Le Pain de Joel Robuchon, a tiny Tokyo outpost of the French restaurant group, is packed with all the classics—croissants, financiers, sables, canneles etc.—and each is as delicious as you might expect in a city where pastry is considered art. New to me was Galette Bressane, a regional French dessert reimagined as a lightly sweetened, feathery light brioche bun topped with vanilla crème and a crunchy sugar glaze.

Galette Bresanne is traditionally made from ultra-rich, eggy brioche, which requires building a strong, glutenous dough before gradually adding heaps of softened butter (which inhibits gluten formation, hence the jumpstart), then kneading for an additional 20 minutes or more. It’s a commitment—especially for just a few simple buns.

Brendan Liew, an Australian chef and cookbook author, fell for the bakery’s buns when he cooked in Tokyo and included a recipe in his book, Tokyo Local: Cult Recipes from the Streets that Make the City. Liew’s recipe takes an easier approach than classic brioche. It scales back the butter and eggs a little and has higher hydration, for a lighter dough that comes together in almost half the time of traditional dough. Start the dough (eggs, milk, sugar, yeast, bread flour for strength), knead until just shaggy, then add the butter and knead until smooth.

We started with Liew’s recipe and made some minor adjustments, like adjusting flour-to-liquid ratios for American flour (Liew’s Australian flour handles differently than American flour). We found the key is keeping the dough very supple and far stickier than a traditional brioche dough by using the minimum amount of flour and the paddle, not dough hook; otherwise, the buns bake up squat.

Once proofed, the dough is divided and carefully rounded—with as little flour as possible to keep the texture light—allowed to rise to half again it's size (not doubling), then deeply dimpled and filled with the sweetened crème fraiche topping (the dough balloons with oven spring, so it should look like an inverted Frisbee before filling). An egg wash and liberal dusting of sugar before baking adds gloss and crunch. All in, it’s a morning project yielding professional results.

Matthew Card

Matthew Card is Milk Street’s Creative Director for Recipes and Products, resident coffee geek, knife collector and equipment junkie. He has 25-plus years of professional cooking, recipe development, food writing and teaching under his belt. When he’s not in the Milk Street kitchen or on the road hunting for new recipes and ideas, Matthew lives with his family in Canberra, Australia, where he does his best to dodge kangaroos on his mountain bike and is learning to love Vegemite.