Old baker told me to let brioche dough rest 5 extra minutes before shaping

Did it and the texture came out way fluffier, has anyone else tried this with enriched doughs?

3 comments

3 Comments

Oh man, I literally tried this last week with my cinnamon rolls and felt like a genius haha. I'm usually so impatient and just rush through shaping, so waiting those extra few minutes felt like an eternity. But wow, the dough was so much easier to handle and the final bake was ridiculously soft. I accidentally let mine rest like 10 minutes once cuz I got distracted by a cat video and honestly it was the best mistake ever lol. Definitely gonna make this a permanent step for all my enriched doughs from now on.

king.kevin10d ago

Used to think extra rest was just gonna dry out the dough or make it sticky, man was I wrong. Tried it on my challah last weekend after reading this and the braiding was so much smoother, usually I'm fighting the dough the whole time. The crumb ended up really tender too, almost like a pillow. Now I'm thinking maybe I've been rushing all my breads for no good reason.

robin48910d ago

barbara_taylor83 I gotta push back a little on that "best mistake ever" thing. I know extra rest can help with gluten relaxation, but letting it sit 10 minutes because you got distracted is a slippery slope. I forgot about a batch of brioche once and it proofed way too long, ended up with a dense, greasy mess because the gluten structure basically collapsed before it even hit the oven. The extra 5 minutes before shaping works if you're careful about it, but I feel like folks overcorrect and let it go too far, especially in a warm kitchen. Did you check the dough temperature when you accidentally left it longer? That might be the real factor.