Brioches and Savarins

Butter and eggs can be added to a yeast dough to enrich it and produce a bread that is similar in many ways to a cake. The butter makes the dough soft while the eggs make it lighter and more moist, so that the finished bread almost melts in your mouth.

A brioche dough is the richest of all breads and can vary in shape and size from a small ball to a large crown shape. It can be served on its own or the dough can be filled with a sweet or savoury filling such as sausage. Other breads made from a brioche dough include a kugelhopf, which is a bread from Alsace in eastern France, layered with a sweet fruit and nut mixture or a savoury filling such as cream cheese and ham.