Brioche Bread – The Recipe Critic

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If you want to start making more bread at home, this brioche bread is the perfect place to start! Not only is it beautiful, fluffy, and super delicious, it’s also really easy to make. This bread is perfect for sandwiches, French toast, or just eating plain!

There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread! It just fills your entire kitchen and then the rest of the house and has everyone asking what is for dinner. It really is one of my favorite things to make. Another thing I love making is quick bread, because you don’t have to worry about yeast or waiting for anything to rise. Some of my favorite quick bread recipes are this Carrot Cake Quick Bread, this delicious Award Winning Banana Bread, and this Cinnamon Bread.

What is Brioche Bread?

Brioche bread is a French bread that is in the same family as croissants, Danish pastries (like this apple danish), and sweet rolls. It’s super buttery and soft, and so delicious! You can also make this recipe savory or sweet. I like to add things like raisins, nuts, and dried fruits to make it sweeter. You can also add herbs like rosemary or thyme. I have also added cheese and loved it!

This bread is not only super delicious and way better than store-bought, it’s also super easy to make! I make my bread in my Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook attachment. But you can easily make this recipe in a bowl with a wooden spoon, and then knead the dough on a floured work surface. With this same dough, you can also make brioche buns. I love this recipe so much! I now make it more often than my go-to sandwich bread recipe because it’s just as easy to make and perfect for everything from sandwiches to French toast.

Ingredients

This brioche bread recipe has a few more ingredients than your average bread recipe. The butter and eggs make the dough SO soft and fluffy. The extra fat and proteins give the dough a really nice rise and a great crumb that is perfect for just about everything! You can find the measurements below in the recipe card.

Dough

• Milk: Milk makes a really tender crumb.
• Instant Dry Yeast: Instant yeast helps the dough rise.
• Granulated Sugar: A little sugar actually helps the dough rise better because it activates the yeast.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter.
• Eggs: Adding eggs to your bread makes the bread super fluffy and tender.
• Salt: Salt helps bread rise properly and brings out all of the subtle flavors.
• All-Purpose Flour: This is the easiest to work with for this recipe.

Egg Wash

• Egg: I use the full egg for this egg wash.
• Water: Water helps the egg combine more smoothly so it spreads evenly.

The taste of this brioche loaf is out of this world delicious! Brioche dough is so soft and supple, you are going to love how this dough turns out. The texture is so light and fluffy, yet it holds together really well and is perfect for sandwiches. I just use regular all-purpose flour, I know some people prefer bread flour. I think that this bread is so good toasted with jam, you’re going to love it too!

Make Dough

1. Bloom Yeast: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine your warm milk, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of your sugar. Allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast becomes active and foamy.
2. Mix Eggs, Sugar, Butter: Add in the rest of the sugar, butter, and eggs. Mix using the whisk attachment on medium high speed until everything comes together.
3. Add Flour: Add 2 cups of flour and your salt into the bowl and switch out the whisk for the dough hook, mix at low speed until the flour is fully incorporated, at this point you can determine if you need to add more flour, the dough should pull clean from the mixer when it is the right consistency, but not be too stiff, it should be slightly sticky. I ended up using 2 ½ cups
4. Knead Dough: Increase the speed to a medium high speed and mix for an additional 3-4 minutes. This last step will knead the brioche bread dough and build the strength of the gluten.

Shape and Bake

1. Let Rest: Remove the brioche dough from your mixer and place it into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and keep covered for about an hour, until the dough doubles in size.
2. Pound and Rest: Once your dough has doubled in size, fold it by tipping the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pounding the air out of it. Roll it back into a ball and place back into your oiled bowl, cover and let rest for another 30-45 minutes. It should rise up again and be airy, but not quite double in size.
3. Spray Pan: Prepare a loaf pan by spraying it with nonstick baking spray, set aside.
4. Shape Dough: When your dough is ready, tip it out onto a floured surface again, and pat flat. Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces and roll the pieces out to about 12 inches. Lay each 12 inch strand of dough side by side and join the top together by lightly rolling them into a point. Braid the strands all the way down and at the bottom pinch and roll the ends together.
5. Rest: Tuck the pointed ends under the loaf and fit the loaf into your prepared pan. Cover and let rest for about 30-45 minutes. Until the dough has risen slightly above the top of the pan.
6. Preheat Oven: While your loaf is proofing, preheat your oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.
7. Bake: Once your loaf is proofed and ready, uncover and brush with your egg wash, bake for 30-45 minutes. The loaf will be golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf should read 190 degrees fahrenheit.

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