Is this possibly the best bread ever?
Possibly.
While this is a recipe I would classify under “intermediate or advanced” recipe, it is SO GOOD and well worth learning how to make brioche!
Brioche is a soft, buttery, delicious bread. This bread dough can be used for rolls, bread loaves, fancy bread loaves, hamburger buns, hoagie buns, and more! Do with it as you will!
Enjoy!
Brioche Bread with 100% Freshly Milled Wheat
This brioche bread is DELICIOUS and a perfect brioche dough you can use for loaves, buns, and more! All made with 100% freshly milled wheat, this bread is a soft and slightly sweet bread.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup warm milk
- 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast active dry yeast can be used
- 2 tsp honey
- 5 large eggs
- 1 yolk from large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 5 TB cane sugar
- 4 - 4 1/2 cups freshly milled hard white wheat flour mill 3 cups of wheat berries; see notes below
- 1 1/2 tsp salt fine
- 8.8 oz unsalted butter softened. This is equivalent to 2 sticks + 2 TB of butter or 1cup + 2TB
Instructions
The Dough
- Combine warm milk, yeast, and honey into a mixing bowl. Add about 1/2 cup of flour. Mix well. Let rest for 10-15 minutes until bubbly (this step may be optional with instant yeast, but if active dry yeast is used you MUST do this step)
- After yeast mixture has proofed, add 5 large eggs and 1 egg yolk. Mix together.
- Add vanilla, sugar, salt, and 2 cups of freshly milled flour. Mix together until all ingredients are incorporated. It will look very scraggly. Do NOT add more flour at this time.
- With dough hook attachment on, knead dough for about 3 minutes (See notes below for speeds for various mixers)
- Divide butter into roughly 4 portions.
- Add one quarter of butter, mix until incorporated about 1-2 minutes.
- Add second quarter of butter, mix until incorporated about 1-2 minutes.
- Do this for the rest of the quarters - add, mix, add, mix. Scrape down the sides as needed.
- Once all butter is incorporated, keep mixer on and add 1/4 cup of flour at a time. Once you add a little flour, wait until it's mixed in before adding more. Add flour until dough is BARELY pulling off the sides of the bowl (see video for details). It will still be rough and shaggy looking.
- Once dough is JUST starting to pull away from the sides of the bowl, increase mixer speed to about medium (See notes below). Knead for about 9 minutes, up to 15 minutes depending on mixer. The dough is ready when it has smoothed out, it looks shiny, and it's easier to work with. See video for details.
- Once dough has been kneaded, it's come together as a loose but manageable dough, you're now ready to prepare however you wish. This is your base brioche dough. Options are below. Do know for loaves, this makes two loaves around 1lb - 1.5lb each.
Options for the dough
- Option 1: Shape dough into whatever type of bread you are making. Let rise. Then place in preheated 325 degree F oven and bake until golden brown.
- Option 2: Shape dough into a ball, place in bowl or mixer, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. Then shape into whatever shape you desire.
- Option 3: Shape dough into a ball, place in bowl or mixer, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. Gently deflate, reshape into ball. Place back in bowl, cover with plastic and place in fridge for 8 up to 24 hours. If dough has been placed in fridge, when removed it will be harder because all the butter has hardened. You can possibly still work with it, but if it's not manageable just let it warm up to room temperature on the counter or until it's where you can work with it.
Dough Shapes
- Pull-apart roll loaf (seen in video): When ready to shape, divide dough into 2 for two loaves. Take one half of dough and divide into 8 pieces. With those 8 pieces, form into rolls and place in a slight zig-zag pattern in 9x5 loaf pan. Let rise until it's about 1in from the top of the pan. Bake in preheated 325 degree F oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown on top and/or internal temp is 190 degrees F. You can do this again with the second half of dough, or shape in a different way. Let rest in bread pan for 5 minutes outside of oven, then gently place on cooling rack to cool completely OR you can serve nice and hot! This is a great option to serve hot bread on the table and everyone can pull apart their roll.
- Braided Loaf (seen in video): When ready to shape, divide dough into 2 for two loaves. Take one half of dough and divide into 3 pieces. With each piece, roll into small rectangle. Roll up each rectangle like a sleeping bag and roll out into a thin strip about 12-14 inches long. Once you have 3 long strips, place then side-by-side and mush together the very top of the 3 strands. Slightly tuck under. Braid the dough ropes into a 3 strand braid. Once you reach the end, mush together the ends like you did at the top end and gently fold under. Gently place in 9x5 bread pan. Rise in warm spot until loaf reaches about 1/2 - 1in below the top of pan. Bake in preheated 325 degree F oven for about 35 minutes until golden brown and/or internal temp reads 190 degrees F. Let rest in bread pan for 5 minutes outside of oven, then gently place on cooling rack to cool completely (or slice and serve hot, no judgement here. Bread just may fall if sliced while hot).
- Regular loaf shape: See detailed folding technique in my "Simple Yeast Bread" recipe. Let rice until even with bread pan, bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees F for about 35 - 45 minutes until golden brown and/or internal temp is 190 degrees F
- Rolls: For regular rolls, just roll into rolls like the "pull apart bread" but place slightly apart in a 9x13 pan. Rise until double, bake in preheated 325 degrees F oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.
Topping/Browning options
- To get a more shiny, browned look to your loaves, before baking brush loaves with an egg wash (1 egg yolk with 1 tsp water mixed together). Bake as normal.
- For a shiny look, but necessarily browned, once bread is baked just brush melted butter on top.
Notes
Freshly Milled Flour Options
I prefer freshly milled hard white wheat for this recipe because of its mild flavor, but still great for yeast breads. Hard red could be used, but it will be a nuttier flavor. Can try doing 2 parts hard red and 1 part soft white wheat to soften it a bit.Â
If you are a newbie newbie, I advise holding off on ancient grains until you have more experience. They can be trickier to work with.Â
Another note:Â
Some people say the longer the bread rests in the fridge, the more flavorful it gets. I don't really notice a difference. Maybe you will. For me it tastes great at any time!Â
Warming Up:
This bread doesn't toast well. I find it dries it out. To reheat bread, rolls, a slice, etc, wrap up in tin foil then place in oven or toaster oven on 350 degrees F for about 5-10 minutes (a loaf will take longer) until nice and warm. Wrapping it in tin foil keeps the bread from drying out and you maintain the moisture.Â
Storing:
Because of all the butter and eggs, I find this stores best in a Ziploc bag or airtight container in the fridge. If the house is warmer, it goes bad faster out on the counter. This bread is best served as fresh as possible!Â
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Hi!
Thanks for including how many cups of wheat berries are needed. It makes it easier for me not to over-mill wheat berries.
How many rolls does this recipe make?
I think you can get a dozen, but all depends how much dough you have and how big your rolls are.
Do you sift the bran out of the flour for your recipes
Nope. Only for biscuits do I sift, but I’m not removing all of the bran and germ.
Hi Felicia, I’m so glad I found you. I’ve got a couple of questions. Do you think I can half the recipe? I don’t eat much grain products yet. As far as I can remember from the old days it’s possible to freeze yeast dough?? That would be my other option if half the amount wouldn’t work. Looking forward to trying my first whole grain brioche. Can’t wait!
Thanks for sharing your recipes, arohanui from Aotearoa New Zealand
Sigi
People freeze bread all the time! I think most people wrap it up with plastic wrap, then place in ziploc bag or wrap again in freezer paper and freeze. Then pull out and let thaw on counter overnight for bread the next day.
Can you use a bread machine for this? I have the Zojirushi Supreme.
Possibly, but I haven’t tried it in the bread machine.
Another great recipe!Thank you so very much!
I opted to make 2 basic loaves out of the dough. They were very small! I used 4-4.5 cups of hard white flour. Felicia, in your video did you do 1x recipe or 2x? Using that as a reference mine was considerably smaller. Hmm wonder where I got off. Thank you!
I just made this recipe tonight and it is just delicious! My first try and OMG!!! My hubby loves it too!!! I will definitely be making again.