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In France, brioche is in fact as popular as their puff-pastry counterparts, the croissants. For Tobias Zehnder, a dough technologist at FRITSCH, a perfect breakfast is not complete without a fresh, fluffy brioche.
Dough technologist Tobias Zehnder cuts open a brioche braid
Tobias has been a dough technologist with FRITSCH since April 2016. In fact, he practically grew up with the company, where his father, Gerhard, has now been working for more than 40 years. “Even while I was training to become a baker, I realized I wanted to work at FRITSCH one day, too,” he relates. His first step after finishing school was to do a baker’s apprenticeship in his hometown of Markt Einersheim. Just a few years after his training, he moved to Austria in order to gain new experience in different bakeries. After that, he completed his master baker training at the Chamber of Crafts in Munich and an internship at the World of Bakery. At this stage, he still felt he was lacking a certain amount of experience in the industry sector. After all, that experience is especially important for a dough technologist who wishes to serve customers in this important segment. So, he spent another two years at an industrial bakery in Lutherstadt Eisleben before returning to FRITSCH.
The word brioche comes from the French verb “brier”, to knead or pound, or perhaps even to roll out dough with a rolling pin. While it has never been proven outright, it is widely accepted that brioche originates from Normandy. The region on the English Channel has been famous since the Middle Ages for the high quality of its butter, which is in turn an important ingredient of brioche.
The MULTITWIST also twists brioche dough
From there, the little delicacy made its way to Paris, where it secured itself a permanent place in French cuisine. The preferred time to eat brioche in France is at breakfast, but they are also served as a sweet snack with coffee in the afternoon. “Brioche dough is ideal for creating many new products. What is really great about it is that you can decorate it with just about any topping, like almonds, poppy seeds, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, nuts, or dried fruits, to create all kinds of flavors,” Tobias says with enthusiasm.
"I like the soft, lush consistency of brioche. I’m amazed by its huge volume, which it gets from the airy dough. I also love the slightly buttery flavor, which comes from the fact that brioche has a higher butter content than a classical leavened dough," Tobias describes his fondness for the French specialty.
Tobias is willing to put all his knowledge, including the considerable experience he gained from a young age, into finding the perfect brioche recipe. “Brioche traissé”, braided from two or three strands of dough, is a typical variant of brioche. “So, for me, the obvious thing is to make even more twisted products from brioche dough – perhaps knots, small single-stranded braids, or various kinds of pretzels. Sweet yeast pretzels are very popular in Russia, for example. Unfortunately, our MULTITWIST is all too often associated with producing only classic German pretzels,” Tobias states.
Brioche variety with seeds, nuts or chocolate chips
He hopes in the future to inspire more bakers to use the MULTITWIST to process other types of dough, like brioche dough for instance. At the World of Bakery, he has optimal conditions for testing new recipes, products, and line configurations together with customers from all over the world.
Personally, he loves making hamburger buns from brioche dough. “The soft, fluffy buns go well with a good-quality hamburger patty. It’s an absolute hit with my friends,” Tobias reports. His trick? In addition to the typical brioche ingredients – flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast, whole egg, and butter – he also uses the sponge and dough technique which, among other things, promotes fermentation and pore formation. Furthermore, he has even created a recipe that can be processed on the MULTITWIST.
"I slightly modified the ratio of whole egg to water, without it losing any of its structure. This gives the dough extra stability, making it easier to braid on the MULTITWIST", the dough expert explains.
Tobias Zehnder is a trained master baker and a dough technologist at FRITSCH. He has worked as a baker in Markt Einersheim, Austria, and Lutherstadt Eisleben. Brioches are his great passion, so much so that he even likes to use brioche dough to make hamburger buns.
“Brioche dough is ideal for creating many new products. What is really great about it is that you can decorate it with just about any topping, like almonds, poppy seeds, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, nuts, or dried fruits, to create all kinds of flavors.”
Tobias Zehnder, dough technologist at the FRITSCH World of Bakery
