In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs with a fork. Pour half of this mixture into the flour and start kneading with the dough hook on medium speed.

Add the salt and let it absorb, then add the softened butter a little at a time, waiting for each addition to be absorbed before adding more. Add the orange-infused butter and finally the vanilla.

Turn the dough out with a dough scraper, restart the mixer, and repeat this process 3–4 times, continuing to knead until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place (like an oven with the light on) for 2–2.5 hours, until doubled in size.

For the milk cream: While the dough is rising, prepare the milk cream so it has time to cool.

In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in 3 tablespoons cold milk (about 50 ml, taken from the total 1 1/4 cups/300 ml). Mix well until smooth and lump-free. In a saucepan, add the remaining milk, sugar, vanilla, and the dissolved cornstarch.

Heat over medium, stirring constantly with a spoon until the cream thickens, about 2–3 minutes. It should be smooth and creamy.

Once cooled, beat the cream briefly to make it smooth and velvety again, with no lumps.

Whip the cold heavy cream and gently fold it into the milk cream using a spatula or spoon, mixing from bottom to top.

Once the dough has risen, the original recipe says to divide it into 6 pieces of about 5.8–6 ounces (165–170 grams) each and place them in individual aluminum molds (about 5x4x1.5 inches/13x10x4 cm). I did this, but they were really huge, so the next time I weighed the dough and divided it into 10 pieces. The smaller portions worked much better for us 😊.

I ran out of single-portion molds, so I used the next size up—long rectangular aluminum pans—cutting them down by about two-thirds, stacking the pieces, and folding the excess to close them. It’s easier than it sounds—photos would help!

I folded the edges inward to secure everything. This made them a bit smaller than the single-portion molds, perfect for the portion size I made. Then I lined them with parchment paper cut to fit.

Once you’ve divided the dough into 10 pieces, shape each into a ball. When all are shaped, take the first one, flatten it with your hands, and stretch it into a small rectangle.

Fold the short sides toward the center, then fold again the other way (hopefully the photos make this clearer 😅).

You’ll end up with ovals. Place them seam-side down in the parchment-lined aluminum molds.

Once all the brioche are shaped, cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise in the turned-off oven with the light on and a bowl of hot water on the bottom. Let rise again until very puffy, about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Bake in a conventional oven at 340°F (170°C) for 15 minutes. If the edges are still too pale, cover with foil and bake for another 10 minutes with heat only from below.

As soon as they come out of the oven, brush them three times with milk (letting it absorb between each brushing) while still hot: this will give you a soft, shiny crust that’s irresistible!

Once cooled, remove from the molds and, using a piping bag, fill generously with the milk cream. The original recipe fills them from the top, but I prefer to fill them from the bottom. Finally, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.