Are you ready to learn how to make a fresh loaf of buttery brioche bread, baked to perfection in a standard loaf pan? My beginner-friendly, same-day brioche recipe takes only a few hours (that's fast for brioche!) and makes just one loaf of brioche bread with a shiny golden brown crust and a buttery crumb that is so perfectly soft and sweet.
I like to eat slices of my homemade brioche loaf toasted with homemade whipped honey butter and fresh fruit, but it's also great turned into French toast!
If you're new to bread making, don't be intimidated by brioche bread. You'll need a stand mixer with a dough hook, but I've got all the detailed step-by-step tips, tricks, and photos (plus a video at the end of the post) so you can feel confident making it! You can do this!
Once you get the hang of my basic brioche recipe, you'll feel confident moving on to more advanced versions like my chocolate chip brioche loaf recipe, the best gooey cinnamon rolls, or even deep-fried jelly-filled donuts!
Brioche is enriched with butter, sugar, and eggs
Brioche is a soft, sweet, buttery bread with a dense, even crumb. It is enriched with butter, eggs, milk, and sugar. This added fat and sugar give brioche dough its soft, fluffy texture.
The added butter and sugar in an enriched dough also function as preservatives; brioche bread lasts much longer before going stale than lean doughs made without fat or sugar.
My brioche recipe makes just one loaf
My issue with a lot of recipes for brioche bread loaves is that pesky little "-ves" at the end. Basically, most brioche recipes make more than one loaf of bread. And while I love brioche, I don't always want two loaves of it!
So when I set out to develop my own go-to brioche dough recipe, I wanted it to make just one loaf of bread. That said, if you want to scale it up, I specifically designed the recipe so you won't get into pesky measurements of half-an-egg or whatever.
My other issue with a lot of brioche bread recipes is that they require a long, slow rise time. And while I have included notes in my recipe for how to do a slow, cold rise in the fridge, most of the time my ADHD gets the better of me and I don't plan far enough ahead and want my brioche ready and baked ASAP.
So my brioche recipe has a relatively quick rise — about one hour after kneading and then another hour after you shape it, meaning the whole process can be done in about 3-4 hours start-to-finish.
My recipe makes a soft, pliant, and resilient brioche dough that is really good at holding a lot of different shapes. You can braid it, twist it, roll it, knot it, use it to make my best gooey cinnamon buns, etc.
When I make brioche I always use whole milk. The fat content in whole milk is a really important part of this enriched dough. I've tried this with reduced-fat or skim milk, and the dough is always too sticky to knead and shape, I end up having to add a lot more flour to the dough.
Oh, and make sure your butter is truly softened to room temperature. The colder and firmer your butter is, the longer I find it takes to incorporate into the dough.
Other Brioche Loaf Flavorings: You can add the zest of an orange or lemon to the dry ingredients, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the wet ingredients, up to 2 teaspoons of ground spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc. to the dry ingredients. You can even use flavored herb compound butters (omit the salt) in place of plain unsalted butter, as long as you make sure the total weight of butter is the same as the recipe calls for.
Brioche Dough is Kneaded in Two Stages
When mixing brioche dough, you start with everything except the butter. The butter is added after the dough has already been mixed and kneaded once; if you include it from the start, the fat in the butter would coat the flour and make it harder to absorb the liquid from the milk and eggs.
Here's the whole brioche mixing and kneading process:
- Mix the dough - Whisk the dry ingredients together, then whisk the wet ingredients together (except for the butter) and pour them into the dry ingredients. Mix everything on low speed with the dough hook until it comes together and there aren't any dry bits of flour left in the bottom.
- Knead the dough - Increase the speed slightly and mix until the dough passes the "windowpane test".
- Gradually add the butter - Add the softened butter 1 tablespoon at a time, letting it fully incorporate between each addition. This can take up to 10 minutes, be patient.
- Knead the dough - Once all the butter has been added, knead the dough again until it passes the "windowpane test" a second time. This can take another 5-7 minutes!
After mixing, before kneading.
After kneading, before adding butter.
After adding butter and kneading. So smooth!
The First Rise (Bulk Fermentation)
Once the butter has been incorporated and the dough has passed the windowpane test, it's time to let it rest. It's been through a lot. Resting is important to give the yeast time to feed and the dough time to grow.
During this first rise, the dough will double or almost triple in size.
Why I Shape My Brioche Loaf "Like This"
There are a lot of different ways you can shape a brioche loaf. For my brioche bread loaf, I decided to go with a loaf made of 8 small round balls of dough that join together in the pan as they rise. While you can pull apart the segments, I usually cut my brioche loaf into thick slices instead.
This brioche shaping method isn't just an aesthetic choice—it's also practical. Dividing and shaping the dough in smaller sections helps reduce air bubbles and gives the crumb inside the loaf a more even texture when it bakes.
Weigh the entire batch of dough, then divide it into eight equal portions.
Gently flatten each portion of dough, stacking any smaller pieces on top.
Tuck all the edges in. You can also do this like you're kneading the dough into a ball.
Pinch the edges together so the other side of the dough ball smooths out.
Always do this on an unfloured surface. Flour prevents the dough from sticking to itself and to the counter, and the friction between the dough and the counter will help create tension in the dough.
Place the seam side against the counter and cup your hand around it with your pinkie flush against the counter. Roll your hand around to tighten the seam at the bottom and smooth out the top.
The "tightened" seam side of the dough ball should look like this. The top side of the dough ball should be nice and smooth — any wrinkles, edges, or folds will be seen on the final loaf.
USA Pan Bakeware Aluminized Steel Loaf Pan, 1 Pound
Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75. Durable construction with corrugated surface for optimal airflow. Non-stick finish is PTFE, PFOA and BPA free.
The Second Brioche Rise
Arrange the eight dough balls in four rows of two in a greased and lined loaf pan. Cover the loaf pan loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature until the dough just about doubles in size.
The brioche bread will be quite a dark golden brown on top when it's done. Let it cool in the pan briefly, then remove to a rack to finish cooling completely.
Important: Brioche and Temperature
Temperature is one of the main factors in determining how quickly or slowly your dough rises (proofs). This includes the temperature of ingredients in your brioche dough, as well as the ambient temperature of the room where you leave it to rise.
- Warm temperatures (75°F and above) increase yeast activity. Warmth also causes the butter in the dough to melt which can make the dough super sticky.
- Cooler temperatures (70°F and below) slow yeast activity. Cold also causes the butter in the dough firm up, which makes the dough easier to shape and handle.
In baking, "room temperature" is generally somewhere around 70-75°F.
Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, and the temperature of the milk and egg, your dough may rise faster or slower, and your dough may reach windowpane stage faster or slower.
Due to the extra weight of the butter on the gluten network, don't worry if your dough needs up to an extra hour (sometimes even more) to rise, especially if your kitchen is cold.
In the case of brioche dough, which has a lot of butter in it, warmer temperatures (even just the warmth from your hands) make the dough sticker and harder to handle. Dust the dough lightly with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Or pop the dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to help the butter firm up before shaping.
Just because your dough isn’t ready at the time estimated in the recipe, that doesn’t mean it's not working — there might be other temperature factors affecting how quickly or slowly it gets there! Getting the dough to reach the right stages and look and feel right is more important than nailing the timing.
I Highly Recommend Using a Stand Mixer!
You need a stand mixer with a dough hook to make this recipe. You cannot make brioche bread with a hand mixer. And while it's possible to make by hand, it's very hard. I don't recommend it.
If you have a KitchenAid mixer with the tilt head and the bowl that screws in at the base, the motor may struggle with this dough — keep a close eye on it. You may need to hold the bowl in place to make sure it doesn’t unscrew during the kneading process.
If you have a bowl-lift model, still keep an eye on it the whole time it's mixing and kneading. You don't want the mixer to walk itself off the counter!
When making this brioche loaf, you shouldn't need to go above speed 6 on a KitchenAid mixer, whether you're using a bowl-lift or tilt head model.
- Slow = 2-3
- Medium = 3-4
- High = 5-6
If your mixer’s motor feels like it’s overheating, you can pause for 5 minutes and then resume mixing.
KitchenAid's official recommendation is to not use the dough hook on speeds higher than 2, so go at a speed you feel comfortable with. This is unrealistic for brioche, in my opinion. I have always used my machine at higher speeds, but if you don't want to go above speed 2 or 3, just know the mixing and kneading steps will work, they'll just take a lot longer.
For more on using KitchenAid mixers to knead bread dough, including the recommendation to not use the dough hook on speeds higher than 2, check out bread making expert Andrew Janjigian's WordLoaf issue "All Mixed Up (Part 1)."
💭 Have More Baking Questions?
I've rounded up answers to common baking questions and how-to guides, including:
- Ingredient swaps and FAQs
- Why my recipes are written in grams and not cups
- How to quickly bring eggs and butter to room temperature
- Ingredients I use (salt, flour, yeast, etc.)
- Step-by-step guides for bread and baking techniques
See my baking techniques & troubleshooting guide and ingredient swaps and FAQs for more!
TL;DR — Recipe Summary
- Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use dough hook to mix until combined in a shaggy dough.
- Knead until windowpane stage is reached, adjusting dough as needed.
- Add room temperature butter 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated.
- Knead until windowpane stage is reached again.
- Cover and rest at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Divide and shape the dough into eight dough balls. Arrange them in the loaf pan in two rows of four.
- Cover and rest 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350°F. Let cool briefly in the pan, then transfer to cooling rack.
📖 Recipe
One Loaf of Brioche Bread - Great For Sandwiches and French Toast!
Recipe Notes
- For a long cold rise, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days before shaping. Remove from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature before baking. This loaf is best baked from room temperature.
- If your brioche dough has overproofed, it will be super airy and have lots of large air bubbles especially on the surface of the dough. Overproofing during the first rise is easily fixed: Knock all the air out, knead the dough against the counter to shape it back into a ball, and let it rise at room temperature for another 20-30 minutes before shaping. If it overproofs after you've shaped it, I recommend popping the air bubbles on top before you egg wash it, and bake it anyway.
- If your dough looks like it has a tear along the side after it comes out of the oven then it was likely underproofed before baking. When you bake underproofed brioche, the crust sets in place on the outside before the dough inside has finished expanding, causing a torn texture along one or both sides of the loaf around the rim of the pan. It will still be delicious!
- Other Brioche Loaf Flavorings: You can add the zest of an orange or lemon to the dry ingredients, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the wet ingredients, up to 2 teaspoons of ground spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc. to the dry ingredients. You can even use flavored herb compound butters (omit the salt) in place of plain unsalted butter, as long as you make sure the total weight of butter is the same as the recipe calls for.
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 350 grams all-purpose flour
- 6 grams instant yeast (see notes for active dry yeast)
- 5 grams diamond crystal kosher salt
- 158 grams whole milk (90°F)
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 30 grams honey
- 85 grams soft room temperature unsalted butter (6 tablespoons)
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon whole milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Mix the dough. Combine flour, salt, and yeast the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. In a separate bowl, whisk together warm milk, honey, and egg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed (KitchenAid speed 2-3) until the dough comes together in a shaggy messy ball on the dough hook, about 3-5 minutes. The dough will look dry at first, but will hydrate as it mixes. Be patient!
- Knead the dough. Increase speed to medium (KitchenAid speed 4) and knead until the dough passes the windowpane test, about 7-10 minutes. If the dough hasn't reached windowpane after about 7 minutes, drizzle in an additional ½ teaspoon milk while kneading, then cover and rest for 5-10 minutes. Knead 2-3 minutes more. It should get there!
- Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. With the mixer running on medium (KitchenAid speed 4), add the butter one tablespoon at a time. Let each piece fully incorporate before adding more. The dough will look like it is falling apart each time you add more butter, but it will come back together. Pause the mixer to gather the dough around the hook or scrape the butter down into the bowl occasionally as needed. This can take 10-15 minutes. Be patient!
- Knead the dough again. Increase speed to medium-high (KitchenAid speed 5-6) and knead until the dough is smooth, shiny, and passes the windowpane test again, about 5 minutes. If the dough is super sticky, dust in more flour. If the dough is super dry, you may need to drizzle in a little more milk.
- Cover and rise. Place the dough ball in a lightly greased bowl or container. Cover and let rise 1 hour at room temperature (72-75°F) until just about doubled in size. If not doubled after an hour, let it rise an additional 30-60 minutes until doubled. When you push a finger into it, the indentation should fill back slowly and incompletely (the fingerprint test).
Assembly and Shaping
- Deflate the dough. Turn dough out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface. Use your hands to gently deflate the dough. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces using a kitchen scale (each piece should weigh about 84 grams).
- Shape the brioche loaf. Gently flatten each piece of dough against the counter, stacking any smaller pieces on top of larger pieces if you're combining them. Fold or tuck the edges up across the middle of the dough to create a ball, then pinch the edges together to to create tension and a smooth round top on the other side of the dough. Place the dough down with the smooth side up and the pinched together seam on the counter. Cup your hand around it with your pinkie against the counter and scoot it in circles to tighten the seam and further tighten up the top. Repeat with the remaining 7 pieces of dough, then arrange in a greased and parchment lined loaf pan in two rows of four.
- Final Rise. Cover and let rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until the dough balls have doubled in size (see notes). When you gently poke the top of the dough it should feel soft and springy and the indentation should fill back in slowly but not completely.
Baking
- During the last 30 minutes of the dough rising, preheat the oven to 350°F. Whisk together egg, milk, and salt to make the egg wash.
- Egg wash and bake. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash. Then bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top and an internal temperature of at least 190°F. Check the loaf after 25 minutes; If the top appears to be browning too much, tent a sheet of aluminum foil over the top.
- Cool. Let cool slightly in the pan, then remove to a rack to finish cooling completely.
Krista says
Haven't made yet but was reading thru instructions. Instructions say to mix in the vanilla and honey. How much vanilla? I didn't see in the ingredients list.
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Oops, the vanilla was an accidental mention, I forgot to delete it when I copied these instructions over from my chocolate chip brioche recipe — you don't need vanilla for this one unless you want to add it (in which case you would add 1 teaspoon)!
Grace H says
anything by rebecca is great, but this one really hit it out of the park! definitely added to the regular rotation.
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Oh I'm so flattered! Thrilled you liked the bread 🙂 Enjoy!
Fátima says
I made the brioche today and it was perfect! thank you
Kathleen BUSWELL says
I would love to try this but need US measurements
Rebecca Eisenberg says
I have answered why I, a baker in the US, don't provide volume measurements in the FAQ! You can get a very good kitchen scale for about $10 and it will make you a much better baker across the board. I don't want to put out recipes that have a high failure rate, as I want you to succeed when you make my recipes. Baking recipes written with volume measurements ("US measurements") are highly unreliable and produce inconsistent results. If you want to make this recipe, I do recommend picking up a kitchen scale!
Laurie says
I made this today and wow..it smells amazing!! Follow the durections exactly as they are.. don't give up..just when you think you did something wrong, it comes together. We are very excited to slice into this but we will wait!
Leann says
I have already made Rebecca’s bagels, ciabatta, and focaccia, so I bravely volunteered to bring rolls to the holiday meal this year. I just made my first test batch of this brioche and it is maybe the best dinner roll I have ever eaten! My tilt-head stand mixer did require a few breaks during the kneading process, but otherwise everything went super smoothly and I am SO proud of myself. I know that you can’t “win” a family dinner, but… I am absolutely going to win this year.
Rebecca Eisenberg says
You’re absolutely a dinner winner in my book! Love this bread journey for you. Congrats on a successful first brioche!
Genevieve says
I’ve made this quite a few times now! Christmas dinner, Christmas gifts, and just because! It’s honestly the best and easiest bread to make. I’ve always been so scared to make bread but the way the instructions are laid out made it so easy to follow. I couldn’t recommend this recipe enough to people new to making bread <3
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Oh I'm so glad to hear that!! Keep enjoying the bread! 🙂
Carolina Navarro says
Can I maybe use sugar instead of honey ? or maybe maple syrup instead of honey?
Thank you!
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Yes, you can use sugar instead of honey!
Natalie Kronk says
Is it the same measurement of sugar?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
I haven't personally tested it, but I believe you'd want to increase the amount of sugar by 25% compared to the honey. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!
Nandini Hunter Jones says
I made these today they turned out absolutely perfect! Having them with home made peri peri sauce grilled chicken.
Thank you for sharing your amazing recipes with easy instructions!!
Donna says
This bread is so light and fluffy and delicious! I like to make French toast with it.
Amanda says
I don’t have a stand mixer. I am good at kneading when I make challah. Is it really necessary to use a stand mixer?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
For brioche, I think so, though there are people who do it by hand. It's very messy and takes a long time (almost twice as long as the mixer, which is already long), so if you want to try doing it, proceed with caution. It's not that you *can't* do it, I just don't recommend it because of how labor-intensive it is. Only you can decide if the work is worth it to you!
HK says
Delicious!!!! I have only made sourdough before so it was my first time using a standmixer to knead, do the window pane test etc. Instructions were really clear, followed everything to the letter and it was perfect!
Jodi says
First time bread baker here. I may have misread the instructions but I shaped my dough and it's currently in the fridge for the final rise. I was going to bake it tomorrow and am worried it won't come out. Did I ruin my bread?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
You didn't ruin anything! A fridge rise will simply slow down the yeast activity and firm up the butter in the dough, so you won't see much of a rise when you look at it tomorrow. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 1 hour or at least just while the oven pre-heats before baking! You'll be fine. Enjoy the brioche!
Lori says
Troubleshooting question here. I’ve made brioche multiple times strictly following the instructions. Sometimes the buns bake up into those beautiful separate “heart shaped” as you described and other times really lose their definition, in both instances using the same pan and bringing the final rise to the same level in the pan, so to me it’s not a proofing issue, unless I’m missing something. They were more pronounced when I was first learning, and the more experienced I’ve become less so! I’m at a loss to explain this!
Rebecca Eisenberg says
If I had to guess, now that you're more comfortable with the recipe, you might not be spending enough time creating tension when you shape the individual dough balls — this is causing them to relax a lot more and blend together during the final rise. It may also be that it's warmer in your kitchen now than when you first made the recipe — try popping the loaf in the fridge for 10-15 minutes prior to baking; cooling it down may help it hold its shape in the oven better!
Olivia says
This has to be one of the best recipes I've ever baked! It's so versatile, I've doctored it a few times to make different bread creations like braided Nutella loaves, buns, garlic herb pull-aparts..so many things! Trust the kneading process and you'll be fine. Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe!!
Rebecca Eisenberg says
I loooove that you’re using this as a base dough for so many other creations! Brioche really is so versatile and all the combinations you mentioned sound delicious! Happy baking!
Yen NM says
Hi Rebecca! I am proofing as I write this comment. I’ve been wanting to bake brioche but didn’t find a good recipe. I saw your short video posted at Youtube last night and decided to try it. Will tag you for the results. Thanks for sharing.
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Good luck and happy baking! Excited to see how it turns out for you!
Adaline says
I followed the recipe and it's perfect even for beginner. I don't have a mixer yet, so I used hands to knead, it was a lot of work but worth it. Thank you so much!
Rebecca Eisenberg says
Wow wow WOW I can’t believe you did brioche by hand! You have my utmost respect, that’s a lot of work! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Janet Demeules says
Wonderful!
Trisha says
Can I just shape the dough into a single loaf instead of the balls? Do I need to cut the dough in half if so?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
You can bake it as a single loaf no need to shape the balls first or cut the dough in half. The smaller balls help make sure the crumb is even inside but you don’t *need* to do it that way.
Rosie says
Hello, I want to make two loaf, if I double the recipe do I need to double the yeast amount ?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
For this recipe yes I would double the yeast amount!
Chris says
After 50 years of cooking and baking professionally ,and now retired, I'm always on the hunt for smaller recipes. My brioche recipe calls for 25 pound of flour....so.
This is the perfect recipe and have tried other ones. Really buttery and "briochy" . I am French and was raised on Sunday brioche for breakfast!
Easy to follow great results.
Now i did not use the loaf pan i used a round baking copper dish where i bake my apple tart tatin. If you google tart tatin pan you will see. Then you can just pull apart the rolls! you can use any round dish!
I cooked them for 20 mn and then covered for 10 more
Thank you and bon appétit!