Fresh Blueberry Brioche

Today I present you with this gorgeous Fresh Blueberry Brioche and three simple words that in the current situation, will make your heart sing: 2 Day Project!

Yup, now that we’re mostly homebound, it’s more important than ever to have small, labor intensive, sanity-saving activities lined up and for me that means baking things off my bucket list, like this amazing bread. Even if you’ve never worked with yeast before in your life, If you can in any way get your hands on some fresh blueberries, I implore you to give this a try! It’s guaranteed to cheer you up and take up quite a bit of your time!

Would that I dreamed up this beauty all by myself, but the fact is that it’s straight from the pages of Huckleberry by Zoe Nathan, one of my favorite baking cookbooks (and bakeries). I’ve already featured her amazing french toast on the site in a Famous Fridays post almost 3 years ago and I’ve always wanted to try this bread (it’s temptingly on the cover), so what better time than the present?!!I

On Day 1 you freeze the berries and mix up your dough, which thankfully takes a surprisingly long while to knead and incorporate the butter into!! Lol!

Next you press that dough into a rectangle and scatter the frozen berries—

And some sugar across the top.

Now you roll up the dough into a log, cover, let it sit overnight in the fridge and binge watch something on Netflix!

Day 2: You press the dough into a rectangle again—taking care not to squash the berries too much.

Sprinkle it all over with sugar—

Then roll into a log again, place into the bread pan and brush with the egg wash (this is what helps to give it a golden crust)

Then you scatter more sugar across the top—it’s particularly good to use demerara or “crunchy sugar” as I like to think of it. YUM!

See how much time we’re using up?!! And we haven’t even baked this baby yet! Tack on at least another 45 minutes to an hour and what emerges is a a golden-crusted, blueberry studded loaf of brioche perfection!

Seriously, have your camera ready because you are going to want to remember this!

Every buttery, tender bite is loaded with sweet, melt-in-your-mouth blueberries!

Depending on your mood, you can cut it into neat slices

Or tear into it and get some of that aggression out while you stuff your face with the magnificent fruits of your labor.

Can’t think of a much better way to spend 48 hours of social distancing!!

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Blueberry Brioche

Makes one 9x5 loaf

You kinda need a stand mixer with a bread dough hook for this. You can probably try it the old fashioned way but I haven’t tried it like that.

Prep Time: This a two day project. Day 1: About 1 ½ hours; Day 2: 3 ½-4 hours (mostly rising time); Bake Time: 45 minutes-1 hour

Ingredients

For the bread

• 1 ½ cups (225g) fresh blueberries

• 2 tablespoons whole milk

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140g) unbleached, all-purpose flour

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140g) bread flour

• 6 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar, divided, plus extra for sprinkling (you can also use demerara or sanding sugar for the sprinkling part)

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3 large eggs

• 1 egg yolk

• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (140g) very soft unsalted butter

For the Egg Wash

• 2 egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

• Pinch of kosher salt

The Recipe

1. Day One: Place the blueberries in a single layer on a plate and freeze. (FYI- I used fresh berries I froze myself from berry picking last summer—the original recipe says not to use already frozen berries but it worked out fine for me.)

2. Slightly warm the milk and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast and use a whisk to combine. Add both of the flours, 2 ½ tablespoons of the granulated sugar, the salt, eggs, and egg yolk. Attach the dough hook and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes to combine (scrape down the sides as needed).

3. Increase the mixer to medium-low speed and mix the dough for 6 minutes, stopping the mixer every minute or so as the dough creeps up the side of the bowl. Scrape it down and off the hook and continue to mix until it pulls off the sides and looks like a strong bread dough.

4. Lower the speed of the mixer and slowly add the butter, a little at a time, over the course of a few minutes. After the first minute, scrape down the bowl and hook. It will seem like the butter won’t incorporate and may look like the dough is sort of falling apart, but just be patient and keep mixing. When you see the butter really beginning to blend in to the batter, increase the mixer to medium-high and allow the butter to fully incorporate and have the dough come together. This will probably take 6-10 minutes.

5. Lightly flour a board or work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Press the dough into approximately a 16x10-inch rectangle. Scatter the frozen berries and 2 tablespoons of the sugar across the dough. Starting with the shortest side closest to you, gently roll the dough into a log.

6. Lightly spray a sheet pan with nonstick spray and use a large spatula to transfer the log to the pan. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour and preferably overnight.

7. Day 2: Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Remove the dough from the fridge and press it into an approximate 12x6-inch rectangle again. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Position the dough vertically and roll down toward you into a tight log this time. Transfer to the prepared loaf pan (you may need to squish in the ends a little) and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for about 3 hours or until more than doubled in size (if your kitchen is cold it can take longer or you can turn the oven on and place the pan nearby to help it rise).

8. To make the egg wash: Whisk the egg yolks, cream and salt together in a small bowl until well combined.

9. When brioche looks nearly risen enough, preheat oven to 350ºF. Carefully brush the dough with the egg wash, so that it doesn’t pool around the edges. Generously sprinkle the top with more granulated or demerara sugar. Bake for 45 minutes and check to see if it’s golden brown on bottom and top. If you like things more on the well done side, bake for additional 10-15 minutes (I did). Remove from oven and let cool in pan on a wire rack. Then transfer to the wire rack to finish cooling completely. Use a serrated bread knife to carefully cut slices. Bread keeps well wrapped at room temperature for 2-3 days and up to one week in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Huckleberry by Zoe Nathan. The original recipe says not to use frozen blueberries cause it will make the batter too watery. I used fresh ones that I had frozen over the summer and they worked well. Not sure if you can just buy frozen berries and use them. Probably best to just freeze fresh berries.