Basic Brioche Bread Recipe (2024)

Basic Brioche Bread Recipe is made with an egg and butter enriched yeast dough that is very fluffy, yet moist and perfect for so many uses! Serve it sliced for regular or French toast, shape and bake it into anEaster Bread, or serve it as brioche buns for dinner. If you have any leftovers, which is unlikely, use them to make bread pudding.

I hope that my detailed guide and tutorial will take the intimidation out of working with yeast dough and allow you to bake with joy, instead of fear 😀

Whether you decide to slice the brioche bread for sandwiches, or tear it apart and serve as dinner rolls with dinner, this recipe is a must-know for anyone who wants to try their hand at yeast bread making. Understanding how the yeast dough works will take away the intimidation factor out of working with the yeast.

I have tested this recipe in every way possible so that I can share everything you need to know to have a successful batch every time. Whether you have a stand mixer, a bread maker, or decide to make it by hand, you can make brioche at home!

This brioche bread is also the base for my Easter Bread, which you have seen me test out gazzilion times on Instagram.

Tip – if you just want the recipe, scroll all the way down, otherwise, read on to learn all about mastering brioche.

So, what is Brioche?

Brioche is a lightly sweetened French bread that is a cross between a bread and a yeast-based pastry. The egg and butter-rich brioche dough is soft, fluffy, and beautifully tender. This type of pastry bread can be used for both sweet and savory purposes like french toast, or a simple egg sandwich.

For a fancier savory version, try a Croque Madame sandwich with brioche bread, ham, cheese, creamy béchamel sauce, and an egg. Can you say “yumm”?

But! Don’t think that this brioche needs anything to “fancy” it up. It’s good just as is! The dough has a pleasant buttery rich flavor, akin to croissant which doesn’t need any dressing up at all. So, a cup of tea or milk and a slice of brioche and you’ve got a perfect breakfast or a snack.

It doesn’t hurt that all that butter in the dough makes this brioche bread stay fresh for as long as 4-5 days! And I don’t mean barely soft, I mean still as good as ever soft!

How to make the Best Brioche

A proper brioche dough needs to be kneaded until soft, smooth, and elastic, then allowed to rise for 1 hour. Next, the brioche dough needs to be refrigerated for 4 hours or up to 2 days. After that, you remove it from the fridge, punch it down and shape it. After the brioche proofs one more time it is ready for baking.

This is a tedious process that does yield the best tasting results. During the refrigeration process, the flavors of brioche deepen, mature, and fully develop. The flour has the time to fully absorb the liquid and the butter can solidify. The cold brioche dough is easy to shape and that’s important since warm, butter ladened dough can be runny and harder to work with.

Speeding up brioche:

BUT! What if you want brioche, but don’t have the time for refrigeration? Well, go ahead and skip the cold-fermentation in the fridge and just allow it to proof once, before shaping and giving it a final proofing.

I have done this and the flavors and texture were not as good as when you do refrigerate it, but still – very good! So, feel free to skip it, if you must.

The easiest way to make Brioche Dough:

There are 3 ways to make the brioche dough and there are pros and cons to each. Make your choice depending on your needs and equipment availability.

• By hand – you most likely already have the equipment (hands), but it is the most labor-intensive. If you have some built-up frustration that needs a way out, this is a good way to get it out! Still, this particular dough starts out very sticky and runny which makes it a bit difficult to knead.
• With a stand mixer – this one is a good choice since it frees up your hands for other things. Do keep an eye on your dough tough, and stop kneading as soon as the dough stops sticking to the sides. Kneading past that point will stretch the gluten too much and the over-kneaded dough will produce tough flat bread.
• With a bread maker – this thing is built just for bread, so naturally, it’s the best and easiest choice for making brioche or any other kind of yeast-based dough. Also, the bread machine doesn’t need a lot of supervision, like the stand mixer method. Out of the three methods, this one is my favorite because the shape of the mixing paddle creates the best motion for stretching those gluten fibers.

Tips for Success:

• Check your yeast: if you haven’t used your yeast in a while and don’t know it is still active, dissolve the yeast in a little bit of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar and leave to proof or puff up for about 5-10 minutes. If it gets bubbly and puffy, use it. If not, do not even attempt the recipe until you get unexpired yeast.
• Use Canadian or bread flour if available. The increased protein/gluten content of these flours is best for yeast-based baked goods.
• Use Red Star Platinum yeast. This yeast is very forgiving and will provide phenomenal results even if you’re a novice baker. If you try it once, you’ll never go back to any other, just like I haven’t. It is more expensive than other yeast, but only about 1$ per batch, so not too bad.
• Make sure to knead the brioche dough until it looks very smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl as it spins around. This is a sign that gluten is well developed. If it doesn’t look smooth, just continue mixing and it will!
• Use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients for consistent results. Using a cup to scoop flour (sifted or unsifted) will yield different amounts every time. Using a scale is your golden ticket to success.

I would like to finish this super long pre-recipe post with uses for brioche dough or loaf –

Brioche Dough & Bread Uses:

• Hamburger Buns
• Easter or Panetonne type holiday Bread
• Hot Dog Buns
• Filled Pastries
• Hot Cross Buns
• French Toast (stuffed w/ Nutella & strawberries? 😀 )
• Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Bread Pudding
• Brioche Croque Monsieur & Croque Madame Sandwiches

Now that you’re armed with all this knowledge, let’s get to the recipe itself!

Brioche Ingredients

• Brioche dough uses classic ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, yeast, and salt. I add vanilla and more sugar if I know the brioche bread will be used as a dessert. I omit the vanilla and use less sugar if the bread will be used for savory purposes.

How to make Brioche Bread

• Combine all ingredients except for butter and salt in a mixer bowl, or the bread maker. Knead for about 20 minutes or until smooth and pulls away from the sides. The dough should look smooth, pull away from the sides and be very soft without holding shape well. If the dough still looks runny even after kneading, add a little bit more flour, one tablespoon at a time. Do not add too much flour or the brioche will be dense and heavy.
• Do not overknead or the brioche bread won’t rise as well and will be dense and heavy.
• Add the butter in halves, then the salt. Allow the dough to knead it in. You might have to break the dough into chunks to help the mixer or the bread machine to knead the butter in. This might take about 10-15 minutes.

• Tip: If using the bread machine for the kneading and proofing, you can add the butter and salt when the machine beeps, signaling that it’s time to add the “add-ins”. This usually happens bout 20 minutes into the kneading.

  If the butter doesn’t fully incorporate before the bread machine stops kneading and starts the “proofing cycle”, turn the dough cycle OFF and ON again and let the dough go through one more kneading cycle (another “DOUGH” cycle). The extra kneading time will be perfect to finish the kneading.

• Tip: To save time, all ingredients (including butter and salt) can be added together and kneaded until the gluten is well-developed, the dough is elastic and stops sticking to the bowl. Adding the butter and salt right away, can make take longer to get to the point where it doesn’t stick to the sides.

• If you’re planning to make the brioche with dried fruits, chocolate, citrus zest, or other add-ins, knead them in after adding the butter just until they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Shape & Bake Brioche Bread

• Once kneaded, allow the dough to proof for 1 hour, then cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
• Next, split the dough into 16 or 8 pieces and roll into tight balls. Divide between 2 pans if making smaller (16 pcs) loaves, or arrange in one 9″x5″ bread pan and allow to proof again. Next, brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with poppy seeds if you’d like, then bake until golden.

• Allow the brioche bread to cool, then tear or slice and enjoy! Whether you make it as one big loaf or two smaller loaves, now you’ve got the most delicious piece of rich, buttery bread you’ll ever have. Enjoy!

Check out these other yeast-based baked goods:

• Poppy Seed Pastry Buns – my grandma’s specialty, these are such a treat!
• Simple Sugar Coated Donuts – donuts are always a good idea, right? 😀
• Fried Meat Piroshky – something savory for you, you’re going to love them!
• – Filled with chocolate and blueberries it’s a dream as a toast with butter!