French Brioche (Fluffy & Buttery Bread)

🌟 Difficulty	⏱️ Time	🍽️ Serves	🔪 Skill level
★★ Intermediate	3 hrs (including rising)	6–8	Intermediate

Brioche is a french fluffy dough bread that includes eggs, milk, sugar and butter, it's something between a bread and a cake and it tastes like heaven!!!

You can find various versions in several other countries like in my home country, Greece, that we call them "tsourekia".

It's a recipe that I just loooooove and was missing from my blog despite the fact that I am baking them often, so let's start 2019 with this recipe ....

Ingredients

Dough:

• 200 ml warm milk
• 60 g sugar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 500 g Gruau flour, brioche flour, or strong bread flour
• 45 g fresh yeast (crumbled)
• 70 g unsalted butter (softened)

For brushing & decoration:

• 1 egg (beaten)
• Optional: almond powder, sugar, or sprinkles

Instructions

1. Mix Base Ingredients:
   Combine milk, sugar, salt, and eggs in a mixer with a kneading attachment for 1 min at speed 1.

2. Add Yeast:
   Incorporate crumbled fresh yeast and knead for 10 min at speed 2 until smooth.

3. Add Butter:
   Knead in softened butter for 5 min at speed 2. Add a little extra flour if dough is too sticky.

4. First Rise:
   Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hr 30 min, until doubled in volume.

5. Shape Dough:
   Knead lightly, divide into 6 equal parts. Roll each into a 3 × 30 cm cylinder. For a classic brioche, braid 3 cylinders per loaf to make 2 loaves.

6. Second Rise:
   Place braids on a buttered tray, cover with a towel, and let rise for ~1 hour.

7. Brush & Decorate:
   Brush with beaten egg. Optionally sprinkle almond powder or other decorations.

8. Bake:
   Bake at 180°C (fan oven) for ~30 min until golden brown. Let cool 10 min before slicing. Enjoy warm!

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Serving Tips & Variations

• Gruau flour or brioche flour produces the lightest, most elastic crumb. Strong bread flour is the best substitute.
• For a sweeter brioche, increase the sugar to 80–100 g.
• Shape into individual buns, a loaf, or smaller braids.
• Use the dough for cinnamon rolls or chocolate-filled pastries.
• Freeze for up to 2 months.
• Store airtight for 2–3 days and warm slightly before serving.
• Add orange or lemon zest, vanilla, or orange blossom water for extra aroma.
• Serve plain or with jam, chocolate spread, or fresh butter.
• Cinnamon rolls: Open dough in a rectangle, butter, sprinkle sugar & cinnamon, roll, cut thick slices, bake.
• Pralina snail: Mix pralina into dough, roll into a snail or heart shape — perfect for Valentine’s Day.