A step-by-step guide on How to Make Brioche Dough so that you can ace this recipe every single time, without fail! Pillowy, soft, and silky dough, with a delicious taste!
I have made this dough more times than I can count, and every single time it comes out perfect, with the most silky and luscious texture. This guide on How to Make Brioche Dough will help you in achieving a beautiful base for many recipes. This dough is featured in many recipes on my blog: Lemon Curd Brioche Buns, Raspberry Cheesecake Brioche Buns, Apple Cheesecake Brioche Buns, Breakfast Brioche Buns, and Brioche Cinnamon Rolls.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Fluffy Texture: The dough has a fluffy and soft texture that goes well with both savory and sweet.
- Perfect: Following the recipe as written yields a perfect dough every single time!
- Lasts for days: The softness of this dough lasts for days, making it the perfect base for many recipes.
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Ingredients You'll Need for Brioche Dough
- Flour: This recipe can be used with either Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour. I prefer bread flour, but if you don’t have any, all-purpose will work.
- Yeast: My favorite yeast to use is Active Dry Yeast, which requires proofing before adding it to the flour mixture.
- Milk: It’s best to use whole milk since this is an enriched dough, the more fat, the better.
- Salt: ALWAYS important in any recipe. Without salt, the bread will taste flat.
- Granulated Sugar: This adds sweetness to the Brioche dough and creates a bit more of a softness.
- Egg: I use two egg yolks for this recipe, adding more fat, without the added liquid of the whites.
- Butter: A key ingredient in Brioche is butter. This recipe calls 6 tablespoons of during softened butter during the second kneading. Make sure the butter is very soft, otherwise it will take a while to incorporate into the dough.
- Vanilla extract: This ingredient is optional. I like adding it to flavor the dough when I'm making a sweet dough. If I am using this dough for a savory recipe, I omit the vanilla extract.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Brioche Dough
Step 1: Yeast Mixture
In a small bowl, add the warm milk, yeast, and teaspoon of sugar and set aside to activate and foam, about 5-10 minutes.
Step 2: Knead the Dough (first part)
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the bread flour, sugar, salt, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and yeast mixture. Knead (on medium speed: 2 to 4 on KitchenAid) for about 10 minutes until completely combined and forms a dough that pulls away from the bowl.
Step 3: Add Softened butter & knead
After the first knead, add in the softened butter and knead (on medium speed: 2 to 4 on KitchenAid) for an additional 10-20 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
In this step, make sure the softened butter completely incorporates with the dough. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the bowl and mix in the dough a few times during the knead. In the right image above, the dough had been kneading for 5 minutes but the butter wasn't completely incorporated and it was still not pulling away from the bowl.
Once it forms a ball, you can perform the windowpane test. Take a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers until it's thin and light can pass through it without tearing.
Step 4: Proof The Dough
Place the dough ball in an oiled bowl and cover and let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
Hint: The timings in this recipe is a guide. Your mixer and kitchen are different, so you may need to knead for longer than 10 or 20 minutes. Your dough may need to proof for longer or less time, depending on how the temperature is in your kitchen.
Equipment You'll Need
A kitchenAid or stand mixer is HIGHLY recommended for this recipe because of the very long kneading times. If you do it by hand, it will take a lot longer.
Pro Tips
- Measure Flour Correctly: As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
- Don’t Skip Kneading: Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes before adding the softened butter. This will ensure the dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. Then once you add the butter, knead for another 10-20 minutes until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough has pulled away from the bowl again.
- Don’t add too much flour: This dough will be tacky, but shouldn’t stick to your hands. It will also be very silky (this due to all the butter added). If while kneading, the dough doesn’t come together after 15 minutes, you can add one tablespoon of flour at a time. But be patient before adding the flour. You don’t want a dry dough.
- Make Ahead: You can absolutely make this recipe ahead of time by letting the dough proof in the refrigerator overnight for the first rise. When you’re ready to use, remove from the refrigerator and continue with the recipe. You won’t need to let the dough come to room temperature because you’ll still need to proof a second time, so it will have plenty of time.
- Proof in pre-heated oven: One trick I love doing is to pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, then turning off the oven and letting my dough proof in the oven. This cuts down on proofing time, especially if I'm in a hurry, but it also helps in the winter when it's especially cold.
- Windowpane test: To know if your dough is ready, perform the windowpane test where you take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again.
FAQ
Brioche Buns recipe or Brioche bread recipes are different than regular dough recipes because of the amount of fat it contains. A regular bread recipe typically contains flour, yeast, water, salt. A brioche bread recipe is an enriched recipe that contains milk, eggs, and butter. My Brioche Buns recipe contain ¼ cup of sugar to give it an extra hint of sweetness, which is not typical in a regular bread recipe.
My milk temperature is a guide so that you don’t use too hot of milk (could kill the yeast) or too cold of milk (won’t activate the yeast). Milk temperature between 105-115 degrees F. will do the trick and yield best results.
To know if your dough is ready, perform the windowpane test where you take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again.
I haven't tried making brioche buns with dairy-free butter and milk, especially since we need the fat in both the butter and the milk to enrich the dough. You are more than welcome to try though.
You can absolutely make this recipe ahead of time by letting the dough proof in the refrigerator overnight for the first rise. When you’re ready to use, remove from the refrigerator and continue with the recipe. You won’t need to let the dough come to room temperature because you’ll still need to proof a second time, so it will have plenty of time.
Recipes Using Brioche Dough:
- Lemon Curd Brioche Buns
- Raspberry Cheesecake Brioche Buns
- Apple Cheesecake Brioche Buns
- Breakfast Brioche Buns
- Brioche Cinnamon Rolls
- Brioche Burger Buns
📖 Recipe
How to Make Brioche Dough
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
Brioche Dough
- 1 cup warm milk 110°
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 3 cups (360g) bread flour
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoon (85g) unsalted butter softened
Instructions
Brioche Dough
- In a small bowl, combine the warm milk, packet of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar and let sit and foam for about 5 minutes.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment, add flour, sugar, salt, 2 egg yolks, vanilla extract, and the activated yeast mixture and let knead for at least 10 minutes until the dough comes away from the bowl and forms a sort of ball.
- Start adding the softened butter slowly until all is incorporated and knead for an additional 10-20 minutes until the dough forms a smooth ball and does not stick to the sides of the bowl. When touching with your finger, the dough should not stick at all. The dough will be tacky and a lot smoother/silkier than a regular dough.
- You know the dough is ready when it passes the windowpane test: take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover and let rise for at least an hour.
Notes
- Measure Flour Correctly: As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
- Don’t Skip Kneading: Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes before adding the softened butter. This will ensure the dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. Then once you add the butter, knead for another 10-20 minutes until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough has pulled away from the bowl again.
- Don’t add too much flour: This dough will be tacky, but shouldn’t stick to your hands. It will also be very silky (this due to all the butter added). If while kneading, the dough doesn’t come together after 15 minutes, you can add one tablespoon of flour at a time. But be patient before adding the flour. You don’t want a dry dough.
- Make Ahead: You can absolutely make this recipe ahead of time by letting the dough proof in the refrigerator overnight for the first rise. When you’re ready to use, remove from the refrigerator and continue with the recipe. You won’t need to let the dough come to room temperature because you’ll still need to proof a second time, so it will have plenty of time.
- Proof in pre-heated oven: One trick I love doing is to pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, then turning off the oven and letting my dough proof in the oven. This cuts down on proofing time, especially if I'm in a hurry, but it also helps in the winter when it's especially cold.
- Windowpane test: To know if your dough is ready, perform the windowpane test where you take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again.
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