Let Them Eat Brioche!

As the weather has changed, and it's beautiful in the desert now, I have been enjoying breakfast on my balcony. This early morning experience is a joy to me, a celebration of the day to come, a relaxing treat before the storm of the business day begins. The hummingbirds come to my ever-so-close feeder. I hear their wings (I guess) clicking, and I look up and there they are! And what to serve? I try to make it lovely, with French-press coffee, fresh fruit and some kind of special bread perhaps.  

Sunday, I decided it was time to make brioche! It has been forever since I made the wonderful French delight, all warm out of the oven, smeared with butter and Bonne Maman jam! Yumm! And so, I set to work. It was not difficult, but time consuming, so in between steps, I did other things, including laundry, reading, more laundry, catching some Lydia's Italy on PBS.

Yesterday I enjoyed a warm slice of it out in my little Paradise. And I decided to do some research as well. Brioche goes way back, to the 1400's,and it is a Norman bread. It derives its name from Old French "brier" meaning "to work the dough with a "broye" or "brie", a wooden roller for kneading.  

The bread developed along with the introduction of butter, eggs and sugar, becoming more and more expensive to make. Originally known as a pain benit or blessed bread, it became kind of a delicacy with the expensive ingredients, and by the 18th Century, it was enjoyed by the wealthy. The more butter added, the more rich, literally and figuratively. Of course, anyone could make it, but usually adjustments to the proportion of butter were played with. The rich man used 3:2 flour to butter; the poor baker, 4:1.

In his autobiography, "Confessions", published 1782, Jean Jacque Rousseau (French writer and influential thinker) relates that "a great princess is said to have advised, with regard to peasants who had no bread, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", commonly inaccurately translated as "Let Them Eat Cake". 

The "great princess" is mis-attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette. In the contemporary "Encyclopedie" published at that time, it says,"the taste for luxury and onerous magnificence of much of the world, having slipped into religious practice, the usage was introduced in large cities of giving in place of bread, some more or less delicate cake ... one would not believe what it costs the nation every year for this article alone. We know that there are more than 40,000 parishes in the kingdom where they distribute blessed bread".

It's typical though to credit Marie with the callous remark, though she paid dearly for her lack of compassion. Got me to thinking......., the brioche often has a little head on it, a little round ball of dough formed and pressed into the top of the larger dough ball. It's fun to break that off and eat it first. Now I will always remember Marie's head!!!