Gloriously buttery brioche base with syrupy plums sitting on it in rows, and all of it smothered in crunchy, melting, cinnamon crumble. Warm or cold, it’s divine.
Is brioche cake?
Brioche is a soft, rich bread bun with sweetness racked up to the cake standards. Or so we think as in reality all those French breakfast confections are not that high in sugar content.
But pain au chocolat, croissants, brioche and pain au raisins all LOOK sweet and SMELL sweet so we assume they also taste it. And that’s the case of misleading appearances.
Brioches, pains aux anything and croissants, plus any laminated pastry dough called Danish or Viennoise depending on where you are, contain very little sugar. Brioche dough has some but then so does challah and challah is within the bread not cake realm.
Croissants and laminated pastries can be made completely without sugar even though I usually add some only to give the yeast a little encouragement. The sweetness is in the topping or filling: raisins, chocolate, fruit and icing – or all of these at once.
What is a classic brioche?
Classic brioche has the prescribed fluted shape from being baked in a dedicated tin, and an odd dough ball on top, the purpose of which is unclear to me.
Its crust is more like a skin than bread crust: lustrous, shiny and paper thin. It hides the softest, meltiest, richest and butteriest centre, which obviously doesn’t need extra butter slathered on it for your breakfast. Though I do it anyway.
Turning brioche into cake
This time I’ve ventured turning it into a cake, to see if the trace amounts of sugar in the dough amplified by sweet fruit and copious sprinkling of crumble on top would deceive into thinking it’s a cake.
And of course it works – the base is soft, tender and pillowy, the first bite is into the crunchy streusel followed by syrupy baked plum so who would notice that the dough isn’t very sweet? It actually needn’t or shouldn’t be sweet in order to create a non-sickly balance.
A note to the recipe: brioche dough is so rich when freshly kneaded it’s almost liquid. That’s why it needs to chill for an hour or overnight to be manageable. If you desperately need to do the whole thing in one day, allow at least a couple of hours of chilling.
I have based my basic dough recipe on a dive into assorted French brioche recipes with Larousse Cuisine providing the biggest input. Topping a rich yeast dough base with fruit and crumble is more of a German or Austrian thing and that I owe to my grandmother’s delightful Zwetschgenkuchen.
How to make brioche dough?
It is significantly better made with French flour type 55, but if unavailable, just use strong white bread flour.
Fresh yeast is my favourite and if you are using it, let it activate first by stirring it into buttermilk warmed up to room temperature with a spoonful of sugar.
If you’re using instant yeast, go ahead and add it straight to the flour with all the other ingredients except butter – and plums, obviously.
A standing mixer will be very handy here, working the dough for ten minutes at high speed. Otherwise it’s elbow grease for at least half an hour, rewarding but tough.
When the dough is springy, bouncy and elastic, start adding soft butter by a spoonful, waiting until absorbed before adding more. That’s certainly a job for the mixer!
At the end of the process the dough will be glossy, smooth and very loose. It would be difficult to shape it at this stage so best to let it ferment and set in the fridge overnight.
The crumble and the plums
The following day, when ready to bake, prepare your crumble topping by rubbing butter into the dry ingredients. Plums, depending on the size, should be stoned and halved or quartered.
The dough will now be less sticky but handle it gently, stretching to cover the bottom of your tin or dish but trying not to tear.
Next the plums: make sure to push them in as deep into the dough as you can. As the brioche base rises, it tends to eject whatever fruit is sitting on it.
When risen, after about an hour and while the oven has preheated, sprinkle the crumble over the plums, pushing the naughty ones back in, and into the oven it goes.
You can scatter some raisins amongst the plums, or chopped almonds if you like. A generous sprinkle of cinnamon or mixed spice, if you prefer, will be on order too.
This brioche-cake is absolutely gorgeous warm from the oven and definitely best on the day. But you can wrap leftovers well in foil and warm up or toast briefly on the next day.
More brioche recipes
Buttery and barely sweet brioche, home baked breakfast fit for a king. Paper-thin glossy crust and the softest, meltiest crumb hiding inside, waiting only for a lick of good jam.
Fluffy and rich brioche rolls made with Japanese milk starter, tangzhong, proved overnight for rich flavour. Well suited for fine dinner and for a bacon sandwich.
Cherry chocolate bread, sourdough based brioche filled with a mix of white chocolate chips, glace cherries and almond flakes. It's easy to make with yeast instead, and the perfect weekend breakfast idea.
More plum recipes
Plum crumble breakfast bars, cinnamon flavoured, reduced in sugar content, are just the thing for those whose sweet tooth is awake at breakfast time.
This is the best and the easiest plum cake with crumble topping. German plum cake with streusel where plums can be swapped for any other soft fruit, it's brilliant every time.
Sweet sourdough buns filled with jam and rolled like Chelsea buns to pull apart and share. There’s nothing better for breakfast than a sweet sourdough bun with jam.