I launched that project by tweaking the brioche recipe from a Le Notre Paris class I attended in September of that year. Reducing the butter in the base dough, adding a butter block and putting it through three 3-folds yielded a lovely laminated result. Lots of choices. In this recipe PDF I go into more details about brioche, adjusting the recipe to yield either a leaner or an even richer dough plus some options for laminating the dough. So many possibilities.
It helps me to assess a brioche recipe by looking at the butter to flour ratio. So you can make the full batch and then separate out the g for this braided two loaf project. Wrap and freeze the remaining dough for later or use it for other projects you might have up your sleeve. Remember - this makes TWO braids.
This is the beurrage. If your kitchen is pretty warm or your dough and butter seem warm and starting to squish, wrap it up and refrigerate for 30 minutes before proceeding.
Do a 4-fold book fold by bringing each short end into the middle with edges meeting. Wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes to allow it to relax then proceed with a 3-fold business letter fold.
Visualizing the dough in thirds, fold one end up. Your laminated dough is complete. Now wrap it snugly and refrigerate for a good hours to let it relax and firm up before rolling it out for your intended purpose. For this braid project I divided the dough in half - look at those buttery layers! Each half of the laminated version weighs about g before filling and is good for a medium loaf pan size braid. Egg wash I used egg white since I had some on hand along one long edge of each strip then pipe a line of filling along the opposite edge.
