These plain, oval brioches make an excellent breakfast or brunch bread. The variation that follows the recipe is for an amusingly shaped sweet loaf topped with a wide ribbon of sugar.
On a lightly floured surface, press the half batch of brioche dough into an 8-inch square. With a knife or bench scraper, cut the square into four 2 x 8-inch rectangles. First mark, then cut each rectangle the long way into 3 equal pieces, making 12 pieces of dough in all.
One at a time, round the pieces of dough into even spheres: place a piece of dough on an