50:50 Middle Class Whole Wheat Sourdough Brioche Bubble Buns

I have never made brioche before but was so inspired by Melissa’s brioche bubble buns that she shared with us Sourdough bubble top brioche. a while back so I decided since I am on a whole grain kick that I’d try to develop a recipe for sourdough brioche composed of 50% whole wheat. I loved her shaping of these buns so used her method shaping three small boules and baking them in a muffin pan. I used my now standard stiff sweet levain in order to avoid sour tang in the brioche. Based on the appearance of these buns I think they are a success. I will post my formula but I think I would increase the prefermented flour somewhat because these were very very slow to rise, not surprising since they are middle class brioche with 50% butter!  So thus the name 50:50 50% whole wheat and 50% butter.

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For this test bake I did a half batch.
Half weight dough

Overnight levain pH at mix 5.12 at peak pH 4.57 3.5 rise

Levain 10 g starter + 10 g brown sugar + 13 g water + 28 g whole wheat flour

Dough 2 eggs + 4 g milk + 11 g white sugar + 3.9 g salt + all levain + 71 g whole wheat flour + 98 g bread flour + 0.98 g diastatic malt + 100 g butter

The levain was prepared the night before the bake and left to ferment at 78°F and was ready in the morning 11 hours later with a 3.5 x rise.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the eggs, milk, sugar, salt, all the levain and diastatic malt. Break the levain into small pieces, I do this with a spatula. Then add both the whole wheat and bread flours and mix until there is no dry flour remaining. Allow to rest for 15 mins. Then using the stand mixer mix on medium until you have good gluten development and are able to pull a good windowpane. Gradually add your room temperature butter to the dough with the mixer running one pat at a time, waiting for the butter to be incorporated well before adding another butter until all the butter has been added.

 

Allow the dough to ferment at 82°F. 6.5 hours after the butter was fully incorporated the dough had a 20-25% rise. The dough was removed from the bowl and divided into six equal pieces shaping each into a boule. Each boule was then flattened and divided into three pieces. Each piece was then shaped into a small boule. Finally each set of three small boules was placed into a well buttered muffin pan. Repeat for the rest of the dough.

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 The dough in the muffin pan was then placed back in the proofing box and allowed to fully ferment reaching a rise of 85-90% and passing the poke test. This took an additional 3 hours. 30 mins prior to baking preheat the oven to 400°F.

Just prior to baking apply an egg wash (1 egg + 1 tbsp milk and a pinch of salt, the salt breaks down the proteins making the egg wash thinner and easier to apply to the delicate dough without damaging it).

Bake for 20 mins turning once and keeping an eye on the crust and be prepared to shield it with a cookie sheet if it is browning too quickly. Once baked remove from the muffin pan and allow to cool on a rack. Enjoy the glorious smell of brioche in your home.

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