Basic Brioche

Marie Antoinette, likely brioche enthusiast

Making these brioche for the first time sparked a fun little history lesson at our house. While comparing recipes, I read a couple articles that suggested Marie Antoinette's famous "let them eat cake" quote was more likely "let them eat brioche."

I was relating this to My Dude when he stopped me. "Actually, it was probably Marie Antoinette's mother who said that. She was Austrian. So was Marie Antoinette. And so is the brioche."

A little further internet research (i.e., Wikipedia and The Straight Dope) reveals that no one really knows who said the line in question, what kind of pastry they were referring to, or whether or not they meant it in a bitchy way or whatever. What we do know is this:

• Jacques Pepin totally owns everyone when it comes to French pastry
• I totally own everyone when it comes to slavishly following a recipe
• After much consideration, I used Msr. Pepin's recipe

Ergo, my brioche was bangin'.

To wit:

It got even better when I looked inside:

So airy and buttery! We ate them with my future bro-in-law's homemade jam, but next time I think I'll make them a bit bigger so we can use them as burger buns. I think Marie (and her mom) would approve.