Sourdough Brioche
Fluffy, tender and incredibly delicious, this sourdough brioche is a labor of love - that is completely worth it! Sourdough brioche tastes buttery and delicious making it perfect to enjoy plain or make into French toast.
Servings: 30 slices (2 loaves)
Equipment
Ingredients
Levain (1:1:1 about 3-4 hours at 78ºF)
- 65 grams sourdough starter ripe, bubbly, active, about 1/4 cup
- 65 grams water about 1/4 cup
- 65 grams bread flour or all-purpose flour, about 1/2 cup
- 15 grams sugar about 1 Tablespoon
Tangzhong
- 50 grams all-purpose flour about 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons
- 250 grams milk whole milk or 2%, heaping 1 cup
Sourdough Brioche
- 180 grams ripe, bubbly, active levain about 3/4 cup
- all of the cooled tangzhong
- 45 grams milk, cold whole or 2%, about 3 Tablespoons
- 90 grams granulated sugar scant 1/2 cup
- 6 large eggs, cold about 300 grams
- 20 grams salt about 1 Tablespoon
- 750 grams bread flour about 5 1/3 cups
- 339 grams unsalted butter cool but soft (when you press down, your finger should leave an indentation, but it is still relatively hard) - reserved for adding to the dough after 5 minutes of mixing, about 1 1/2 cups
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- splash of heavy cream or water
Instructions
Mix Levain (1:1:1 about 3-4 hours at 78ºF)
- Mix together the ripe, active sourdough starter with bread flour, sugar and water until completely incorporated. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, bubbly and peaked.
Tangzhong
- About an hour before the levain is ready, whisk together 50 grams all-purpose flour and 250 grams milk in a saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture starts to thicken into a paste. This usually takes about 1-2 minutes. Quickly remove the thickened mixture from the heat and let cool before mixing your dough.
Sourdough Brioche
- Add Butter: Cut the butter into chunks, about 8-12 per stick of butter. Butter should be firm but soft enough to leave a dent when you press your finger into the butter. Turn the mixer on and add chunks of butter into the dough a little at a time. Continue adding chunks of butter until all the butter is added and incorporates into the dough.
- Knead until Windowpane: Continue kneading the dough on medium speed for 20-30 minutes (this will depend on your mixer and your dough) until the dough passes the windowpane test. To check for windowpane: Stop the mixer. Take your hands and pull up on a portion of the dough. At the beginning stages of kneading the dough, the dough will break as soon as you start to stretch it. As the dough kneads and the gluten strands develop, the dough will stretch thinly without tearing. You will know the dough is finished kneading when the dough does not tear when pulled and you can see light through the dough, like a windowpane. A word of caution: As you knead the dough, the friction from the mixer can heat up the ingredients in the bowl. It is important that the dough doesn't get too warm or else the butter will begin to melt and separate from the dough. If you notice this beginning to happen, take a break, stick your dough in the refrigerator to cool down and then continue kneading after the dough cools a little bit.
- Bulk Fermentation: At this point the dough will be very soft but also cohesive. Dump the dough into a container and cover. Set the dough in a warm, 78-80ºF place for 4 hours. Take the temperature of the dough as needed to make sure the dough temperature stays right around 78ºF. This temperature is the optimal fermentation. If your dough temperature is cooler than 78ºF, it will need to ferment longer than 4 hours.
- Overnight Refrigeration (Cold Fermentation): Stick the covered dough in the refrigerator overnight or up to 48 hours.
- Shape Loaves: Prepare two 9 by 5 loaf pans by lining them with parchment paper. Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Separate the dough into two equal pieces for two loaves of bread. Cut each loaf into 8 equal-sized pieces. 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. See pictures in the post for details.
- Proof: Place the shaped loaves in a warm place to rise until doubled in size and light and airy. I proof my dough in a bread proofer and with the temperature set at 80ºF it takes about 6-7 hours for the dough to rise.
- Bake: Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF. Whisk together one large egg with a splash of heavy cream or water. Gently brush the egg wash on top of the risen dough. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the loaves are baked through and the internal temperature is 190-195ºF. Let cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!
Notes
Sourdough Starter: Ripe, bubbly, active sourdough starter can be substituted for levain in this recipe.
Mixer: Brioche dough requires a lot of mixing. This dough will be very difficult to make without a stand mixer. I do not use my KitchenAid mixer for Brioche because of the long mixing time. Read my review on stand mixers for more information.
Unsalted Butter: Good quality, medium-soft, unsalted butter is important in this recipe. Butter makes up a LARGE percentage of the ingredients in this bread and is what gives the brioche its delicious buttery texture.
Bread Flour: I use bread flour in this recipe. Bread flour with a higher protein content (around 12.5%) creates dough with more elasticity. If you don’t have bread flour, you can use all-purpose flour and substitute some vital wheat gluten to increase the protein content of the flour, or just use all-purpose flour and the texture may just be a little bit different than a loaf with a higher protein content.
Find all of the baking tools I use for making this sourdough brioche linked on my Amazon Storefront.
Nutrition
Calories: 217kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 69mg | Sodium: 281mg | Potassium: 60mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 362IU | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1mg
