This sourdough brioche recipe is the softest, most delicious bread. An enriched dough made with butter, eggs, and milk – and naturally leavened with sourdough starter; this will become an absolute favorite around the table.
I’m not sure why it took me so long to create this recipe. Everything about this sourdough brioche is delicious. It is so light, fluffy, and buttery.
This would be perfect to grace your Easter, brunch, or breakfast table. You can turn it into many yummy creations (see below for ideas).
When most people think of sourdough bread, they think of your traditional crusty loaf that is a little bit denser. I’ve even heard people claim that you cannot make a fluffy loaf of sourdough bread.
Well, I’m here to prove that wrong with this enriched bread.
It is light, fluffy, buttery, and everything good in the world baked into a marvelous loaf. Make that two loaves. Because two loaves are always better than one loaf, especially when you are taking the time to make such a wonderful creation as this.
Why you will love this recipe:
Seriously so light and fluffy. Have I mentioned that yet?
Healthier than traditional brioche, since the grains are fermented, making the nutrients in the grain more bioavailable.
Easier to digest. If you have a hard time digesting unfermented grains, this long-fermented recipe will have less gluten and will be easier to digest than regular bread.
Delicious. You cannot beat the taste of this enriched sourdough bread.
Tips For Making Sourdough Brioche
- This dough is a wet dough. Even if you are tempted to add more flour, don’t. Too much flour will give you a tougher bread rather than something light and fluffy.
- If you don’t have bread flour, you can use all-purpose. It will not be quite as soft as using the mix of the two flours, but it will still be yummy. The bread flour also helps it rise more.
- You may be able to make this dairy free by using a milk alternative and vegan butter. I have not personally tried it.
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Ingredients:
Sourdough starter – Active and bubbly. You really want to have a very active starter for this recipe so it has a really nice rise.
Bread flour – Bread flour gives this dough a much lighter and fluffier texture compared to using all-purpose.
Unbleached all-purpose flour – Freshly milled or store-bought.
Sugar – Preferably organic cane sugar.
Eggs
Salt – I always choose sea salt.
Milk – Preferably whole, but 2% should also work just fine.
Butter – Room temperature. Unsalted. It is important to be able to control the amount of salt added to any recipe.
Tools you may need:
Bench scraper (optional, but handy)
Measuring cups and spoons
FAQ
What makes a brioche different from most breads?
Brioche is an enriched bread, meaning it contains butter, eggs, and milk, making it richer. On the other hand, a “standard” bread usually just contains flour, water, yeast (commercial or sourdough starter), and salt.
Is brioche better for you than bread? Can brioche be healthy?
I’m sure lots of people have differing opinions on this. Since it contains milk, eggs, and butter, it has more fat in it. While many people are “scared” of fat, this recipe uses wholesome and healthy fats that are naturally occurring.
Brioche does contain sugar, which isn’t the healthiest, but it’s a pretty small amount; it’s also lower in fiber than, say, whole wheat sourdough bread.
Can you autolyse brioche?
While you technically can, there really isn’t a point to autolyse brioche because of the amount of kneading that happens in the beginning. It is counterintuitive and will reduce any benefit the autolyse would have accomplished.
What is the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour?
The biggest difference between the two is that bread flour has a higher amount of protein than all-purpose flour, which helps it develop more gluten strands. It also gives it a chewier texture. That increased gluten can help the bread rise more.
Can you make this with einkorn flour?
I have not tried this. Baking with einkorn requires the liquid amounts to be adjusted, and you may have to reduce the amount of water.
How much is two sticks of butter?
Two sticks of butter equals 1 cup.
How To Make Sourdough Brioche
Feed starter at night before bed. This way when you wake up in the morning, it will be nice and bubbly.
Kneading Sourdough Brioche
In the morning, combine all ingredients in a mixer and knead until smooth and glossy. The dough will be very wet, but after 10-15 minutes in the stand mixer (or by hand), it will come together. Don’t add more flour even though it is tempting.
Cover with plastic wrap, a damp towel, or tight lid and place in a warm spot for 6-8 hours (or until doubled).
After the 6-8 hours, refrigerate for a few hours (or overnight) so that dough is nice and stiff for shaping.
Shaping Brioche
Divide into two equal portions. I really like to use my bench scraper to do this.
Divide each half into eight, so that you have a total of 16 equal-sized pieces.
Roll into balls.
Add eight balls to a parchment-lined loaf pan. Repeat for the other eight in another loaf pan.
Cover and allow to rise until doubled, another 6-8 hours (or overnight).
Next day:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Create an egg wash by beating an egg with water. Brush over the loaf. This gives it that beautiful color.
Bake 25 minutes until the brioche starts to turn golden.
Baking For Dinner
Feed starter before bed.
Mix up dough in the morning, per instructions above.
Allow it to do the first rise: 6-8 hours until doubled – covered with plastic wrap, tight lid, or damp towel.
Place the dough into the fridge until the next morning.
In the morning, divide and shape. Place into parchment-lined loaf pans.
Cover and allow to rise throughout the day, and bake for dinner.
Uses For Sourdough Brioche
You really can use brioche for just about anything you would use regular bread for:
- Sandwiches
- French toast
- Hamburgers
- Bread pudding
- French toast casserole
- Grilled cheese
- Eggs in a basket
- Strata – you can find my favorite sourdough strata here.
Find More Of My Favorite Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
- Einkorn Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Banana Bread
- 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
If you make this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone with your delicious creation.
Sourdough Brioche
Ingredients
- 1 cup active sourdough starter, active and bubbly 227 g
- 3 cups bread flour, 420 g
- 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour, 70 g
- 1/4 cup sugar, 48 g
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 8 g
- 1/2 cup milk, 122 g
- 2 sticks butter, room temp 226 g
Eggwash
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Feed starter at night before bed. This way when you wake up in the morning, it will be nice and bubbly.
- In the morning, combine all ingredients in a mixer and knead until smooth and glossy. The dough will be very wet, but after 10-15 minutes in the stand mixer (or by hand), it will come together. Don’t add more flour even though it is tempting.
- Cover with plastic wrap, a damp towel, or tight lid and place in a warm spot for 6-8 hours (or until doubled).
- Refrigerate for a few hours (or overnight) so that dough is nice and stiff for shaping.
- Divide into two equal portions. I really like to use my bench scraper to do this.
- Divide each half into eight, so that you have a total of 16 equal-sized pieces.
- Roll into balls.
- Add eight balls to a parchment-lined loaf pan. Repeat for the other eight in another loaf pan.
- Cover and allow to rise until doubled, another 6-8 hours (or overnight).
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Create an egg wash by beating an egg with water. Brush over the loaf. This gives it that beautiful color.
- Bake 25 minutes until the brioche starts to turn golden.
Notes
- This dough is a wet dough. Even if you are tempted to add more flour, don’t. Too much flour will give you a tougher bread rather than something light and fluffy.
- If you don’t have bread flour, you can use all-purpose. It will not be quite as soft as using the mix of the two flours, but it will still be yummy. The bread flour also helps it rise more.
- You may be able to make this dairy free by using a milk alternative and vegan butter. I have not personally tried it.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I found these to be nicely flavoured with a lovely inner texture, but unfortunately my brioche lacked the pillowyness of a good brioche due to the tops turned out on the verge of burned and the crumb being too thick/dry. A note, I placed by dough balls into muffin tins instead of a pan, but I’ve done this for other recipes and never had issue.
I had baked the brioche at 425 for 25 minutes as called for on the second lowest rack in my convection oven (based on feedback the author provided to another review), but still they burned on top. I verified that my oven was running at the correct temperature and it was. If I baked this again, I would either drop the temperature to 375-400 and bake for 25 minutes OR bake at 425 and reduce the bake time to 20 minutes.
A note on sticky dough… This dough is wet, as it should be. It is a brioche dough and brioche doughs are by nature very wet doughs. I did add about 1/3 cup extra flour to my dough but this is something I do for most recipes due to my climate, it by no means brought the dough fully together. The dough may not be perfectly smooth after kneading, but after it rests overnight it will be smoother. A tip for working with this dough is to lightly grease your hands, bench scrape, and work surface with olive oil to prevent sticking when cutting and shaping (also use your bench scrape to do most of the shaping work).
For fellow bread enthusiasts who use an Emile Henry Italian loaf bread pan: I pre-heated the pan at 450° for ~20 minutes, put the bread in with some parchment paper underneath, baked for 25 minutes lid on. This wasn’t sufficient enough to bake the loaf through the center (it was reading ~105°F and the probe came out goopy), so I put it back in the oven, lid on, for an additional 20 minutes. TL;DR is I would put it in the oven for 45 minutes with the lid on, I got a really beautiful golden crust and probably wouldn’t have had to touch it the entire time.
And I also added double the AP, bringing the flour to 560 total grams. This didn’t impact the dough being any less sticky.
I am making this recipe for the second time. My first attempt was perfect and my family are asking for more. My question is, can I use a different pan to bake in? I’m thinking a 9×13 as with the 2 loaf pans the buns rise beautifully but I’m thinking would have expanded even more in a larger pan
Mine didn’t rise at all even after 15 hours of sitting on the counter in a 69 degree house. What went wrong?
69 is a little cold! Brioche also slows down the fermentation process, so it may be a combination of the two.
Can you freeze the dough?
Yes, I recommend freezing after the first rise.
Lisa, I don’t have a Kitchenaid mixer. Would a hand mixer work okay with the typical two batter beaters? Or mixing with a wooden spoon? I’ve only been making bread since November so fairly new to the process.
No, you will need to knead the dough by hand or do a series of stretch and folds.
¿En tu paía se mide con grados Celcius o Farenheit?
Fahrenheit.
what size loaf pan did you use ?
9×5.