes like pain au chocolat, which has a different, non-crescent, shape), or sliced to admit sweet or savoury fillings. 

Indeed, it may be flavoured with dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins, or other fruits such as apples. 

In France and Spain, croissants are generally sold without filling and eaten without added butter, but sometimes with almond filling. In the United States, sweet fillings or toppings are common, and warm croissants may be filled with ham and cheese or feta cheese and spinach. 

In the Levant, croissants are sold plain or filled with chocolate, cheese, almonds, or zaatar. 

In Germany, croissants are sometimes filled with Nutella or persipan; in Southern Germany there also is a popular variety of a croissant glazed with lye ("Laugen croissant"). In the German speaking part of Switzerland, the croissant is typically called a Gipfeli, which typically has a crisper crust and is less buttery than the French style croissant.

Argentina

Croissants are commonly served alongside coffee as a breakfast or merienda. These croissant are referred to as medialunas ('half moons') and are typically coated with a sweet glaze ("de manteca", made with butter). Another variant is a medialuna de grasa ("of lard"), which is not always sweet.

Italy

A cousin of the croissant is the Italian "cornetto" in the Center and South and "brioche" in the North. 

These variants are often considered to be the same, that is not completely true: the French version of the croissant tends to be crispy and contains a lot of butter, whereas an Italian cornetto or brioche is usually softer. Furthermore, the "cornetto vuoto" (Italian: "empty cornetto") is commonly sided by variants with filling, which include "crema pasticcera", jam and chocolate cream. They often come covered with powder sugar.

Poland

St. Martin's Day is celebrated in the Greater Poland region of Poland, mainly in its capital city Poznań. 

On this day, the people of Poznań buy and eat considerable amounts of croissants, made specially for this occasion from half-French paste with white-poppy and dainties, so-called Martin Croissants or St. Martin Croissants.

Japan

Croissants covered with a sweet glaze or filled with chocolate are common in bakeries and convenience stores.

Spread of the croissant

Historically, the croissant was not commonplace in the UK. Although available in specialty places, it was only in the late 1980s that supermarkets started stocking them and then in the late 1990s with the growth of cafe culture did the croissant spread. 

They were introduced to Ethiopia by 1902, during the reign of Menelik II.

Croissants are also seen in former French colonies such as Algeria and Vietnam where in the latter they are called bánh sừng bò.

Brioche

Brioche (pronounced: [bʁi.ɔʃ or "bree-osh"]) is a highly enriched bread of French origin, whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb. 

It is "light and slightly puffy, more or less fine, according to the proportion of butter and eggs" It has a dark, golden, and flaky crust, frequently accentuated by an egg wash applied after proofing.

Brioche is considered a Viennoiserie. It is made in the same basic way as bread, but has the richer aspect of a pastry because of the extra addition of eggs, butter, liquid (milk, water, cream, and, sometimes, brandy) and occasionally a bit of sugar. 

Brioche, along with pain au lait and pain aux raisins — which are commonly eaten at breakfast or as a snack — form a leavened subgroup ofViennoiserie. Brioche is often cooked with fruit or chocolate chips and served as a pastry or as the basis of a dessert with many local variations in added ingredients, fillings or toppings.

"Brioche is eaten with dessert or tea, but also has numerous uses in cuisine. Common brioche dough is suitable for coulibiac and fillet of beef en croute. Brioche mousseline surrounds foie gras, sausage, cervelat lyonnais; . . . individual brioches serve as containers for various chopped and sauced stuffings, savoury or sweet, as warm appetizers or intermediate courses."

Forms

Brioche à tête or parisienne is perhaps the most classically recognized form: it is formed and baked in a fluted round, flared tin; a large ball of dough is placed on the bottom and topped with a smaller ball of dough to form the head (tête). Brioche Nanterre is a loaf of brioche made in a standard loaf pan. Instead of shaping two pieces of dough and baking them together, two rows of small pieces of dough are placed in the pan. 

Loaves are then proofed (allowed to rise) in the pan, fusing the pieces together. During the baking process the balls of dough rise further and form an attractive pattern.

Brioche can also be made in a pan without being rolled into balls to make an ordinary loaf.

Brioche dough contains flour, eggs, butter, liquid (milk, water, cream, and sometimes brandy), leavening (yeast or sourdough), salt, and sometimes sugar. Common recipes have a flour to butter ratio of about 2:1.

The normal method is to make the dough, let it rise to double its volume at room temperature and then punch it down and let it rise again in the refrigerator for varying periods (according to the recipe), retarding the dough to develop the flavor. Refrigeration also stiffens the dough, which still rises, albeit slowly, making it easier to form. 

The dough is then shaped, placed in containers for the final rise (proof), and the tops are generally brushed with an egg wash just before baking to give the top a burnished sheen during baking, and then baked at 230 °C (446 °F) until the crust browns (Maillard reaction) and the interior is done (reaches at least 90 °C). 

The first rise time for small rolls is 1 to 1½ hours, for larger brioche the time is lengthened until the loaves double.

History

The first recorded use of the word in French dates from 1404. It is attested in 1611 in Cotgrave’s. A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, where it is described as "a rowle, or bunne, of spiced bread" and its origin given as Norman. 

A similar type of bread, called tsoureki (τσουρέκι), is also traditionally baked in Greece for the Easter weekend.

In France it developed as "a sort of bread improved since antiquity by generations of bakers, then of pastry-makers . . . with some butter, some eggs, sugar coming later . . . it developed from the blessed bread [pain bénit] of the church which gradually became of better quality, more and more costly, less and less bread; until becoming savoury brioche". 

In the 17th century "pâté à tarte briochée", "a pain à brioche pauvre . . . [using only] 3 eggs and 250 grams of butter for 1 kilogram of flour" was introduced. Notably, the oldest complete recipe that survives is entitled : "CHAPITRE II. Paint bénit, & brioches." 

It begins with a lighter, cheaper version of blessed bread, calling for "a pound of fresh butter and a soft cheese [but no eggs!] for a pail of flour; and goes on to describe "the more delicate that we call Cousin", which uses 3 pounds of butter, 2 cheeses, and a royal pint of eggs for the same amount of flour, as well "some good milk" if "the dough is too firm" 

However, sourdough and brewer's yeast preparations would both remain common well into the next century, with "blessed bread . . . more and more often replaced by brioche" in the 18th century, where, "Those from Gisors and Gournay, great butter markets, were the most highly regarded." For the wealthy "from the time of Louis XIV onwards . . . Butter, in widespread use at least in the northern half of France, was the secret of making brioches"."In Gisors, on market days, they produce up to 250 or 300 kg of brioches. 

The dough is made the evening before (1 kg of farine, a quarter of which for the starter, 10 g of yeast, 7 or 8 eggs; one mixes this together with the starter and 800 g of butter, breaking up the dough, which 'uses up the butter'. 

The dough is kept in a terrine, and one puts it in a mold just at the moment of baking. Thus prepared, the brioche remains light, keeps well, maintains the flavour of butter, without the stench of the starter.

The terms 'pain bénit' and 'brioche' were sometimes used together or virtually interchangeably; so, for example, in another 17th century recipe entitled : "CHAPITRE II. Paint bénit, & brioches." It begins with a lighter, cheaper version of blessed bread, calling for "a pound of fresh butter and a soft cheese [but no eggs!] for a pail of flour; and goes on to describe "the more delicate that we call Cousin", which uses 3 pounds of butter, 2 cheeses, and a royal pint of eggs for the same amount of flour, as well "some good milk" if "the dough is too firm". 

So brioche of varying degrees of richness from the rich man's with a flour to butter ratio of 3:2 to the cheaper pain briochée with a ratio of 4:1 existed at the same time.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his autobiography Confessions (published posthumously in 1782, but completed in 1769), relates that "a great princess" is said to have advised, with regard to peasants who had no bread, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", commonly inaccurately translated as "Let them eat cake". 

This saying is commonly mis-attributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. In the contemporaneous "Encyclopédie" it says: "the taste for luxury and onerous magnificence of much of the world, having slipped into religious practice, the usage was introduced in large cities of giving in place of bread, some more or less delicate cake . . . one would not believe what it costs the nation every year for this article alone. We know that there are more than 40,000 parishes in the kingdom where they distribute blessed bread"

Etymology

Although there has been much debate about the etymology of the word and, thus, the recipe's origins, it is now widely accepted that it is derived from the Old French verb "brier", 'a Norman dialectical form of "broyer", to work the dough with a "broye" or "brie" (a sort of wooden roller for kneading); the suffix "-oche" is a generic deverbal suffix. 

"Pain brié" is a Norman bread whose dense dough was formerly worked with this instrument'. The root—bhreg—is of Germanic origin.-wikipedia