How to make brioche in a bread machine

Two ways to make brioche in a machine

Decide up front which result you want, because it changes the cycle. The first way is a full machine loaf: load the ingredients, run a sweet or basic cycle, and let the machine mix, knead, rise and bake the whole thing. You get a soft, rich, brioche-flavored sandwich loaf in the machine's pan shape — not a classic fluted brioche, but delicious and completely hands-off. The second way is the dough cycle plus your oven: the machine mixes, kneads and gives the dough its first rise, then stops, and you shape it into a traditional brioche form and bake it in the oven where it can brown and rise properly. The first is easiest; the second gives you a real brioche shape and crust. Both start with the machine doing the hard kneading — the choice is just where the baking happens.

Baking it in the machine: use the sweet cycle

If you're baking the loaf entirely in the machine, use the sweet cycleif your machine has one. It's built for doughs high in sugar and fat, and it typically bakes at a lower temperature or with a gentler crust settingso the sugary, buttery crust doesn't scorch before the inside is done. Running a rich brioche on the plain basic cycle often leaves the crust too dark, because sugar browns fast. Set the crust color to lightas well, for the same reason. The result is a tender, golden, brioche-style loaf — softer and cakier than ordinary bread, with a fine crumb. It won't have the classic brioche shape, but for toast, French toast or a rich sandwich loaf, a machine-baked brioche on the sweet cycle is genuinely good and takes no effort.

Finishing in the oven: use the dough cycle

For a traditional brioche, use the dough cycleinstead. The machine mixes, kneads and proves the dough through its first rise, then stops without baking — exactly what you want for anything shaped and baked in the oven. Take the risen dough out, shape it, let it proof, and bake it in your oven where it can spread, rise and brown into a proper brioche. This is the same workflow as making cinnamon rolls in a bread machine, and for the same reason: the machine handles the tiring kneading of a sticky enriched dough, and the oven does the baking a single loaf pan can't replicate. Because brioche dough is so soft and buttery, chilling it after the dough cycle makes it much easier to shape — more on that below.

Handling the butter

Butter is what makes brioche brioche, and how you add it matters. Use softened butter, not melted— melted butter runs and throws off the dough's liquid balance, while cold, hard butter won't incorporate and just knocks around the pan. Cut softened butter into pieces so the machine can work it in evenly. Some recipes have you add the butter a little into the knead, after the flour and liquid have started forming a dough, so the gluten can develop before the fat coats it and slows it down; follow your recipe's order. And don't overload a small machine — a rich, heavy brioche dough is far more work to knead than lean bread, so a big, buttery batch can strain a lightweight machine's motor. Keep the batch within your machine's capacity.

Handling the eggs and the liquid balance

The other thing people miss is that eggs are liquid. A brioche recipe's eggs count toward the dough's hydration, which is why brioche recipes use less water or milk than a plain loaf to compensate — you can't just add several eggs to an ordinary bread recipe without pulling back the other liquid, or the dough turns to soup. Use a recipe written for brioche (ideally one written for a bread machine) rather than improvising, and if you're adapting one, our guide to converting a recipe for a bread machine covers the adjustments. Bring the eggs to room temperatureso they don't chill the dough and slow the yeast further, and as always, watch the dough ball during kneading — a brioche dough is soft and slightly sticky, but it should still come together into a cohesive, elastic mass rather than a puddle.

Why enriched dough behaves differently

Understanding why brioche is slow and finicky makes it easier to bake. The fat coats the flour and slows gluten development, so the dough takes longer to come together and is more delicate. The sugar and fat both slow the yeast— sugar draws water away from the yeast cells and fat physically shields them — so an enriched dough rises noticeably slowerthan a lean one and needs patience. Expect a longer proof, and don't panic if it seems sluggish; that's normal for a rich dough, not a sign of dead yeast. Make sure your yeast is fresh and active, and keep salt from touching it directly. Our guide to active dry versus instant yeast covers which yeast to use and how to treat it. The payoff for the slower rise is that soft, tender, faintly cakey crumb that makes brioche what it is.

Shaping options if you finish in the oven

If you use the dough cycle and bake in the oven, you have real choices. The classic is a brioche a tete— a large ball with a small topknot, baked in a fluted tin — but a braided or plaited loaf, a simple pan loaf, or small individual rolls or bunsall work beautifully with the same dough. Chill the soft dough first so the butter firms up and it's easier to handle. Let the shaped dough proof until puffy before baking, brush it with an egg washfor the deep, glossy brown brioche is known for, and bake in a preheated oven at the temperature your recipe gives. You can also fold in add-ins — chocolate, dried or candied fruit — and if you're baking the loaf in the machine instead, our guide to adding fruit and nuts covers timing them so they don't get pulverized in the knead.

Tips for a better brioche

A few last things raise the results. Use a capable machine— a rich, heavy dough asks a lot of the motor and the dough cycle, and the machines in our best overall roundup have the strong dough cycles enriched dough rewards. Chill the doughbefore shaping if you're finishing in the oven; cold brioche is far easier to handle than warm, sticky brioche. Be patient with the rise, since enriched dough is genuinely slow. And on a machine loaf, keep the crust color light and lean on the sweet cycle. The bread machine turns the hardest part of brioche — kneading a butter-and-egg-laden dough — into a hands-off step, whichever finish you choose.