This is a lot of effort, but it’s really worth it, in my opinion – the resulting product is fabulous! Brioche, for those unfamiliar with it, is a fabulously buttery, slightly sweet bread that can be enjoyed on its own (with a nice coarse-sugar coating on top). This is a great pairing with savory Italian sausage that really works well.
Sausage in Brioche
Makes 2 4.5″ x 8.5″ loaves
Recipe originally from Shirley Corriher’s Cookwise, with notes by Tom Brady
For the brioche
1 Tablespoon and 3 Tablespoons sugar (1/4 cup total)
1 package (2.25 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (115 degrees F/46 degrees C)
4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
5 large egg yolks
10 ounces (2.5 sticks) butter, softened
1 Tablespoon oil for bowl
For the sausage
2 cups Beaujolais or other light red wine
2 pounds sweet or hot Italian sausage
Nonstick cooking spray
2 large egg yolks
Flour for coating
1 large egg, beaten
1. Dissolve 1 Tablespoon sugar and the yeast in warm water in the bowl a heavy-duty mixer (i.e. KitchenAid) with the dough hook. Let stand for two minutes until foam appears, indicating the yeast is alive and well. Add 3 Tablespoons sugar, the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, eggs, and yolks. Knead the dough at low-medium speed for five minutes, until very elastic. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky; after two minutes of kneading, add a little water if the dough is too dry or a little flour if it is too dry.
2. Work the 10 ounces of butter into the dough at low speed. Oil a mixing bowl, place the dough in the oiled bowl, and turn to coat on all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume, about one hour. Refrigerate until well chilled or overnight if desired.
3. While the dough is rising and refrigerating, place the sausages in a saucepan. Pour the wine over them, then add enough water to cover the sausages. Cook over medium heat until the pan is almost dry, about 30 minutes. Remove the sausages and let cool. Save the drippings for Mustard Butter (recipe follows). Remove the skins from the sausage.
4. Spray two 4.5″ x 8.5″ x 2.5″ pans with nonstick cooking spray.
5. Divide the brioche dough in half. Roll each half into a rectangle about eight inches wide, close to the length of the pan. Brush half the sausage or sausage pieces with egg yolk, then roll in flour. Now brush the rectangle with egg yolk. Lay one pound of the sausage – in one piece or in several pieces laid end to end – across the top end of the dough. Roll up the dough towards you with the sausage inside and tuck the ends under. Press the seam and the ends together. Place the dough, seam side down, in the prepared pan. Repeat with the rest of the sausage and the dough. Brush both loaves with a beaten egg. If the dough was at room temperature, let rise for 30 minutes. If the dough was cold, let it rise for about an hour.
6. About 30 minutes before the dough is fully risen, place a baking stone on a shelf in the lowest slot in the oven (if a gas oven – if electric, put it in the next-to-lowest slot) and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (232 degrees C). About five minutes before baking, turn the oven down to 375 F (191 C) and carefully place a shallow pan with 1/2 inch of boiling water on the oven floor (if a gas oven – if electric, place the pan of water on a shelf in the lowest possible position, just under the baking stone).
7. Brush the bread again with beaten egg and place the pans directly on the hot stone. Bake until deeply browned, about 45 minutes total baking time. Place the loaves on a rack to cool. Serve warm with Mustard Butter.
Shirley’s notes:
If you don’t have a baking stone, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C), place the bread on a shelf in the lower third of the oven, 5-6 inches above the bottom, and then turn the oven up to 375 F (191 C). Carefully place a shallow pan with 1/2 inch boiling water on the oven floor (if a gas oven – if electric, place the pan of water on a shelf in the lowest possible position).
This can be made ahead, wrapped well in foil or a jumbo zip-top plastic bag, and refrigerated or frozen. If frozen, defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat wrapped in foil in a 300 F (149 C) oven for 30 minutes.
Tom’s notes:
Never having made brioche before, I wasn’t quite prepared for how this dough turned out. The dough looked like a typical bread dough up until the butter was added. After adding two and a half sticks (!) of butter, the dough became quite greasy, and the butter was difficult to work in. It was very sticky and quite a trick to get into the rising bowl. Turn it? Not a chance! It stuck so much to the bowl and my hands that it wasn’t moving. Because the dough has so much fat in it, don’t look for a lot of rising, either, but that’s OK. Once it’s in the oven it really takes off.
I didn’t have any 4.5″ x 8.5″ x 2.5″ pans so I just used my standard 4.5″ x 8.5″ x 5″ loaf pans and they worked just fine.
I forgot to refrigerate the dough just after the first rising – I expect that would make it a bit easier to work with when rolling out and made the dough a bit more flaky (since the butter would stay more cohesive and not melt), but the finished product was more than acceptable. If you’re in a hurry, you ca skip refrigerating, just be prepared to have lots of flour on your hands, the rolling pin, and the counter, otherwise this dough will stick all over the place.
I used mild Italian sausages from Whole Foods Market, which were quite lean. This made the skins difficult to removed once cooks, but you’ll want to do everything you can to get them off, otherwise it will interfere with the texture of the bread and sausage when bitten into. Also, one line of sausage in this bread will get lost – I put two lines of sausage on the dough, and probably could have done three lines (stacking like a pyramid), although the cooked sausages were rather small (maybe 3/4″ in diameter).
I used a Beaujolais Nouveau for this, and it was an excellent pairing with the sausage. After 30 minutes of cooking, there was still quite a bit of liquid in the pan, so I removed the sausages, turned up the heat to high, and simmered the liquid down to a syrup, stirring frequently.
I wound up needing four egg yolks (not the two Shirley mentions) to coat the sausages and the dough rectangles.
Mustard Butter
Pan drippings from cooking sausage
2 Tablespoons Beaujolais or other light red wine (optional)
1/2 cup coarse-grain mustard
1/4 pound (one stick) butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
In there is still a little liquid left in the pan, scrape the pan with a spatula to loosen any stuck-on flavorful bits. If there is little or no liquid, add the wine and scrape. Add the mustard and scrape around to get all the good stuff out of the pan, then scrape the mixture into a small mixing bowl or into a food processor fitted with the steel knife. Add the softened butter and salt and mix to blend well.
Tom’s Notes:
This will give you a lot of mustard butter! Probably more than you need, but if you like mustard it can be good to have around. The finished product is quite tasty, with a nice wine undertone. I used Maille coarse mustard, and 1/2 cup is pretty much all of one small jar.