I’m Not Perfect, Yet Somehow My Cocoa Brioche Morning Buns Were (2024)

Have I mentioned that I was doing this in the most frigid kitchen in Manhattan? That meant that I sometimes had to extend my rising times—as much as twice as long as the recipe calls for. This is nothing new for me (my house requires I do this for all yeasted doughs), and yet once or twice I lost patience and moved on to the next step before the dough had fully risen. That was a bad idea—the buns I rushed were, no surprise, dense and small—so do as I say, not as I did, and build in extra time (if needed) to let the dough rise to its maximum potential. (Usually this means the dough should double in size.) This is particularly important during the final rise, which as I mentioned, I liked to do in the fridge overnight. The rolls didn’t always rise as much as I wanted them to in the fridge. When that happened, I simply let them puff up a little more at room temperature before putting them in the oven.

Cool butter, cool heads

The weekends I tested this recipe temperatures were tepid—in the 40s and 50s during the day and the teens and 20s at night. Those were good conditions for keeping the butter at the ideal temperature: cool to the touch, but not hard. I weighed my butter out many hours before I started baking and put it near a drafty window, where I knew it would soften but never get warm. And that worked: The butter was cold but malleable by the time I mixed it and spread it into the butter block needed for lamination. Whenever the butter block got a little too soft, and was no longer cool to the touch (you’ll know immediately when it has gone soft and greasy), I put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to get it back to the right temperature.

Keeping the butter cool but not cold is crucial for successful lamination. If the butter is too hard, it won’t roll out—it will just break and crack apart. If it’s too soft, it will spill out of the dough. As a pastry dilettante, I will admit that I never got the lamination quite perfect—little pieces of butter got trapped in the dough, looking a little like almonds suspended in chocolate biscotti. But I was diligent about temperature. Whenever I sensed the butter was about to get greasy, or the dough became too warm and sticky, I stuck it in the fridge for 10 minutes. This was for my sanity as much as the lamination (cool dough and butter is not only correct, but it’s also much less frustrating to work with), and I’m happy to report that thanks to those trips to the fridge, both the lamination and my sanity were kept more or less intact.

Learn the letter fold

It’s the first step of lamination, and if your butter is at the right temperature, it’ll go swimmingly.

For once, flour is your friend

For centuries, baking recipes have warned us against using too much flour when rolling out doughs and crusts. The standard recommendation is to use as little as possible because that flour will go into the dough and could make it tough. Fair enough—that advice should be heeded.

But if you, like me, are just a hobbyist, and you aren’t used to working with wetter doughs, take my advice: Do not be scared of flour. I found that a well-floured surface, a lightly floured dough, and a flour-dusted rolling pin was key to rolling out this dough swiftly and neatly, which kept both the dough and the butter block cool. Yes, a pro could probably handle the dough with less flour, maybe even no flour. But I’m not a pro, and you probably aren’t either, and this dough is wet enough that a little extra flour won’t hurt it. So use as much flour as you need—only as much as you need, but still—and don’t feel guilty for a minute. You’ve got morning buns on the horizon. The only thing to feel guilty about is if you let a little extra flour stand in the way of finishing them.

Embrace the braid-and-roll

One of the most genius aspects of this recipe is the final shape, which looks like a gorgeous and intricate knot, but is achieved by a surprisingly simple braid-and-roll.