Easy Sourdough Brioche Bread
Equipment
- 1 kitchen scale
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 bench scraper
- 1 pastry brush
Ingredients
- 175 g active sourdough starter
- ¾ cup milk
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- ½ tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp butter 1 stick softened
- 4-4½ cups flour
Instructions
The Day Before
- Prepare the Starter: Feed your sourdough starter a 50:50 bread to water ratio. Cover and set in a warm place to allow it to double in size and activate. This typically takes 3-6 hours.
- Once the starter is active and bubbly, weigh out 175g of starter and put into the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Prepare the Dough: Next, in a small saucepan heat the milk and sugar on low until brought to around 100 degrees. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the sweetened milk and eggs to the sourdough starter and mix on low speed with your dough hook until combined.
- Slowly begin adding in flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Continue to mix on low/medium speed. Once roughly mixed, cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes to autolyze.
- After autolyze, add salt and begin mixing on low/medium speed. As the dough is kneading, begin adding in cubed butter pieces.
- Continue kneading until the dough is smooth, silky, and passes the windowpane test; which typically takes 10 minutes of total kneading.
- Transfer the dough to a large bowl and cover. Allow this to be proved overnight. Because of the high fat content of the dough, I prefer to keep it from ever getting overly warm. So proof at room temperature rather than in a warm proofer.
Baking Day
- After the overnight bulk fermentation, your dough should have risen and doubled. Now it's ready to be shaped.
- Divide Dough: Dump the dough onto a floured work surface and divide into three equal pieces.
- Shape the Dough: Then begin working each individual piece into a 12-14" long coil by rolling on the worksurface. Do this for all three pieces of dough.
- Next, you will braid the three coils. Once braided, tuck the ends under the braid and carefully place into a parchment lined loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1 hour at room temperature.
- Prepare to Bake: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- In a small bowl whisk together one egg and 1 Tbsp. of water, using a pastry brush gently brush the egg over the loaf.
- Place the bread into your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread should reach 180 degrees.
Notes
If the top of your bread is getting too brown during baking, cover with a piece of aluminum foil for the remainder of its baking time.