the wealthy "from the time of Louis XIV onwards ... Butter, in widespread use at least in the northern half of France, was the secret of making brioches". "In Gisors, on market days, they produce up to 250 or 300 kg of brioches. The dough is made the evening before (1 kg of farine, a quarter of which for the starter, 10 g of yeast, 7 or 8 eggs; one mixes this with the starter and 800 g of butter, breaking up the dough, which 'uses up the butter'). The dough is kept in a terrine, and one puts it in a mold just at the moment of baking. Thus prepared, the brioche remains light, keeps well, maintains the flavour of butter, without the stench of the starter." Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his autobiography Confessions, relates that "a great princess" is said to have advised, with regard to peasants who had no bread, "," commonly translated as "Let them eat cake." This saying is commonly misattributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. Etymology Although there has been much debate about the etymology of the word and, thus, the recipe's origins, it is now widely accepted that it is derived from the Old French verb "brier," "a Norman dialectical form of broyer, to work the dough with a broye or brie (a sort of wooden roller for kneading); the suffix -oche is a generic deverbal suffix. Pain brié is a Norman bread whose dense dough was formerly worked with this instrument." The word is of Germanic origin, probably derived from the Proto-Indo-European root bhreg (to break). Types La brioche aux fruits confits or gâteau des rois Gâche Brioche de Nanterre Brioche vendéenne Brioche tressée de Metz Cougnou Pogne, Dauphiné Gâteau de Saint-Genix, Saint-Genix-sur-Guiers Chinois or Schneckenkuchen ("snail pie"), Alsace-Lorraine Tarte Tropézienne, with custard Brioscia, Sicily King cake Related breads Many other breads are enriched with eggs and often milk and butter; many of them are braided. Gallery See also Cottage loaf Craquelin Ensaymada Gugelhupf List of French dishes Mouna Panbrioche Panettone Notes External links Brioches French breads Norman cuisine Yeast breads Braided egg breads