Brioche

Brioche is a rich, buttery yeast bread, egg-heavy and lightly sweet, baked into a domed loaf or individual rolls. It's France's everyday bread that reads more like cake — dense with butter and egg in a way that sets it apart from an ordinary loaf, yet plain enough to sit on a breakfast table without being a dessert.

What it actually is

An enriched yeast dough is built with a high proportion of butter and egg worked into the flour base, along with milk and a little sugar, then given a long, slow rise so the gluten can handle the weight of all that fat without collapsing. It's shaped either into one large domed loaf, often in a fluted mould, or into small individual rolls with the classic topknot, then baked until the crust turns deep golden and the crumb inside stays soft, almost pull-apart tender.

The dough's richness is what makes brioche behave differently from bread once it's stale — it toasts beautifully and takes to being turned into French toast or bread pudding rather than just going hard.

How it's served

• Sliced or torn, plain or lightly toasted, at breakfast.
• As individual rolls, the small topknot shape reserved mostly for this format.
• Used as a base for other dishes, from French toast to burger buns to bread pudding.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten, egg and dairy; the enriched dough carries all three.
• Say if you make it in-house, since a genuine slow-risen brioche is a real point of craft worth naming.
• Mention if it's served plain or with butter and jam, since the richness of the bread itself changes what pairs well with it.
• Note if it's used as a base for another dish (French toast, a bun), since that's a different order from a simple sliced loaf.