This soft buttery homemade sweet Brioche recipe is straightforward to make once you know how. You will love the smell of brioche wafting from the oven…
What is Brioche Bread?
Sweet Brioche – Like a mix between pastry and bread, and loaded with butter and eggs, this bread can be great for savoury and sweet dishes alike.
It can be a challenge to make but once you master it, you are going to love the smell of this cooking in your kitchen – just like a bakery!
Usually seen as a brioche braid or in cute brioche buns known as brioche à tête, it is the extra butter and eggs added to this classic fluffy brioche bread recipe that gives it the unique brioche crumb and lovely golden crust!
It is the extra added fats from these ingredients that make this sweet brioche recipe special.
Ingredients
Bread Flour – this serves as the base for the bread recipe, I use strong white bread flour in my recipe but you can use all-purpose or plain flour to give an even softer crumb
Unsalted Butter – this gives this Brioche Bread Recipe extra richness and provides a great buttery flavour to your loaf. Use the best quality butter you can find for a great brioche loaf.
Yeast – this allows your bread to rise and adds flavour
Whole Milk – milk provides extra richness and helps your Brioche Bread have a soft crumb
Whole Eggs – another great ingredient for adding richness to your Brioche and helps give that distinctive yellow crumb
Sugar – an addition of sugar rounds off the flavour of the Brioche
Can I make brioche bread without a stand mixer?
To make a good brioche there are two essentials – good quality butter and a stand mixer!
Since this bread is packed with butter and eggs, it can get very wet and to fully incorporate these into the dough and develop the gluten in the flour, the power of a stand mixer is needed.
I have personally not tried a hand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment but it could be possible to use this, albeit it would take longer to incorporate the butter and eggs.
Brioche may seem intimidating to make but if you follow these simple steps, you will have an amazing loaf of Brioche in no time!
How to Make Homemade Sweet Brioche Bread
- Measure out all your ingredients and get your stand mixer ready.
Similar to other bread recipes, add your dry ingredients to the mixer bowl. Add eggs along with the yeast and milk mixture - Once your Brioche Dough comes together in the bowl, add room-temperature butter slowly to give a rich dough and worked into the dough using the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer
- Similar to other bread, allow the dough to rise and knock it back. Here it is then portioned into small dough balls and placed in a loaf tin to rise again. This gives the distinctive shape that is recognizable as Brioche! Alternatively, you could divide the dough into pieces and create a brioche braid. Remember and keep the dough cool as when it warms up, the butter can leak and ruin the dough. Be quick when shaping your dough into balls to avoid this from happening.
- A layer of egg wash brushed onto the loaf before baking is used to give that lovely golden crust
How to use Brioche Bread
Once you have baked the Brioche Dough and you have your finished loaf, let it cool completely before slicing. Use it for anything you like, but I recommend brioche french toast – brioche makes the best buttery rich french toast. If you have any leftover, use it for bread pudding!
FAQ’s
Absolutely! I like to slice mine and freeze the slices individually in tinfoil. That way I can get my Brioche fix any time I fancy. Whether you store the loaf whole or sliced, make sure it is wrapped tightly in tinfoil. It will last in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Yes. As with most bread recipes, Brioche uses wheat flour and contains a lot of gluten. You can try to substitute the flour with your favourite gluten-free flour as an alternative.
Brioche is different to most breads as it is an enriched bread. Plenty of butter is added which makes it richer and gives that distinct soft yellow crumb along with the addition of eggs. Brioche bread has a pastry-like quality because of this and is sweeter than most breads.
It is commonly eaten with some good quality jam or even Nutella! Use it in place of your favourite bread for a touch of luxury and to add extra richness to your dish. Try using this brioche recipe to make amazing French toast or upgrade your bread pudding game!
Yes it is possible. Due to the addition of eggs and butter, this dough requires a lot of effort to combine the ingredients and the power of a stand mixer will make this brioche recipe easy. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer fitted with dough hook attachments and a little patience!
Not very long usually! If you do happen to have some leftovers, it will keep for a few days in the fridge in an airtight container. Alternatively, slice and freeze the individual slices so you can grab a slice when you fancy
Brioche is ever so slightly sweet due to the addition of sugar to the dough. This makes it great to use in dessert recipes
Try my other Recipes
Authentic French Brioche Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer
Ingredients
- 250 g white bread flour
- 125 g unsalted butter room temp
- 7 g instant yeast
- 3 tbsp warm whole milk
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 3 large eggs + 1 for egg wash
Instructions
- Place flour, and salt in stand mixer bowl. Preheat oven to 200°C
- Add yeast and sugar to warm milk and let sit for 5 minutes until frothy. Add to mixer bowl along with eggs and mix on low (level 3) until combined
- Whilst mixer is going, slowly add cubed butter, giving each piece time to incorporate into the dough
- Keep going until all the butter is fully incorporated into the dough and dough is smooth and very elastic (around 20 mins)
- Cover the dough with cling film in a greased bowl and leave to double in size (around 2 hours)
- When doubled, remove from bowl and gently deflate
- Portion 8 equal pieces into balls and place in greased and lined bread tin
- Cover loosely and leave to rise again(doubled in size, around 1.5 hours)
- Once risen, brush gently with eggwash of 1 egg and a little water
- Place in oven at 200°C for 10 minutes then lower to 180°C for another 30 minutes until deep and golden.
- Remove from oven, let cool in tin for 5 – 10 minutes then turn onto cooling rack to cool completely before slicing for use.
Notes
- Use very soft room temperature butter, otherwise, it will not incorporate into the dough properly. Leaving your butter out of the fridge overnight will ensure it is soft enough to work into the dough.
- Add the cubed butter in slowly and use a dough hook attachment. Adding the butter in too quickly results in a greasy dough. Make sure the butter is fully incorporated before adding more to your mixer.
- Incorporate the butter on medium-high speed in your mixer until well incorporated and the dough is ready when it pulls from the side of the bowl and forms around the dough hook.
- Test the dough for readiness using the window pane test. Pinch a small piece of dough between your fingers and it should stretch easily and you can see through it without the dough breaking.
