This easy recipe for Brioche Bread will become your new favorite breakfast staple. This sweet bread is so light and fluffy because it’s made with common pantry ingredients. This light and airy bread can be prepared in a flash and is delicious plain or topped with butter and jam.
Brioche bread is a delicacy that you’re missing out on if you’ve never tried it. This French bread is classified as a Viennoiserie because its dough is enriched with butter and eggs, giving it the characteristics of a pastry because of its rich and tender crumb.
The most time-consuming part of making this bread is waiting for the dough to rise after it has been mixed.
Materials Required for This Recipe
- Always make sure your yeast hasn’t passed its expiration date. If the yeast has passed its expiration date, you should replace it with fresh yeast.
- Flour — using all-purpose flour ensures a light and airy crumb in brioche bread loaves. Brioche made with bread flour will have a slightly chewier texture.
- Don’t skimp on the eggs if you want a dense loaf of bread. You can use any eggs you like, but if you want your loaves to be a richer shade of yellow, use eggs with bright orange yolks.
- When making brioche bread, it’s important to use unsalted butter rather than salted butter. Since the salt content of salted butter varies widely between brands, it is necessary to add salt to the brioche dough in a separate step to avoid oversalting the finished product. Make sure the butter is soft enough that pressing a finger into it leaves a dent, and that it has been allowed to come to room temperature. When added a tablespoon at a time, it will blend in evenly with the rest of the dough.
Ingredients
- ▢6 cups all-purpose flour divided (720g)
- ▢¾ cup warm milk 110-120°F (180mL)
- ▢6 tablespoons granulated sugar divided (75g)
- ▢1 0.25-oz. packet active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons)
- ▢7 large eggs divided
- ▢2½ teaspoons salt
- ▢1¼ cups unsalted butter softened and cubed (284g)
- ▢1 tablespoon water
BRIOCHE BREAD: THE ART OF MAKING IT
- A portion of the flour, milk, and sugar should be mixed with the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Cover the bowl partially and let the mixture sit out until it foams.
- Throw in the last of the sugar, salt, and flour.
- Put the eggs in the dish.
- Knead the dough for 10 to 12 minutes, or until it is shiny and elastic, using the dough hook attachment. Adding the butter should be done one tablespoon at a time; wait for each addition to be absorbed before adding more.
- Turn the mixer up to medium-low and knead the dough for an additional five minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic. Next, wait for the dough to double in size while covered in the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and punch it down. Cut the dough in half, then each half into thirds, and roll each third into a rope that is 9 inches in length. The ropes should be braided and the ends pinched to prevent unraveling. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been buttered and tuck the ends under. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise again until it has doubled in size.
- Bake the risen loaves at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until they reach a deep golden color. Wait 5 minutes in the pans before transferring the baked brioche bread to a wire rack to cool completely.
HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE LIKE A PRO
- The dough’s rising time will vary based on the ambient temperature in your kitchen. Dough should rise between 75 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Burger bun dough can be kept warm in an unlit, turned-off oven in a cold kitchen.
- Milk should be between 110 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit; any higher and the yeast will die, and any lower and the yeast won’t activate.
- If you measure your flour accurately, you won’t have to worry about adding too much. The most common cause of dense bread is using too much flour in the recipe. A scale is the most accurate tool for measuring flour. If you don’t have a flour sifter, you can use a spoon to aerate the flour before sprinkling it into a measuring cup and then leveling it off with a knife.
- Brioche dough is best made with eggs that have been at room temperature rather than straight from the refrigerator. If you forgot to take the eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, you can quickly bring them to room temperature by placing them in a bowl of warm water for a couple of minutes.
- If the dough makes an indentation when gently pressed, it is ready to be baked. A ready-to-bake ball of dough will retain or slightly recover from the indentation. If it recovers completely, then it will take less time.
- If the dough deflates when poked, it has been over-proofed. If you don’t reshape the dough before baking, your brioche bread will lose its airy texture.
- If the bread’s internal temperature is 190 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s done baking all the way through.
- Although it adds time to the process, the baked loaves are more delicious when a sponge has been used. You can save time by skipping step 1 (adding the flour) and instead waiting for the yeast to “bloom,” or become foamy, for about 10 minutes. In Step 2, add all six cups of flour.
- Check out my recipe for brioche buns if you want to modify this for another purpose.
FAQ
DO I NEED A STAND MIXER TO MAKE THIS?
Use the dough hook attachments on a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer. Although hand-kneading brioche bread is possible, it is time-consuming due to the bread’s high fat content, which slows the development of the gluten structure. The dough will be extremely sticky at the outset, making it difficult to knead at first. Use a lightly floured surface to knead the dough. Fold the dough in half and knead it by pushing down and outward with the palms of your hands until it is smooth. When compared to using a stand mixer, kneading by hand will take about twice as long.
SO, WHAT IS IT THAT SETS A BRIOCHE APART FROM OTHER BREADS?
Bread is typically made with water, flour, salt, and yeast. But brioche has abundant amounts of eggs, milk, and butter, which enrich the dough and produce a loaf that is significantly more moist, softer, and rich. In addition to being more sugary than regular bread, this brioche bread recipe is delicious.
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