Name: Homemade Brioche
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1125 min
Ingredients: 2 Tablespoons milk; 3/4 cup unsalted butter; 2 cups bread flour; 1/4 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon instant yeast; 3 large eggs; 1 egg yolk

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Soft, fluffy, buttery, and oh so delicious. That’s the perfect way to describe this Homemade Brioche! Made with pantry staples – flour, salt, sugar, yeast, a few eggs, a splash of milk, and some butter. All you need to do is mix the dough and refrigerate overnight, shape, braid, and bake! It’s simple, but truly has an incredible flavor. Every bite is soft with a perfect amount of crunch from the crust, buttery, and just SO. GOOD. You’ll definitely want to keep this bread stocked in your fridge for every occasion. Serve with with a generous smear of butter, as a delicious french toast, for sandwiches, or just when you want a delicious slice of bread!

brioche on wire serving tray with crumbs around, a knife, and a slice in front

→ This post is also available as a Web Story: The Best Homemade Brioche

About The Recipe

Homemade brioche is a must-have staple in our pantry. It’s such an easy bread to make that tastes great, too!

Actually, the very first thing we made with this was actually our Pumpkin French Toast. It seemed like a great way to really kind of kick off the mornings with a seasonal treat! But, after making the french toast, we realized that we hadn’t shared our brioche yet!

two slices of brioche stacked on top of each other to the left of the loaf

overhead shot of brioche on serving tray

Which, we needed to remedy asap! This bread is the best kind of bread for really anything. It’s soft, fluffy, buttery, and just kind of melts in your mouth.

The best part? The bread only needs seven pantry staple ingredients! From there, you mix everything together and then knead until smooth. It’s refrigerated overnight because the dough is very soft. It helps with shaping, but also develops some wonderful flavors.

Homemade bread is always a good idea to make, but especially when it’s something this simple! Oh, and don’t worry about the braiding if you’re not too good at it. We did a simple twist braid to keep it simple, but still have that WOW! factor.

brioche on serving tray with knife, cup of flour behind, and wheat

Equipment Needed

A Mixer
Small Pot
Dough Rising Buckets
Sharp Knife or Bench Knife
Small Loaf Pan
Thermometer

Ingredients

Bread Flour
Salt
Granulated Sugar
Instant Yeast
Unsalted Butter
Whole Milk
Large Eggs

butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk, salt, and yeast on marble counter

How To Make Brioche

Combine milk and butter in small pot. Place over medium-low heat until the butter is melted. Set aside.

Mix together flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixer bowl.

flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a mixer

Stir in the butter mixture.

melted butter mixture added to dry ingredients

Mix in the eggs. Change to a dough hook and knead for 10-12 minutes, or until the dough is smooth.

Place in a greased container and allow to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to bake, place dough on a lightly floured surface and cover for 20-30 minutes. Uncover and shape the dough into a small loaf. Cut in two even strands.

dough rolled out to a log on floured counter

Pinch the ends of the stands together. Place the right strand over the left strand, then repeat. It should look like it’s twisted. Pinch the ends again and tuck under.

Place in loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature, about an hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes, or until done.

Brioche: FAQ’s and Troubleshooting

I don’t have a mixer. Can I make this by hand?
This bread really needs to be made in a mixer! While it’s doable, it takes twice as long to knead and it’s a whole lot of work. It’s always best to use a stand mixer.

Can I make more than one loaf?
Actually, you can! We have a button in the recipe card to double or triple this recipe.

Why is my dough sticky and wet?
This brioche is an ENRICHED dough! This means there is a lot of butter and a lot of eggs, which also means it’s a lot softer dough than most other bread doughs!

How can I tell when my dough is kneaded properly?
A properly kneaded dough should be smooth and shiny. The bowl of the mixer should also be VERY clean and the dough should lift out of the mixer in one piece, rather than ripping into two pieces.

The dough is still soft! Do I need to add more flour?
Have you been kneading the dough long enough? Is it smooth and shiny? If it’s not, keep kneading! You really don’t need to add anymore flour to this recipe. It’s an enriched dough, which it means should softer.

Can I skip the overnight proof?
For this recipe, do not skip that overnight proof! It really allows this bread to develop amazing flavors and helps with shaping of the dough.

My dough isn’t rising in the times stated in the recipe card!
The recipe card/post states the times it took our dough to rise. We live in Texas. So, it tends to be a bit warmer here and doughs generally take less time to rise. I promise there’s nothing wrong with the dough! Just let it do it’s thing, but if you really need it done, try placing near a warm oven. The warmth from being near the oven will help it rise faster. Just don’t put the dough in the oven!

My dough didn’t rise at all.
Is your yeast in-date? If not, then you need to get new yeast and try again. If it is, did you check the temperature of the butter/milk mixture? When the mixture is over 120-130 degrees, it’ll kill your yeast! Be sure to have a thermometer on hand.

How To Store

Once this dough is baked, you can actually wrap it in tinfoil and freeze for up to two months! If you don’t want to freeze this recipe, store in a zip-top bag and keep in the fridge for a week or so. If you leave it out on the counter, it will be come stale much quicker.

What To Make With Brioche

The most wonderful thing about brioche is that it goes with anything! Here are a few of our favorite things to make:

French Toast
Bread Pudding
Holiday Stuffing
Bread Crumbs
Sandwich
Croutons

two slices of brioche laying in front of the loaf

Expert Tips

Do NOT boil the milk and butter.
The dough will pull away from the sides and bottom of the bowl when it is done kneading.
This is a very soft and wet dough. Do not add more flour.
Make sure you use instant yeast.
Don’t skip the overnight prove!
To tell if you bread is fully baked, poke a thermometer in the center of the loaf. It should read 190 degrees.

When you make this Homemade Brioche, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.

4.50 from 2 votes