To kick off this month’s sourdough recipes, I share my brioche mother dough and explain how to turn it into rolls, either rounded for the dinner table or as slightly flattened buns to split for burgers. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, this brioche dough has many uses. Once the dough ball is fully formed, you can bake it into all sorts of shapes. I’ll be sharing some of my favorite uses for this dough all month.
Brioche dough has a rich, buttery flavor and somewhat flaky texture that I feel is beautifully enhanced by the complex taste created by wild yeast. Brioche has less butter than croissants, but recipes vary widely in their butter-to-flour ratio. My version lands in the middle of many of the recipes I’ve tried. Brioche has plenty of eggs to make it denser than croissants and a little sugar—both granulated and milk’s natural sugars—to offset the tanginess of the sourdough. It’s also easier to make, with the soften butter pressed in at the start, long fermentation times, and minimal kneading.
