This month the Bread Baking Babes are baking Pompe à l’huile, a Provençal olive oil brioche traditionally served at Christmas.

Patricia Wells’ version in At Home in Provence is a yeasted bread. Our host, Elizabeth, converted it to sourdough.

In true BBB fashion, I tinkered with it further. Since Pompe à l’huile is a sweet bread, I thought a sweet stiff levain might work better than her wild leavener. It didn’t.

Three bakes later, I ended up back at yeast, but not the straight yeast of the original. I used an overnight poolish with a pinch of yeast and a same-day dough. As Elizabeth likes to say, bread just wants to be bread. This one told me what it wanted.

How I got here

Bake one: I used a sweet, stiff levain in place of Elizabeth’s wild leavener, with an overnight cold bulk ferment, baked at 425°F. The ring had great oven spring, but it was dry, too crusty, and a little bitter. The peppery olive oil I’d been using in other herb-forward loaves was part of the bitterness.

Bake two: added more sugar, a fruity olive oil, and the same sweet stiff levain and cold bulk. This time it was too sour. I was juggling other baking projects, and the dough kept overproofing. The sourness covered the citrus and fennel, the crust stayed pale, and the crumb was a bit gummy.

Bake three: switched to an overnight poolish and a same-day dough with no cold ferment. It was my favorite by far: mild and lightly sweet, with a little crust and a tender crumb.

Why poolish worked better here

A poolish adds flavor and keeping quality that a straight yeast dough doesn’t have, without the acidity of sourdough. In a delicate, lightly sweet bread with orange and fennel, that matters. The timing is also predictable, which helps when you have other things in the oven.

I’ve done this before with my Sourdough Finnish Pulla Braid, where I skipped the overnight cold ferment because the bread didn’t need it. Sometimes the best method is the one that suits the bread.

What I changed from the host recipe

• Overnight poolish instead of the wild leavener.
• White whole wheat in place of the wheat germ. It adds whole grain without competing with the citrus.
• More sugar. It’s still only lightly sweet.
• Eggs at the start of mixing. The dough stays workable instead of turning stiff.
• Olive oil added last, drizzled in after the gluten has developed, like butter in a classic brioche.
• Fennel seed and dried orange peel, a traditional Provençal pairing.
• 400°F the whole bake, with a floured, slashed top instead of an egg glaze.

Tips for making Pompe à l’huile Olive Oil Brioche

• Use a mild, fruity olive oil. A robust, peppery one can turn bitter when baked.
• If the dough is sticky, a 30-minute chill during the bulk ferment firms it up and makes it much easier to handle. I needed three sets of stretch and folds for this dough.
• Coil folds would work well here too. They’re gentler on a sticky, enriched dough, and chilling between sets is already part of that method. I’d started with stretch and folds, so I kept going with them, but I’d try coil folds next time. The coil fold method worked well with these Sourdough Pane de Cristal loaves.
• Keep the center open. Set an oiled, oven-safe ramekin in the hole before baking, and remove it once the loaf has cooled.
• For more citrus, use fresh orange and lemon zest, or increase the dried orange peel. Mine could have used a little more flavor.

Prefer sourdough?

Elizabeth’s post is a good place to start.

If you’d like to use my Pompe à l’huile recipe with sourdough, build an overnight leavener with the same flour and water as the poolish:

• 50g white whole wheat flour
• 75g all-purpose flour
• 125g water
• 15–20g active starter

Mix it the night before and use it in the morning in place of the poolish, when it’s bubbly and at its peak. The rest of the recipe stays the same. Keep everything on the same day, with no overnight cold ferment, and keep the ½ to ¾ teaspoon of instant yeast so the dough rises before it turns sour. Expect a mild tang. I preferred the poolish version, but this is how I’d make it with sourdough.

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Who are the Bread Baking Babes?

We are a group of breadbakers who get together every month and bake bread! We have a Facebook group if you’d like to bake along.  New recipes are posted every month on the 16th.

Elizabeth of blog from OUR kitchen, is the host kitchen this month. If you want to bake along with us and receive your Buddy Badge, please refer to her post for instructions.

Check out the different variations for this month’s bake:

blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth (Host Kitchen)

A Messy Kitchen – Kelly

Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen

Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy

My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna

My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna

Bread Experience – Cathy

Happy Baking!
Cathy