Brasserie Bread, Banksmeadow: Baking with Brioche Workshop

You know that sound? The crackle of a knife making that first cut into a loaf of crusty bread?

It reminds me of footsteps crunching on a pile of autumn leaves. The splintering of the outer shell, the tumble of crust shards onto the chopping board and then the gentle sawing through soft and fluffy pillows of dense sourdough.

This must be one of my favourite sounds in the world.

Brasserie Bread

It's this love of yeast that brings me to Brasserie Bread, the artisan bakery started in 2000 by ex-Bayswater Brasserie chefs Tony Papas and Michael Klausen. These days the company supplies more than 200 restaurants, hotels, cafes and delis across Sydney with breads, cakes and pastries.

Bread rolls proving

The cafe is closed but people slowly drift in through the door on this cold wintry evening. Not only does Brasserie Bread feed hungry mouths, they feed hungry minds too, running baking classes, sourdough courses, wholesaler sessions and free kids workshops through its dedicated Training School.

Extracting dough from the giant mixer

"Whoahhhh..... that is so cooooool."

Suze and I are mesmerised, our noses pressed up against the glass as we watch a baker remove a wad of dough from a mixer so large, the entire machine rises and tilts mid-air.

Beside us, Mei Tan, in charge of Brasserie Bread Training and Community Relations, just laughs and says "that's what all the kids say!"

Checking on the bread

Our baking instructor and Brasserie Bread CEO, Michael Klausen

Tonight we're here for our own hands-on training, learning how to make the rich French classic, brioche, in the Baking with Brioche Workshop.

Fluffy and rich brioche

Is there a better way to start a class than with food?

Michael carves thick slices of their brioche for all of us to try. The crust is golden, the interior is soft and eggy. Enriched with egg and butter, brioche is classified as a viennoiserie or Viennese specialty, a category that includes crossiants, pain aux raisins, pain au chocolat and Danish pastries.

Brioche is much like a cross between a bread and cake, and the Brasserie Bread version is bliss, the insides pliable enough to be torn into strips, and as tender as a newborn's cheek.

Brioche dough

We begin the class using brioche dough that has been prepared earlier. Although this is their first ever session on brioche, consideration has already been given to proofing times. The class lesson will go backwards, starting with brioche shaping and finishing with instructions on how to make brioche dough.

Cutting the brioche dough

Given the richness of its ingredients, brioche dough is reasonably forgiving, Michael tells us. The dough is pliable and we will be able to work with it as long as we need to without fear of overworking the dough.

We start by rolling out three lengths of dough using only our flattened fingers and intertwining them to make a plait. It's simple but effective.

Rolling the brioche dough into balls

Next Michael shows us to roll the dough into balls using only the palm of our hand and the table surface. His movements are deft and within seconds he has a ball that is round and smooth.

For the rest of us, it's much more of a struggle.

Suze hard at work

Instructor Don Parsons demonstrates the fine art of dough rolling

From the balls we make the classic brioche bun, a ball topped with a small knob - much like a snowman - and placed in a deep round fluted tray.

Brioche buns sprinkled with pearl sugar

Rolling out brioche dough

We use rolling pins to make our next brioche products, flattened buns topped with apricots and little boats filled with strawberry jam, chocolate callets or both.

Chocolate callets

Apricot brioche and

brioche boat with strawberry jam and chocolate callets

Rolling the coulibiac

We move onto the coulibiac [koo-lee-BYAHK] next, a French take on the Russian kulebiaka, a hot pastry pocket that traditionally holds salmon, rice, mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs. The pastry is usually made with brioche dough.

Our version uses fresh salmon, mushroom duxelle, hard boiled eggs and a generous slather of Russian mustard that tastes like a cross between hot English mustard and sweet mustard pickle. We enclose the mixture in a crepe so any excess moisture from the salmon is absorbed by the crepe, instead of making the brioche soggy.

My coulibiac

The crepe is then wrapped inside brioche dough, the seam folded over so it lies underneath. We're shown how to use scissors to snip "scales" into the dough so it resembles a fish. I fashion a tail and add an eye and a smile.

Chocolate and orange babka

From savouries to dessert. Today we're making a variation on the Brasserie Bread chocolate and orange babka substituting the usual filling for brown sugar, butter and honey to make a sticky brioche bun.

Mei Tan and a class participant adding honey to brown sugar

Combining the sticky bun spread

We roll out the brioche dough and then smother it with the thick layer of sticky bun spread. The dough is rolled up, sliced and then twisted around each other to form a flower pattern.

My tray of completed brioche ready to prove

Good bread takes time. Whilst our brioche is proving, our coulibiacs are placed in the oven to cook (about 10-15 minutes) and we take a break with tastings of their sourdough, baguette and quinoa & soy loaf served with taramasalata, olive oil and provolone cheese.

Coulibiacs fresh from the oven

It doesn't take long for our coulibiacs to finish cooking. We adjourn next-door to the cafe for a dinner of coulibiac and glasses of wine.

My baked coulibiac

Mushroom duxelle, salmon and hard boiled egg inside the coulibiac

The coulibiac is delicious. There's a moment of confusion when you realise the pastry is not crispy but soft brioche, but its sweetness works well with the salmon and mushrooms. Michael tells us that often a whole salmon is cooked in this fashion, although I think miniature versions would also work brilliantly for a dinner party.

Over dinner I ask Don about their amazing garlic bread, a loaf studded with whole cloves of caramelised garlic that is pungent yet incredibly addictive. The garlic cloves, he explains, are cooked in a sugar syrup in a large pot for two hours, a process that removes the heat associated with garlic and converting it into more of a jammy consistency. They make a batch every two days, drenching the bakery with the smell of garlic. The bread is made by spreading the garlic between layers of dough and then slicing it vertically to create loaves for baking.

"We don't need to sell that bread," Don says. "It walks out the door."

Wet brioche dough

We return to the kitchen for our final lesson, making brioche dough from scratch. Into a bowl we combine flour, fresh yeast, sugar and salt, then add milk and eggs to create a wet sticky dough.

Kneading the dough

"We're kneading for ten minutes. Okay? Go!"

It is more like sticky goo than dough but Michael reassures us that by stretching and slapping the wet mixture, we will gradually work the gluten into a pliable dough.

We shouldn't have doubted him. Eventually the dough does become more manageable, and after resting it for ten minutes, we work the dough again until it is soft and smooth.

Working the dough a second time

A brioche isn't a brioche without butter.

We're given fat chunks of butter which we're instructed to tear into blobs and pat over the dough.

Covering the dough with dabs of butter

Kneading a butter-bathed dough is something I'm glad we did after eating the coulibiac. No wonder brioche tastes so good.

There's more kneading, pushing, slapping and stretching until we all end up with beautiful glossy mounds of dough. Each person is given a container to take home their dough. It's to be rested overnight in the fridge and then baked into whatever shape or concoction you please.

My baked brioche

By this time, our trays of completed brioche have proved and been put into the oven to bake. They emerge in shades of golden brown, glossy with egg varnish and smelling buttery and sweet.

Sticky brioche buns

We attack Michael's sticky brioche buns with glee. The hot steaming bun threatens to burn, but we dig in anyway, licking the remnants of caramel syrup from our fingers.

9.30pm comes and we're packed off with recipe sheets, loaves of bread and all our baked treats in goodie bags. The next day I turn my brioche dough into sticky brioche buns, with double the amount of brown sugar filling. It's deliriously good, and ever tastier because I know I made it myself.

The Baking with Brioche Workshop runs for three hours on selected Thursday nights and costs $130. The next scheduled classes are July 1, July 22, August 12 and August 26. Bookings: 1300 966 845.

Brasserie Bread Cooking Course Calendar

Brasserie Bread sticky buns recipe

Grab Your Fork attended the Baking with Brioche Workshop as a guest of Brasserie Bread

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Brasserie Bread
1737 Botany Rd
Banksmeadow, Sydney
Tel: 1300 966 845

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 7am - 3pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am - 2pm

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