Sicilian Brioche with Tuppo

If you don’t plan to go to Sicily, make Sicily come to you.

With its fragrant, soft and fluffy brioche, ice-cold creamy granitas your start of the day will never be the same.

As you might already know, I’m not a huge fan of long intros to the recipe and random details that truly don’t matter.

But what I do love is sharing with you guys & girls curious and useful things about the recipe, ingredients or the region of Italy it’s coming from.

And, of course, tips & tricks that:

1. Perfect the recipe.
2. Make your life easier when cooking.
3. Give alternative use of parts of the recipe.
4. Best ways to serve and enjoy what you’ve just cooked 🙂

And here’s what you really need to know about truly authentic Brioche.

Original Sicilian Brioche has a very high content of fat.

Back in the days, it used to be pork lard, but high quality butter gives equally awesome results.

You might be tempted or even have come across some brioche recipes with lower contents of fat, but let me assure you, the result is NOT the same.

I’ve tried lots of variations before settling with this one, and I’m telling ya’, reducing butter AND egg quantity is NOT a good idea.

I know you might be worried about the calories and such, but you can easily get away making your brioches a smaller size and of course enjoying it in the first half of the day.

This way you get plenty of time to burn it off PLUS you stay full and energized much longer.

Being already rich in fat, this brioche doesn’t require any other condiment you would normally add on your toast.

No butter, no jam.

Just a plain brioche is a masterpiece on its own.

Classic Sicilian breakfast can’t go without freshly backed brioches like this and an ice-cold coffee granita topped with whipped cream.

Now you might be wondering, Brioche with Tuppo…

Tuppo?? No worries, it’s not a special ingredient you’ve never heard of 🙂

Yet, it’s an integral part of Sicilian brioche and back in the days, tuppo was an integral part of Sicilian woman hairstyle.

Tuppo, in fact means – a bun.

And as you might have guessed, it’s called brioche con tuppo because of its shape that resembles chignon hair style.

Now that you know

All you need is a couple of simple ingredients and little bit of patience.

Oh so much worth it!!

Full Recipe

Sicilian Brioche with Tuppo

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

With its fragrant, soft and fluffy brioche, ice-cold creamy granitas your summer break will never be the same.

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Prep Time2 hours hrs

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Brioche Dough

• ▢ 2 ⅔ cup flour
• ▢ ⅓ cup sugar
• ▢ ½ tbsp dry yeast
• ▢ Pinch of salt
• ▢ 2 sticks/ 8 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ 4 tbsp milk

Egg Wash

• ▢ 1 egg yolk
• ▢ 1 tbsp milk

Instructions

• Start by adding all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast, salt) into the mixing bowl. Give it a nice stir.
• If you like to add vanilla or lemon flavor to your brioche, at this point add 1 tbsp of vanilla essence or 1 lemon zest.
• Using a dough hook turn on the food processor. Pour in the milk and one-by-one continue adding the eggs.
• Once the dough starts to become smoother, begin adding small portions of butter cut in cubes (fingernail size).
• Add no more than 2 butter cubes at a time and wait until they’re completely absorbed into the dough before adding the next portion.
• Your food processor should be working on high speed and the kneading process from mixing dry ingredients to incorporating small portions of butter should take about 15 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a larger bowl with a lid or cover it with plastic. Let it rest for 2-3 hours at room temperature. After that place the bowl with the dough in the fridge. Leave it there for 12 hours or overnight. This is the whole point of a brioche dough.
• It’ll continue leavening in the fridge. Just keep in mind not to let it sit there more than 24hrs.
• When ready transfer the dough to your working surface. Knead it lightly with a rolling move giving it a round but elongated shape.
• Cut into 8-10 pieces (depending how large or small you want your brioche). Typically each piece should be around 3.5-4 oz.
• To form a perfect bun, cover a piece of the dough with your hand. With rotating &rolling moves start to press it lightly against the surface. Sprinkle the surface with a bit of flour if needed.
• Once you have a prefect round ball, using your hand roll it into a thick 4-inch long rope. Now measure approx 2/3 of the rope and using the side of your palm continue the rolling move pressing gently ⅔ of the way through.
• You should get a kind of pom pom on one side and short thick rope on the other. In reality this pom pom or bun IS tuppo.
• Pressing with your fingers make a whole in the larger section, fold tuppo outwards and pass it through the whole. Voila!
• This is a traditional technique used by Sicilian woman. But if it seems too complex feel free to roll up round balls and pom poms separately and place one on top of another.
• Place your “soon-to-be brioche” on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Cover with a linen towel and let rise for 60-120 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Mix egg yolk with milk and brush each brioche with egg wash before placing it into the oven.
• Bake at 400F 20-25 minutes until nicely brown.

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Enjoy for breakfast or merenda (snack after lunch time).

But mostly important accompany your brioche with granita!

Coffee Granita for example.

Because brioche and granita is a match made in heaven.