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Brioche is a French bread that is lighter and fluffier on account of a high butter and egg content. Brioche bread isn’t as popular as a standard bread in the United States, but it has its fans. You see brioche bread in dessert pastries, for example, and brioche buns go great with chicken.
A while back, we were shopping at Aldi’s distant cousin Trader Joe’s when we picked up some premade frozen brioche French toast slices. It was a pricey purchase, running about a dollar a slice, and it got me thinking about how much better I could do if I just made the French toast myself using a regular loaf of brioche. During a subsequent Aldi visit, I saw this loaf on the shelf and decided to find out.
Specially Selected Brioche Loaf is an Aldi Regular Buy. You can find it in stores all the time, typically in the section with other breads and rolls. The 17.6-ounce loaf, cut into 15 slices, comes in a plastic bag and currently costs $4.89. That comes out to about 28 cents an ounce or 32 cents a slice. That’s a competitive price compared to brioche loaves Walmart sells.
According to the packaging, the bread is a product of France. Allergens include wheat, milk, and egg.
Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The bread is, as advertised, light and fluffy, with a hint of sweetness. In that way, it has a familiar taste and texture to other brioche breads I’ve had in the past. It’s also thick enough that it seems to hold up well to different applications.
I decided to put it to work as French toast. I used a proportion of 1 egg + 1/4 cup milk, which came out to about 3 pieces of toast for every egg. My mix of 4 eggs + 1 cup of milk yielded 12 pieces of French toast, which used up nearly all of the bag except for one of the regular slices and the two heels.
French toast prior to slathering with butter and syrup.
This brioche accents French toast nicely. I like how it blends a bit of brioche sweetness and airiness to the egg and milk mix. I topped it with butter and syrup and really enjoyed the final product. My family did, too, suggesting that this is a more fun way to make French toast than with regular white bread.
The Verdict:
The Specially Selected Brioche Loaf is a competitively priced quality brioche that is well-suited to making French toast and to other brioche-related uses. Our testers liked it and would not be against getting it again.
