Brioche Bread with Orange, Raisins, and Nuts.

Delicious and extremely soft sweet bread (aka brioche bread in French) with orange, raisins, and nuts. When I came across this recipe, I knew it would be delicious but I honestly didn’t expect it to be so extremely flavorful and soft. It has the perfect balance of all flavors and a very soft and rich texture.

Before you put on the apron.

It is always a good practice to prepare and measure all the ingredients before starting. Being a big improviser and compulsive baker myself, I know how inconvenient it can be when you suddenly realize that the butter is not soft enough or the only egg I had in the fridge was gone halfway baking!

Brioche Dough

Brioche is the french word for a sweet bread loaf usually with a buttery flavor. The dough is very soft and kneaded enough to be super soft and airy. I used fresh yeast but you can as well use dried active yeast, also you can use a kneading machine or knead the dough with the hands, kneading dough is therapeutically and makes you understand the dough better on the long term.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with the sugar, the orange juice, and the vanilla, I used vanilla sugar, you can use vanilla extract instead. Add about half of the flour quantity, you will get a thick mixture that resembles crepes batter, leave it to rest for about five minutes before proceeding, this will activate the yeat faster.

Add the rest of the dough ingredients, vegetable oil, egg, salt, and the rest of the flour quantity and combine everything using a wooden spoon at the beginning, or start working everything directly in the mixing bowl if you are using a mixer.

Kneading the Brioche Bread Dough

It’s important to knead the dough long enough until it’s soft and supple, you might need between 7 to 10 minutes depending on your kneading speed. In case you are using a mixer, 5 minutes on high speed is enough since. The better you knead the dough the softer and fluffier the brioche will be.

Proofing

You will need to proof the dough twice. Once kneaded, and the formed brioche a second time. Cover the dough bowl with some plastic foil or a kitchen towel and allow it to rise for at least one hour, if the temperature is too low, you might need a little bit longer. A good trick is to place the dough in the oven with a closed-door with either the oven on or on 30 degrees if it is cold. The dough should rise and double in size.

Orange and Nuts for the filling.

In a food processor, mix together the hazelnuts, almonds, icing sugar, and the peels of a small orange. You will need to use an untreated organic orange since we will be using the outer part of the skin, try using only the orange part and remove the white parts of the orange peels. The peels contain most of the flavor and aroma, by adding them directly the orange flavor will be very strong.

Forming the Brioche

Flour the working place enough and gently stretch and dab the dough to degaze it. Use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangular, an ideal size would be 48*30 cm (19*11inches) but these are just approximations it doesn’t have to be exact. Add flour as needed to prevent it from sticking but just as needed.

Brush the dough with soft butter and spread the nuts and orang mixture you have processed. Don’t use melted butter, especially if the weather is warm, soft butter will helps keep everything in place when forming the brioche bread. Add the raisins.

Roll the dough from the long side and seal it to keep all the filling in place. With a knife slice the roll in half lengthwise and keep one end connected. Now you have two parts of the dought connected in one end, start from that end, and gently twist the two parts together, the twists can be loose.

If you want to bake the brioche bread without baking tin, simply overlay the two ends together with a place the brioche circle on your baking sheet layered with some parchment or baking paper. I like the crown shape of I use the round baking tin with the whole in the middle, you can also use a loaf tin that should be at least 16 cm (6,5inches) long.

Brush the brioche with 1 tablespoon of soft butter, I like to add some orange zest, few raisins, and some nuts to the top. You can save 1 tbsp from the filling to add at this point or use any extra crushed nuts if you have. Time to proof the dough for the second time. Cover your brioche and allow it to rise for another hour in a warm place.

Baking

Once the proofing hour is almost up, start preheating the oven to 170°C (338° F). Bake the orange and nuts brioche for at least 30 to 35 minutes until it’s nicely golden brown. Your whole kitchen will smell like delicious orange and buttery sweet bread with toasted nuts once you open the oven, it’s a happy moment.

Leave it to cool slightly on a cooling rack before flipping it into the serving dish, I will be adding some orange glaze but if you prefer it without you can already enjoy it just as it is, so delicious.

Orange Glaze:

Simply add fresh-squeezed orange juice to icing sugar till you have a nice thick icing consistency and pour it on the brioche while it’s still warm if you prefer to you can double the quantity of the glaze. The glaze keeps all the moist and flavors in, another option is to brush the brioche with some orange jam, this will also provide the glaze, enhance the flavor, and keeps the brioche soft.

Enjoy the Brioche Bread with Orange, Raisins, and Nuts.

The recipe requires some time because the dough needs to be proofed twice, but this is hands free time and the actual working time is not too much compared to the amazing result. The orange brioche with raisins and nuts is going to stay soft and flavorful till the third day if you keep it in am air tight container after it has cooled. It’s perfect for breakfast, brunch, buffet, or simply to enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea. Watch the video below for the demonstrated recipe.

Brioche Bread with Orange, Raisins, and Nuts Video Recipe

Pieces of equipment you might need for the recipe:

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Brioche Bread with Orange, Raisins, and Nuts