On a recent trip to NYC with some lovely friends, I discovered Bakeri in Brooklyn and ate their indescribably good brioche every morning of the trip. They have a real passion for what they do, and now I do, too, and since it’s basically all I can think about these days, I thought I’d try my hand at recreating the deliciousness.



I used this recipe, which is a pretty basic brioche dough adapted from French pastry genius Michel Roux. Here’s half the dough produced by that recipe, cold from an overnight ferment in the fridge:

Divided into six, each blob is formed into a ball and then rolled under the edge of a hand to make duck shapes:

After allowing these to sit for five minutes or so, a hole is dug through the “body” of the ducks, and the “head” is stretched and passed underneath through the hole. This forms the classic brioche shape. There are a hundred ways of accomplishing this. You don’t need to do it this way.

The brioches are then placed into buttered tins, and allowed to proof:

I gave them an egg wash before and after proofing. These baked for about 28 minutes at 350°F, with a single rotation in the oven. They weren’t quite as interesting tasting as what I had at Bakeri, but they’re a satisfactory first step. The crumb was pretty well perfect, at least. I made myself sick I ate so many of these today. Oops.