Embark on a culinary adventure with Chef John's enticing recipe for Brioche Col Tuppo, the cherished Sicilian brioche buns. This captivating video takes you step-by-step through the art of creating these golden, feather-light delights. Discover the secrets behind achieving their signature twisted top and delicate sweetness, and elevate your baking skills as you prepare to enjoy the authentic flavors of Sicily.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with...
00:06 Brioche Col Dupo!
00:08 That's right, I'm going to show you what I think is the best baked product ever named after a hairstyle.
00:13 Sorry, mullet muffins.
00:15 But anyway, this does get its name from a hair bun worn by Sicilian women.
00:20 And besides being delicious and gorgeous, I've simplified and streamlined the recipe,
00:25 so these are actually easy to make.
00:27 Oh, and did I also mention these are used to make ice cream sandwiches?
00:31 But we'll get to that later.
00:33 For now, let's start our dough by adding some warm milk to a mixing bowl,
00:37 along with some warm water.
00:39 And when I say warm, I mean like 105 to 110 degrees.
00:43 Alright, if it's too hot, you will kill the yeast,
00:45 so this should basically feel like warm bath water.
00:48 And then to this, we will add a little bit of honey.
00:51 And it's the honey, along with the warm liquids, that's really going to activate our yeast,
00:56 which we will go ahead and throw in now.
00:58 And then we'll take a whisk and give everything a stir.
01:01 And we will simply let this sit for about 20 minutes,
01:04 after which, if everything's gone according to plan,
01:07 you should see a little bit of foaminess on the top.
01:09 And assuming that happens, we can go ahead and start adding the rest of the ingredients,
01:14 starting with a generous tablespoon of freshly grated orange zest,
01:18 which never doesn't smell amazing.
01:20 We will also want some pure real vanilla extract,
01:23 followed by some white sugar.
01:25 I know we already added some honey,
01:27 but Sicilian brioche is supposed to be a little bit on the sweet side.
01:31 And then we'll also need to add a couple beaten eggs,
01:34 as well as a generous amount of melted butter.
01:37 And then we'll finish up with some salt.
01:39 Oh yeah, you can't bake without a little bit of salt.
01:42 And then last but not least, we will add in our all-purpose flour.
01:45 Oh, and if you can, try to get it all in the bowl.
01:49 But anyway, once we have everything in there,
01:51 we will grab our dough hook, and we will start mixing this on low.
01:56 And eventually everything will come together and start kneading.
01:59 Although before that happens, you might need to turn off the mixer
02:03 and kind of scrape down the sides a little bit,
02:05 since we want to make sure everything gets incorporated.
02:08 And once it does, we can turn the speed up one notch,
02:11 at which point we want to let this knead for about 8 to 10 minutes,
02:15 until we have a soft, smooth, and very elastic dough.
02:19 And yes, you can absolutely do this by hand,
02:22 but it's probably going to take about 15 minutes in kneading.
02:25 So if at all possible, I try to find a stand mixer.
02:28 And if you don't have one, I bet you know a friend who does,
02:31 and I bet that friend would enjoy some Sicilian brioche.
02:34 So you know what? You guys should get together.
02:37 But anyway, I let mine knead for about 10 minutes,
02:40 at which point it looked like this.
02:42 And as usual, you're going to get a much better look at that
02:44 as I take this off the stand and transfer it onto the counter,
02:48 which I don't flour, since because of the butter in this dough,
02:51 it's not really that sticky.
02:53 And you know this has been kneaded long enough
02:56 when you can pull the dough and it stretches without tearing.
02:59 All right, you see that?
03:01 So that was looking just about perfect.
03:03 And then what we'll do is quickly form this back into a ball,
03:06 and then we'll transfer it back into the mixing bowl
03:09 that we've lightly buttered, and we will cover that.
03:12 And then we'll let it rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours,
03:16 or until it doubles in size.
03:19 And whether that takes an hour and a half, or 2 hours, or 3 hours,
03:23 when it's ready it should look like this.
03:25 And if you poke it with your fingers, which you really should,
03:28 since it feels super cool,
03:30 it will slightly deflate and hold those marks,
03:33 which means it's ready to transfer back to the work surface,
03:36 where we will press out all the air
03:38 and sort of roll it up into a cylinder,
03:40 or really any kind of uniform shape.
03:43 And the reason we do this, besides to degas it,
03:46 is so that it's easier to cut into 8 equal pieces.
03:49 And we can just do that by eye,
03:51 but of course if we want them perfect, we'd use a digital scale.
03:55 But either way, what we're after is 8 equal portions.
03:58 And what we would usually do is take one of these portions
04:01 and roll it around on the table under our palm
04:04 to form a nice uniform smooth ball.
04:07 And then we transfer that onto a baking sheet and let it proof.
04:10 But because we have to make our little hair bun that goes on top,
04:13 we need to cut off and separate about 15 to 20% of the dough.
04:18 And what we'll do is set that small piece aside for now,
04:21 and we will reshape the larger piece as per usual,
04:24 again trying to achieve a nice smooth skin over the top.
04:27 And once we do, we'll transfer that onto a Silpat lined baking sheet,
04:31 and then we'll grab that small piece we're going to use for the tupo,
04:35 and we'll make sure that's formed into a nice smooth ball as well.
04:38 And to make the next step easier,
04:40 if you shape one end into a little bit of a point, like a cone shape,
04:44 that will help during our next maneuver.
04:47 Okay, so we'll do that with all 8 portions,
04:50 and as you can see we're using the old 2-1-2-1-2 alignment,
04:53 which is the best way to space 8 buns on a pan.
04:56 And then to finish the formation,
04:58 we'll take a couple lightly floured fingertips,
05:01 and we will press right in the middle of our bun,
05:03 and kind of stretch the dough out to create a nice deep well.
05:07 And we really do want to get in there, and get in there deep,
05:11 because what we're doing next is taking the small ball of dough,
05:14 and again we're going to want to press one side so it's a little bit pointed,
05:18 and we will place that down in, and then go around with our fingers
05:22 to make sure it's nicely attached, and hopefully perfectly centered,
05:26 because if these are not centered, our buns will not bake up nice and straight.
05:30 And I think what we're shooting for here is that exactly half that tupo
05:34 is above the surface of the bottom bun,
05:37 and to me that's going to give us the best appearance once these are baked.
05:40 Okay, if we place that too far down below the surface,
05:43 we are not going to get that same impressive look,
05:46 but on the other hand, if we don't press it in enough,
05:49 it will pop up too high, and be misshapen, or even sometimes fall off.
05:54 So as they probably say in Sicily, only half the bun should see the sun.
05:59 And then once all 8 of our brioches have been tupoed,
06:02 we need to let these proof for about an hour,
06:05 but because of the shape of the top, I don't like to cover them with anything,
06:08 so what we'll do is transfer those into our turned-off oven,
06:11 which is a cold oven that's not turned on,
06:14 and we will let them safely proof in there for, like I said, about an hour,
06:17 or until they're doubled in size, and hopefully look like this.
06:21 Oh yeah, those do look good, but wait until you see them baked.
06:26 But before these go in the oven, we will want to very gently brush them with an egg wash,
06:31 which is usually an egg beaten with a couple teaspoons of water, and that will work,
06:35 but for Sicilian brioche, we like to use milk and egg instead,
06:39 which is going to give these a little bit of a shinier finish.
06:43 But anyway, you decide.
06:45 I mean, you are after all the capo of what you brush on the topo.
06:49 But either way, once those have been washed,
06:52 they are ready to transfer into the center of a 350-degree oven
06:56 for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're beautifully browned and look like this.
07:03 Oh yeah, they should be perfectly perky and absolutely gorgeous.
07:07 And then what we should do is let these cool on the pan for about 5 to 10 minutes
07:12 before we remove them and transfer them onto a cooling rack
07:15 to finish cooling all the way down to room temp.
07:18 Oh, and because these do include butter and honey and sugar,
07:21 the bottoms can brown pretty dark,
07:23 which is why I like to use the Silpat instead of parchment paper,
07:27 since it provides a little more insulation and the bottoms won't brown quite as deeply.
07:32 But anyway, like I said, we'll transfer those onto a cooling rack,
07:36 and we will let those cool before we eat them, allegedly.
07:40 And traditionally, these are eaten for breakfast,
07:42 which is why I'm going to place one next to one of my famous latte mochaccinos.
07:46 And then even though these are almost too beautiful to tear apart,
07:49 we will do it anyway to reveal a super light, super airy,
07:54 yet somehow very rich, slightly sweet, very buttery inside.
07:59 Alright, these, my friends, have everything you want in a brioche bun and more.
08:04 And whether you're eating these by themselves or dipped into a nice hot coffee drink,
08:08 you are in for a very special treat.
08:11 And while it's hard to notice once it's baked,
08:13 that little bit of orange zest we added, I think, is key,
08:16 since that plays so well with the sweetness of the honey and the sugar we added.
08:21 Which reminds me, these definitely have less sugar than your classic Sicilian version.
08:26 Okay, I tend to not like mine as sweet, but for me personally, I think they're perfectly balanced.
08:31 Okay, definitely sweet enough to eat for breakfast with some coffee,
08:34 but not too sweet, where we couldn't cut this in half and toss on some more tadella
08:39 and enjoy this in sandwich form.
08:42 And of course, everybody has a different strategy for eating these.
08:45 Alright, many people insist you pull that tupo off and eat it first,
08:49 while others pull that off and eat it last.
08:52 Or you can just randomly pull it off any time in the middle of the operation,
08:56 which is usually how I do it.
08:58 Alright, it depends on my mood.
09:00 But the good news is, there is no wrong way to eat this.
09:04 Oh, and speaking of ways to eat these,
09:06 our Sicilian friends like to split these open and stuff them with ice cream,
09:10 or gelato, or most authentically, stuffed with an almond granita.
09:15 And yes, sometimes they have them for breakfast, like I'm doing here,
09:19 using of course some coffee gelato.
09:22 And while nothing like the ice cream sandwiches you're used to,
09:25 it really is quite extraordinary and highly recommended.
09:29 But no matter how you decide to enjoy these, I really do hope you give them a try soon.
09:35 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
09:38 a printable written recipe and much more info as usual.
09:42 And as always, enjoy!
09:47 [music]
09:57 [no audio]