Sourdough Brioche

Super soft, light, tender I almost don’t have words to describe just how incredible this sourdough brioche is. Tastes like a croissant but has the texture of a cloud? A pillow? The softest bread you’ve ever eaten – that’s this sourdough brioche. Made with 100% sourdough and a tangzhong, this is an advanced sourdough recipe that is going to give you amazing results. We love eating this plain or with a little bit of homemade jam. It’s also absolutely incredible as french toast and makes the perfect gift for a loved one. Seriously delicious, I hope you love this sourdough brioche as much as we do!

This is an advanced sourdough recipe. It requires using a stand mixer and will take a couple of days to make. If you’re looking for an easier soft sandwich bread recipe, check this recipe out here.

Ingredients in Sourdough Brioche

• Sourdough Starter: This recipe uses ripe, bubbly, active sourdough starter to make a sweet levain before mixing the brioche dough. Using a sweet levain balances the flavor, resulting in a mild sourdough brioche.
• Tangzhong: An Asian method of heating milk and flour over the stove until it forms a thick paste, is used in this sourdough brioche dough for a more tender, soft & soft crumb.
• Milk: Whole milk works best in this rich brioche.
• Sugar: Brioche is not overly sweet, but sugar helps to balance the flavors and bring a little sweetness to the dough.
• Eggs: Sourdough brioche is enriched with six large eggs. This gives the dough and resulting brioche a rich flavor.
• Salt: Salt is always added in bread dough to help balance the flavor and fermentation. Don’t leave it out!
• Bread Flour: I use bread flour in this recipe to get the gluten strands activated upfront with the initial mixing before adding butter. If you don’t have bread flour, you can substitute all purpose flour.
• Unsalted Butter: This recipe calls for a lot of butter. Unsalted butter doesn’t add any extra salt to the dough. The butter should be cool room temperature. You should be able to press your finger into the butter block and have it make an indentation, but the butter should not be soft. Butter is reserved and added to the dough after the dough has already been kneaded.
• Egg Wash: After the dough is shaped and proofed, a quick egg wash is used to top the the bread before baking.

Why I use a Tangzhong for Sourdough Brioche

Tangzhong is a method used to make very soft bread. It originated in Japan and was made popular in Taiwan. To make a tangzhong, cook together milk and flour until it forms a thick paste. This is done on the stovetop over medium heat and comes together very quickly. As soon as it forms a paste, remove it from the heat and let it cool down before adding it to the brioche dough.

Tangzhong improves the dough’s texture and makes it stay fresh for longer. It produces delicious sourdough brioche.

Mixing Sourdough Brioche Dough

To make brioche, we first have to develop the gluten strands in the dough before we add in the butter. Once the butter is added, it coats the gluten strands, making it more difficult for the strands to connect and develop. To help with this process, we do an initial mix of all of the ingredients except the butter; adding the butter in after the dough is kneaded.

• Mixing: Add all the brioche ingredients together except for the unsalted butter. Turn the mixer on and knead for 5-7 minutes until a strong and cohesive dough is formed.
• Adding in butter: Once that dough has formed, begin adding in the butter. Butter should be added small chunks at a time until all the butter (three sticks of it) are incorporated. At this point, the dough is going to feel very slack and loose. When you take a pinch of it and pull up, it will break apart. Continue kneading the dough upwards of 20-30 minutes (you need a powerful mixer for this dough) until the dough has strengthened considerably and can pass the windowpane test. During this time, if the dough gets too hot from the friction of the mixer, take a break. Stick the dough in the refrigerator to cool it down and then continue mixing a few minutes later.

Windowpane Test: Stop the mixer. Pull up on a portion of the dough. The dough will stretch thinly and not tear and you will see light coming through the dough, like a windowpane. If it tears, the dough needs to mix longer.

Bulk Fermentation in Sourdough Brioche

Once the dough has passed the windowpane test, it will feel soft but cohesive. Take the dough out of the mixer and put it in a container to ferment. Keep the dough right around 78ºF to ferment for about 4-5 hours. If your dough temperature is cooler than 78ºF, it will need to ferment longer. You are looking for a very slight aeration of the dough during this time. It will not rise much, but it will become more aerated and strong as it ferments. If your dough temperature is higher 80ºF, be careful. You don’t want the butter to melt out of the dough, so cool the dough down as possible.

Cold Fermentation

Sourdough brioche dough benefits from a cold fermentation. Because this dough is so full of butter, it is difficult to work with when it’s not cold or chilled. Cover the dough and chill it overnight for a cold fermentation. The dough can stay in the refrigerator unshaped for up to 48 hours. If you don’t want to wait overnight, chill the dough for a minimum of 2 hours before shaping.

Shaping Sourdough Brioche Dough

Now for the fun part! I always love shaping dough, and this brioche dough is no exception. Check out this recipe for my easy overnight brioche (commercial yeast version) that has different shaping ideas. For this brioche, though, we are going to shape the dough into small balls and then let the dough rise to form a traditional brioche loaf. Pull out two 9 by 5 loaf pans. This is the perfect size for this brioche recipe.

Divide the dough in half. Work quickly because as the dough cools, the more difficult it is to work with. Divide each half into 8 balls. Take each piece of dough and pull/pinch up the sides until it forms a ball. Roll the ball on the counter, holding your hand in a cupping shape (see video here) to seal the balls and create tension. Place 8 balls in each loaf pan, nestling them next to each other. Cover the loaf pans with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise.

Final Brioche Rise

Brioche is an enriched dough AND this is a sourdough recipe, so your final proofing is going to take time. I put my brioche loaves in a bread proofer and set the proofer to 80ºF. With this constant temperature, my loaves rose in about 6-7 hours. You will notice a considerable rise in the dough. It will become airy and light. When you press in on one of the balls of dough, an indentation will be mostly left. All of these signs will let you know that your brioche is ready to bake. If you don’t have a bread proofer, do your best to keep your dough warm. If it isn’t warm, it will take a very long time to rise. Do NOT bake this dough if it has not shown a significant rise or else it will be dense and flat.

Baking Sourdough Brioche

Once the dough has risen, it is ready to be baked. Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF. While the oven preheats, whisk together an egg with a splash of heavy cream or water. Gently brush the tops of the brioche with the egg wash. This helps promote a brown crust on the top of your brioche loaves. Bake the loaves for 40-45 minutes until baked all the way through and the brioche registers 190-195ºF. Let cool completely before slicing and enjoy!

If you liked this Sourdough Brioche, you may also like: Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka / Buttery Sourdough Pull Apart Bread / Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread / Rosemary Sourdough Bread / Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread / Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls