Savory Brioche Recipe

Traditional brioche is sweetened with a bit of sugar or honey and is used in savory recipes as well as desserts. For this book we decided to go to extremes: a dough that is sweet for our dessert pizzas and this version, with no sugar at all, for the savory pies. They are both rich and flavorful, but in two distinct ways.

Makes enough dough for at least eight 1/2 pound pizzas or flat-breads (about 12 inches across). The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 tbsp granulated yeast
1 tbsp Kosher salt.
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Preparation:

1. Mixing and storing the dough: Mix the yeast, salt, and eggs with the water in a 5 quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.
2. Mix in the flour and butter without kneading, using a spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy duty stand mixer (with paddle). If you're not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.
3. Cover (not airtight), and allow it to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.
4. The dough will be loose, but will firm up when chilled. Don't try to use it without chilling for at least 3 hours or until firm. Refrigerate it in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days. Or store the dough for up to 3 weeks in the freezer in 1/2 pound portions. When using frozen dough, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before use.
5. On pizza or flatbread day, roll out or stretch the dough into a thin round and finish with your favorite toppings, using many of the recipes in this book.

Recipe courtesy of Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François

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