Fluffy, soft, and rich in flavor – that’s how an authentic French Brioche Bread must be! Let me show you how to make the best brioche bread recipe at home!
What Is Brioche Bread
Brioche is one of the most famous and authentic French breads. It’s made with eggs and butter, which gives it a very rich flavor.
The texture is similar to sandwich bread or challah but much lighter and airier. Because of the high amount of butter in the dough, brioche has a very rich, buttery flavor. Some people love it, others find it too intense – but I think it’s absolutely delicious!
Because French Brioche Bread is so buttery, it’s perfect for making Brioche French Toast, Baked French Toast Casseroles, or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.
I personally love to toast it and enjoy it as sandwich bread or spread with Nutella or jam for breakfast.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Baking Tips for Brioche
The dough is basically a yeast dough enriched with butter and eggs. It’s quite sticky and harder to handle than regular bread dough, so I highly recommend using a stand mixer instead of kneading it by hand.
Since the dough needs to be kneaded for 20 minutes, let your stand mixer do the work for you. It will save you time and energy!
For a fluffy and airy brioche, it’s essential to let it rise in the fridge for at least 4 hours, up to 16 hours. The cold rise allows the dough to develop its signature texture with beautiful air bubbles.
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I always bake my brioche as a loaf in a 10×5-inch loaf pan, but you can also make brioche rolls or burger buns (sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking). Just reduce the baking time and keep an eye on them – remove as soon as they’re golden brown.
Time Planning
- Option 1 – Overnight: Prepare the dough in the evening, let it rise overnight in the fridge, shape it in the morning, let it rise again, and bake at noon.
- Option 2 – Same Day: Start in the morning, let it rise in the fridge during the day, shape and bake in the evening.
Ingredients
- Fresh or Dry Yeast: I recommend fresh yeast if available, but dry yeast works too.
- Lukewarm Milk: Can be substituted with soy or oat milk.
- Sugar: Necessary for the yeast and a light sweet taste.
- Eggs, All-Purpose Flour, Salt
- Butter: Must be cold. Can be substituted with dairy-free butter.
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make
- Mix yeast, lukewarm milk, and sugar in a bowl until the yeast starts to foam (about 5 minutes with fresh yeast).
- Add the eggs into a bolw and stir in the yeast mixture.
- Add flour and salt to your stand mixer, pour in the yeast mixture, and knead for 5 minutes on low speed using a dough hook. → The dough will be sticky & hard – don’t add extra liquid!
- Add the cold butter in pieces and knead for another 15 minutes on medium speed until smooth. The dough should be slightly sticky but come away easily from the bowl with a silicone spatula.
- Grease a bowl with oil (olive, sunflower, or canola). Place the dough inside, turn it over once so it’s coated in oil, cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Transfer to the fridge and let it rise for 4–16 hours (overnight is perfect!).
- The next morning, your dough is very airy. Place it on a lightly floured surface and divide into 5 equal pieces.
- Shape each piece into a small log:
- First flatten into a rectangle with your palms.
- Roll it up tightly into a log.
- Place all logs into a greased 10×5-inch (25x12cm) loaf pan. You can push them carefully together if they don’t fit.
- Cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise for 1.5–2 hours at room temperature until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 395°F (200°C) after about 1.5 hours of rising time.
- Brush the brioche with a beaten egg using a pastry brush – this gives it a beautiful golden crust and prevents the dough from drying out while baking.
- Bake for 30–35 minutes until golden brown.
- Let cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool completely before slicing.
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📖 Recipe
French Brioche
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Ingredients
French Brioche Dough
- 1 tablespoon fresh yeast, or 2 teaspoon active dry yeast
- ¼ cup milk, lukewarm, use soy or oat milk as a non-diary option
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, chilled, use plant-based butter as a non-diary option
Egg Wash
- 1 egg, beaten
Instructions
- Mix the yeast, lukewarm milk, and sugar, and let it sit for 5 minutes until foaming. Mix in the eggs until well combined.
- Place it with the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, and knead at speed level 1 for 5 minutes (your dough is very sticky). Add the butter in pieces and knead for another 15 minutes at speed level 2 (your dough should be sticky but comes easily from the bowl using a silicone spatula).
- Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel, and let it rise at room temperature for one hour. Refrigerate for 4-16 hours ➝ makes your brioche soft & airy.
- Take the dough out of the fridge, place on a lightly floured surface, divide into five pieces and fold each one into a log (punch down the dough gently with the ball of your hand, stretch into a rectangle, and roll up into a log). Place them in a greased (or with parchment paper lined) 10×5-inch loaf pan (25x12cm), cover with a damp tea towel and let it rise for 1.5-2 hours at room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 395°F/200°C. Brush the dough with the egg wash and bake it for 30-35 minutes until brown.
- Allow the brioche to cool down on a cooling rack before slicing.
Notes
- Use a plastic wrap instead of a damp tea towel to cover your dough.
- The temperature in the recipe is for the use of a regular oven. If you use a convection oven (fan-based), set the temperature to 355°F/180°C.
- Brioche is the best if fresh, but can be stored in an airtight container for a few days or up to three months in the freezer. Defrost in the oven or toaster.
Nutrition
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Made some buns with this recipe. Turned out great.
As someone else mentioned, I had to add a little more milk (oat) after the first 5 minute mix, but everything else was spot on.
Thank you for your feedback, Steve! 🥰
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Happy to hear, Maria! 🥰
Very disappointing, for all the work not much flavor. Wouldn’t make again
Sorry to hear that you didn’t like the brioche bread! 😢🙏
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This was a pretty easy recipe to make. I used bread flour because I was out of all purpose flour. The taste is delicious but my loaf was a bit dense. Will try again with AP flour next time to see if that makes a difference.
Hope it turns out better next time! 🥰
I’ve never made anything more delicious in my entire life! It came out almost like a croissant, and my husband used it to make the best French toast I’ve ever had. The second loaf I made was soft on the top, buttery, and just the perfect amount of sweet. I did butter it generously on the top second it came out of the oven, and would recommend trying it!
I made 2 loaves at once, and I think next time I would just make them back to back simply for the bulk being a lot to work with in the mixer.
For some reason (maybe geographic location) I needed to bake mine at 350 instead of 390, and for a longer time, but that’s totally fine! The first one was crunchy, and was still wicked tasty. We used it to make garlic bread to go with spaghetti.
Thank you for this recipe! I really appreciate it, and will be using it again frequently!
Thank you for your kind feedback, Naomi! 💕 I am really happy to hear that the brioche turned out just as delicious as you like it! Have a wonderful Sunday!
All the best,
Aline 👱🏻♀️💕
I love making this bread it is really beautiful when done. It freezes beautifully and still has a wonderful flavor. I am getting ingredients together to make loaves for gifts. Thank you so much!
So happy to hear! Thank you for your kind feedback, Elaine! Love the gift-idea! 🙏💕
update to my earlier comment: I did not do the refrigerator at all. Turned out amazing. cooked way faster than the time stated. less than 20 minutes and I had turned the temp down as it was getting so dark on top. Would make a double loaf next time.
Thank you for your Feedback, Susanne! 💕
Making this now. I was not going to be home to put it in the fridge after the time it said so it was either put it in too early, wait more than 3 hours , or don’t use fridge at all. I did not put it in at all so it’s been raising on the counter. I will put into pans in a minute here.
My dough after the first 5 minute mix was very hard and dry not sticky. so I added a little milk and after the 2nd mix of 15 minutes it was exactly perfect…had just picked up the last bit of dough from the bowl on the dough hook.
So here it goes without using the fridge. I will put into a loaf pan and bake after a second rise…hopefully not too long so I can go to bed!
I was a bit concerned that thorough wasn’t as sticky as I thought it should have been, the I placed the dough in the fridge overnight it didn’t rise it actually sunk in the middle. I let it rise for over 2 hours the next day. It came out okay in the baking process. Will definitely make again.
Thank you for your honest Feedback, Cecilia! 💕
I’ve made this several times now, and it’s gotten better each time! Just had to “get to know the dough”. I found in my house it works best to let the dough come to room temp for a bit before it will do the last rise. This time I added some cinnamon since we usually use it for French toast! I’ve also noticed it works best for me in the convection oven rather than my small regular oven. Thanks for the recipe!!
Thank you for your Feedback, Melissa! 💕