Easy Sourdough Brioche Bread 

This easy sourdough brioche recipe starts with an enriched dough made with eggs, butter, and a velvety tangzhong, producing an exceptionally tender bread with a sweet, buttery richness.

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Enriched doughs have a special place in my heart. They’re often marked by special events in my life. Cinnamon rolls, babkas, donuts, and French toast made with brioche don’t mark my everyday; rather, I reserve them for the most special occasions, like Christmas or Easter. 

What is Brioche Bread?

Brioche bread is a type of French bread that is rich and soft due to the added milk, eggs, and butter. Sounds glorious, doesn’t it? Even though these fat-filled ingredients seem like they would create a heavy bread, in fact, the opposite is the result. Baked to perfection, a brioche bread is so light and tender that it melts in your mouth.

Unlike traditional brioche, which uses commercial yeast for its leavening power, my brioche uses a sourdough starter and the gift of fermentation to naturally leaven it. This not only adds some health benefits to the bread, but I also love the idea of utilizing wild yeast, as they have for many years.

Why You’ll Love Sourdough Brioche

•  Thanks to a lot of butter, the flavor of this enriched bread with its rich and tender crumb is the best!
• The recipes makes two loaves of sourdough brioche, perfect to enjoy now and save the other for another time, if it lasts that long!
• Easier to digest – Letting the grains ferment overnight makes them easier to digest and lowers the gluten content.
• Sourdough brioche is healthier than traditional brioche because the fermentation process reduces the phytate content, which can inhibit mineral absorption, making nutrients like zinc, iron, and magnesium more bioavailable.

What is a Tangzhong?

The secret ingredient to achieving a soft sourdough brioche is made with a cooked flour and water (sometimes milk) mixture called a tangzhong. Sometimes referred to as yudane or water roux, a tangzhong is a mixture of flour and liquid that is cooked until thick, gelatinizing the starches before being added to the dough. Cooking some of the flour before adding it to the dough helps to create a tender bread or pastry with a soft crumb and helps prevent it from going stale. 

This sourdough brioche bread recipe utilizes a tangzhong to make the bread’s texture light with the inclusions of eggs and butter. In addition, the tangzhong will extend the shelf life of the bread and prevent it from drying out as quickly.

Adding the Butter at the Proper Stage of Mixing

Enriched bread is exactly what its name suggests—bread enriched with goodness. Packed with eggs, butter, and sometimes milk, this luxurious blend of fats combined with flour and yeast (or, in this case, a sourdough starter for leavening) creates a gloriously soft, golden, velvety dough. Once baked, it becomes an irresistibly tender bread or pastry that practically melts in your mouth.

However, the order in which you mix the ingredients matters. Butter coats developing gluten strands, and adding it too early can make it nearly impossible for the dough to form enough structure. The result? A dense, heavy loaf with a tight crumb.

While the flavor may still be delightful, the texture ends up being completely off. The butter doesn’t hinder the gluten once it’s been properly developed, so the key to a successful brioche is to add the butter once the dough is strong enough to pass the windowpane test.

Sourdough Brioche Bread Instruction Overview

• Mix the sweet levain and allow to come to it’s peak.
• Cook the tangzhong and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cold milk to help it cool quickly.
• Add the sugar, flour, eggs, and sweet levain to the bowl and combine. Add the bread flour and mix until just combined.
• Cover and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
• Mix the brioche dough until it’s strong enough to pass the window pane test. Mix in the butter.

• Cover the bowl and bulk ferment for 3-5 hours.

• Refrigerate the brioche dough overnight.
• Divide the dough and roll into small balls. Arrange 8 balls into each loaf pan.
• Proof for 7-10 hours until the dough is light and puffy.

• Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Tips

• Temperature – Allowing the eggs to warm to room temperature makes them easier to incorporate. Be sure the butter is soft to the touch. Too cold and it will be difficult to mix in.
• When it comes to making bread, the temperature in your home will affect the time it takes for the bulk fermentation and the brioche dough to proof. In cooler kitchens, sourdough activity slows down, requiring more time for fermentation, whereas warmer temperatures speed up the process. Be sure to plan accordingly.

Useful Equipment

• Stand mixer – Mixing enriched dough can be done by hand, but is a messy and labourous task. I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this sourdough brioche recipe. 
• Kitchen scale – A scale will provide the best and most consistent results when baking. They’re inexpensive and easy to use, so it’s worth investing in one if you plan to bake sourdough bread. I regret waiting so long before adding this tool to my kitchen.
• Loaf pans – I use 9×5-inch loaf pans for all my breads, though the size becomes especially important for batters that might overflow during baking, like quick breads. For this brioche loaf, using 8×4-inch pans will yield a taller, more compact loaf.

Example Baking Schedule

Day 1	10:00 pm	Mix sweet levain
Day 2	8:00 am	Mix sourdough brioche dough
	8:15 am – 8:45 am	Rest
	8:45 am – 9:00 am	Add salt and mix the dough until it passes the windowpane test
	9:00 am – 9: 10 am	Add the butter
	9:10 am – 12:10 pm	Bulk ferment
	12:10 pm – 8:00 am	Cold proof
Day 3	8:00 am	Shape
	8:20 am – 3:20 pm	Proof
	3:20 pm – 3:55 pm	Add egg wash and bake

If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you! Tag me on Instagram @LockremHomestead