Happy New Year everyone!

Lately, I've been on a bread-making binge, which has definitely made breakfast, lunch, and dinner in our household a lot more fun. In case you all didn't know, brioche is one of my favorite versatile breads; you use the base for anything from hamburger buns to cinnamon rolls.

Brioche is deliciously fluffy, and since it's full of butter and eggs, you can't really go wrong! It's a ton of fun to make, especially since you can get super creative with different shapes and fillings. Since I've been wanting to satisfy my sweet tooth with something that I can pass off as breakfast :), I mixed up some brioche (in three different shapes and two different fillings!) to share with you all.

Happy baking, and let me know in the comments how it all turns out!

Step 1: Ingredients

To make my favorite versatile loaf/bun/braid/crazy shape, you'll need:

450g of bread flour
8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/4 cup of lukewarm milk
3 whole eggs
1 packet of instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon of salt
40g of granulated sugar

To make the cinnamon sugar filling:

1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of hazelnut flavoring (optional)

To make the raisin filling:

1 cup of raisins
1 tablespoon of flour

Step 2: Making the Dough

Brioche needs an overnight rise to ensure the richness in its flavor, so make sure to do this step the night before you want piping hot bread.

First, combine the flour, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl with a stand mixer. Then, add in the lukewarm milk, yeast, and eggs. Fold in the softened butter. Mix on medium speed until the dough comes together and is springy, but still sticky. (Add flour/milk to get the consistency of the dough in picture 5).

After, take out another bowl and grease it thoroughly. Form the dough into a ball and place into greased bowl. Cover the dough with a wet paper towel and put it in a warm place for 1 hour.

Then, place the dough into the fridge overnight.

Step 3: Shaping the Dough: Part 1

Now, it's time to shape the dough! First, up is this beautiful cinnamon sugar brioche twist loaf.

First, in a bowl, mix the cinnamon and sugar together. Soften the butter until it's spreadable and add in the hazelnut flavoring.

Divide up the brioche dough into four balls. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough and cut a circular shape (I used a lid of a huge jar to get the size that I wanted, which was about 8 inches). Repeat for the rest of the dough balls.

Lay one of the dough circles on parchment paper. Spread the hazelnut butter on the surface. Then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. Lay another dough circle on top of the first dough circle.

Repeat until you get to the last dough circle, and do not spread butter or sprinkle on the sugar on the last dough circle.

Then, place a smaller lid in the center of the dough. Do not cut through this lid. Cut through all four layers of dough to get 16 pieces of connected dough (still attached to the center of the dough where the lid is).

After, take two of the sections, and twist them away from each other and pinch the ends. Repeat for the next two section and so on.

At the end, you should have 8 pinched together sections connected to a circle of dough where the lid was.

Step 4: Shaping the Dough: Part 2

Next up is the brioche a tete, which is the classic brioche bun shape (of course, you know I have to put in a twist, so this is raisin-filled).

First, take the raisins and using a food processor, grind them down until it creates a paste. Use the flour to roll this into a ball. Then, using your hands, roll the ball into a rope shape.

Then, take a section of your brioche dough and roll it out to about 4 inches in width. Place the raisin rope at one end and roll up the dough.

Take the two ends, and connect them in a circle. Place this in a greased brioche/cupcake tin. Then take another section of the brioche dough and roll it into a ball.

Place this on top of the dough circle in the tin.

Step 5: Shaping the Dough: Part 3

Now it's time to make these cute brioche crescents, which uses the same cinnamon sugar mixture as our brioche twist loaf.

Repeat the steps from the twist loaf, until you make the four-layered dough circle.

Now, instead of cutting the circle into 16 connected sections with the lid in the middle, cut the dough into four entirely separate sections.

Take one of the sections and cut a slit in the middle. Then, take the pointed part of the triangle and pull it through the slit in the middle twice. After the second time, press the pointed part of the triangle to the base of the triangle (like in picture 8).

Then, curl the two ends into a crescent shape.

Step 6: Proofing and Baking

After shaping the dough, wet a paper towel and cover up the dough. Let the dough proof for 1.5 hours in a warm place.

Then, preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Before baking the final proofed bread, beat an egg until thoroughly combined. Brush the egg mixture on top of the bread in order to create the beautiful brown shiny finish after baking.

Finally, bake the bread at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Step 7: Finish!

You're done with making brioche! I personally love the cinnamon sugar brioche twist loaf, and not only how it tastes, but how it looks as well!

Brioche has this amazing buttery taste, which is perfect for a myriad of different occasions. Try out this recipe to make a raisin brioche a tete for breakfast, some hamburger buns for a lunch barbecue, cute dinner rolls, or a cinnamon sugar brioche twist loaf for dessert. Be creative! :)

If you do, be sure to drop a comment below and tell me how it turned out! Happy baking!