Sunshine Brioche

Or how to cram as much orange flavour as possible into a fluffy loaf of olive oil brioche

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As for today’s recipe, and the first recipe of 2025, let me present to you an old favourite of mine, Sunshine Brioche. The recipe was inspired by a pastry I enjoyed at La Colombe Torrefaction in NYC when I was there with my friend Michelle during a cold and wet week in November 10 years ago. I don’t remember much about the pastry besides that it was delicious and that it made me want to try and cram as much orange flavour sunshine into a brioche recipe as I could. And that I definitely succeeded in with this Sunshine Brioche – between the brioche dough and the filling, there is fresh orange juice and zest, some candied orange pieces as well as lots of delicious orange blossom water! In short, this brioche is the perfect antidote to these seemingly endless gloomy and cold winter days.

What also makes this Sunshine Brioche a bit different is that it is an olive oil brioche. As much as we tend to associate brioche with copious amounts of butter in the dough (which is of course delicious, that goes without saying), the further south you travel in France, the more likely you are to find brioche made with olive oil instead - be it for Gibassier pastries or the Brioche des Rois enjoyed right around now for Epiphany, for example. The first olive oil brioche I ever tried actually came to me from California - via the Tartine No3 book which includes a recipe for a sourdough olive oil brioche. And it was revelatory. Olive oil is such a wonderful alternative to butter in brioche - I find that using olive oil lets other flavours come through much more clearly than in recipes for brioche made with butter (e.g. the orange zest and juice, candied orange and orange blossom water used here). A separate bonus of using olive oil instead of butter is that the brioche also stays fresh for longer (similar to oil based cakes vs butter based cakes). If you have never tried baking an olive oil brioche before, I strongly recommend you give it a try!

Have you ever tried or baked a brioche with olive oil? Or other fats like coconut oil or even peanut butter or tahini for example? Let me know in the comments below!

Sunshine Brioche

Notes: The brioche dough used here is a little different from what you may be used to because it is made with olive oil instead of butter. And it is delicious. Brioche made with olive oil allows the flavour of other ingredients to really shine (much more so than when made with butter), in this case the flavour of the orange zest and juice, candied orange and orange blossom water. To finish, the brioche is covered in a thin glaze studded with some chopped candied orange and pearl sugar – a hint of what is hiding inside the brioche.

Ingredients

Dough

350g all purpose flour
1.5 tsp dried active yeast
30g sugar
A pinch of salt
Juice and zest of 1 orange
50ml milk, warm
15ml orange blossom water
75ml olive oil
1 egg

Filling

75g butter, melted
50g sugar
25g pearl sugar
50g candied orange, finely diced
15 ml orange blossom water

Glaze

1/2 egg white
80g powdered sugar
25g pearl sugar
25g candied orange, diced

Directions

Whisk together the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt. Form a well in the centre and add the orange juice and zest, the milk, orange blossom water, olive oil and egg. Using a standmixer or a handheld mixer (or your hands) knead the dough until the you have a cohesive and smooth dough that passes the window-pane test (i.e. you are able to stretch a piece of dough so thin you can practically see through it). If using a standmixer this should take ca. 5-10 minutes (and if kneading by hand, this could take ca. 15-20 minutes).

Cover the bowl and set the dough aside to proof somewhere warm for around 1.5-2h or until doubled in size. Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 4mm thick and with the short edge a bit shorter than the longer side of your loaf plan.

Mix together the filling ingredients and spread over the dough. Starting from one of the short sides of your rectangle, tightly roll up your dough and gently place in the loaf tin. Cover and set aside somewhere warm to proof for a further 45 minutes or until well risen and puffy.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake for 35-40 mins at 180 degrees or until golden brown.

Leave the Brioche to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before inverting on a cookie rack to cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together the egg white with the powdered sugar and orange blossom water. Drizzle over the brioche and scatter the chopped candied orange and pearl sugar over the glaze before it is set.