The first thing to do is to refresh the sourdough. Pull it out from the refrigerator, bring to room temperature and take 70 g of it. Then Knead with 70 g of Manitoba flour and 30 ml of water. Let rise until it doubles or triples the volume, it will take about 3-4 hours.

Once you have a sourdough starter refreshed you can proceed with the preparation of the genuine dough of the brioche.

Place in a large bowl the flour, sourdough (or brewer's yeast dissolved in milk), eggs, salt, sugar, butter, lemon peel, orange peel, aroma of orange, the saffron and milk and knead vigorously. The dough should be soft and be very sticky at first. Continue to knead until the mixture comes off the bowl. It must be compact, smooth and very elastic.


Now continue on a pastry board, form a rectangular loaf and flatten, then run the folds in three layers (as shown in the figure), rotate 90 degrees and flatten again with his hands, performing again the folds. This process helps the dough strong and elastic. The folds should be performed for 2-3 times. Finally, form a ball, place it in a bowl, cover and let it rise until the dough has doubled.

I had to leave the dough all night long, about 12 hours, but as you well know, the times with the sourdough starter are very approximate, depend on the strength of your sourdough starter and temperature.
When the dough has doubled, cut pieces of dough about 85 g, 2 folds do again and form a ball, and later take a piece of dough about 15 g and perform the same process. Press with a finger in the center of the ball from 85g to form a small hole above which you are going to place the ball smaller. Continue this process for the rest of the dough, sprinkle with a beaten egg yolk with about 50 ml of milk.
Make it rise until the brioche double in volume (have occurred for me 5 hours) and then bake at 200-220 C for about 15-20 minutes.

Since this is a leavened dough the choice of flour (rich in gluten, such as Manitoba) and the working of the dough are two fundamental aspects for the success of this preparation. With regard to the working of the dough, especially if you do not have a kneading machine, it is good to remember that this has to be worked long and must be subjected to the procedure of the folds. In this way you will get a well-worked dough and suitable for leavening.

The Sicilian brioche, or brioche co tuppu, is one of the most well-known Sicilian pastries. By itself does not have anything out of the ordinary, in fact it's simple ingredients, which can also be found in other types of cakes and other brioches. However, the Sicilian brioche is different from the others because it assumes a characteristic shape. It is called brioche co tuppu. The word tuppu, Tuppo in Italian, derives from the French toupee, or hair gathered at the nape, just what resembles the shape of the brioche in Sicily.
In Sicily, in particular in Catania, the brioche with Tuppo is eaten for breakfast with a cappuccino instead of the croissant, but also as a snack at teatime, in the summer also no giving up "brioche ca slush" or the "broscia" stuffed ice cream

For the dough of the Sicilian brioche there is a lot of variability in particular on the yellow color of pasta, playing on the number of eggs and the possible addition of saffron. In the recipe of www.tiraccontounaricetta.it we reported it as an ingredient optional, even if it seems that the original recipe does not use it.

For each brioche

Energy: 303,60 kcal
Total Dietary Fiber : 2.03 g
Alcohol: 0.00 g
Water: 36.02 g
Total Protein : 8,42 g
Animal protein : 1.98 g
Vegetable protein : 6.44 g
Total lipids : 8.39 g
Lipids animals : 7,82 g
Plant lipids : 0.56 g
Cholesterol: 60.74 mg
Available carbohydrates : 51.90 g
Starch : 41.94 g
Sugars: 9.96 g