Brioche buns with egg whites

When summer arrives and I start making ice cream on weakly basis, I inevitably find myself with a huge quantity of egg whites. There's plenty of recipes out there to use them, and macarons and meringues are for sure on top of that list.
And what if you don't won't to make those overly sweet things all the time?
Sure there's cake recipes. There are such things as egg whites omelette and several other savory dishes as well.
But my curiosity was definitely tickled by this recipe for a brioche type sweet buns made with egg whites only instead of whole eggs.
As usual, it took me awhile to get my hands in the dough, but it was definitely worth it.
Not overly sweet. But just enough to have for breakfast. I made three pretty big buns (bigger than the palm of my hand), that could be sliced and eaten with jam or chocolate spread,  but I'm definitely giving them another go today and shaping them in different ways, probably smaller and probably even making them filled with jam or... we'll see. I'll probably update the post with more pictures. And try to get step-by-step photos for this type of braid as well. It's super easy and yet really beautiful.

Brioche buns with egg whites

* 70 g sugar
* 70 g butter, softened
* 80 ml milk
* 2 egg whites
* 300 g flour
* 5 g fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon instant dry yeast)

       

                                                     

Dissolve the yeast in a few TBspoons of milk.
Put the softened butter in a bowl, add the sugar and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add the milk and the egg whites and continue whisking with a mixer.
Add the flour and the dissolved yeast, bring everything together and knead with your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Form a ball and place the dough in a clean bowl. Seal and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 3 hours).
Shape the dough in any form that you like, a little elaborated one as I did, or simple braids, empty or filled with jam or chocolate spread and rolled in croissants style.
Once you shaped your brioche buns place them on a baking tray and let rise again for about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C, brush the brioche buns with an egg wash and bake them for 15-20 minutes (depends on the size of the buns) or until golden brown .
Let them cool on a cooling rack and dust with powdered sugar.

Briochine agli albumi

* 70 g di zucchero
* 70 g di burro, ammorbidito
* 80 ml di latte
* 2 albumi
* 300 g di farina
* 5 g di lievito di birra fresco (o 1 cucchiaino di lievito secco)

Prendete un paio di cucchiai di latte e scioglietevi il lievito (se usate quello secco aggiungetelo direttamente nella farina).
Montate il burro con lo zucchero usando uno sbattitore elettrico.
Aggiungete il latte e gli albumi e continuate a lavorare ancora per qualche minuto.
Unite la farina e il lievito e impastate a mano fino a ottenere un impasto liscio ed elastico.
Formate una palla e mettetela in una ciotola pulita, sigillate con la pellicola alimentare e lasciate lievitare fino al raddoppio (circa 3 ore).
Formate le briochine a piacere, vuote o ripiene.
Io ho fatto queste brioche intrecciate, ma si possono fare anche le brioch più semplici. Per esempio formando una semplice treccia con tre cordoncini e unire due estremità per formare ghirlandine. O qualsiasi forma vi viene in mente.
Sistemate le brioche su una placca da forno ricoperta con la carta da forno e lasciatele lievitare coperte con un telo per ancora 1 ora.
Riscaldate il forno a 180°C, spennellate le brioche con l'uovo (o solo albume) e cuocetele per circa 15-20 minuti (dipende dalla grandezza) o finché le brioche assumono un colore dorato.
Lasciatele raffreddare e cospargetele con lo zucchero a velo.

Brioche peciva s bjeljanjcima

* 70 g šećera
* 70 g maslaca, sobne temperature
* 80 ml mlijeka
* 2 bjeljanjka
* 300 g brašna
* 5 g svježeg kvasca (ili 1 žličica suhog)

Odvojite par žlica mlijeka i u njemu otopite svježi kvasac. Ako koristite suhi, dodajte ga izravno u brašno.
Umutite mikserom omekšali maslac sa šećerom.
Dodajte mlijeko i bjeljanjke pa opet kratko umutite.
Umiješajte brašno (pomiješano sa suhim kvascem, ako koristite suhi) i kvasac, pa mijesite tijesto rukama dok ne postane glatko i elastično.
Oblikujte tijesto u lopticu, stavite ga u zdjelu i pokrijte prozirnom folijom.
Neka se diže na toplom oko 3 sata odnosno dok se ne udvostruči obujam.
Peciva možete oblikovati po želji.
Ja sam podijelila na komadiće teške 50 g, oblikovala svaki u dugi, tanki prut pa ih uplela na ovaj način.
Ako vam se to čini komplicirano upletite pletenice od tri prutića i spojite ih kao vjenčić ili kako vam se već sviđa.
Ostavite oblikovana peciva da se dižu 1 sat, a zatim ih premažite razmućenim jajetom (ja sam ih premazala samo bjeljanjkom) i pecite ih 20 minuta na 180°C ili dok ne dobiju lijepu boju.
Ostavite ih da se ohlade i pospite ih šećerom u prahu prije posluživanja.

* od ove količine tijesta dobila sam tri veća peciva. Po želji možete napraviti i samo jedno veliko ili per, šest manjih od ovih koja sam ja pravila.

Other shapes you could give to this dough:
1) Braids with cinnamon sugar

     

2) Nutella snails

   

3) Chocolate chip filled braid

                 

4) Jam filled buns