Artificial Flavors Free Bread Machine Brioche
Rich, pillowy, and deeply buttery, this brioche is the kind of bread that makes you wonder why you ever bought a loaf from the store. Packaged brioche and enriched breads are notorious for sneaking in artificial flavors to mimic that real-butter depth, but this recipe earns every bit of its flavor the honest way — whole milk, eggs, and a generous amount of real unsalted butter worked slowly into the dough. The bread machine does the heavy lifting on kneading, which is genuinely the trickiest part of brioche, so you get a smooth, supple dough without standing at the counter for half an hour. Adding the butter gradually during the knead cycle is the key move here — it gives the dough time to absorb each addition and develop that signature tender, feathery crumb. A simple egg yolk and milk wash before baking delivers that gorgeous chestnut crust with zero artificial color or glaze needed. Once it comes out of the oven and cools just enough to slice, you'll have a loaf that tastes like it came from a proper French bakery — made entirely from ingredients you can actually read on the label.
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Learn more →Ingredients
12 servings
For the dough
- ¼ cup whole milk, warmed to 95–100°f (35–38°c)
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast (1 standard packet)
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, softened
For the egg wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
- 1
Add the ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order your machine's manual specifies (typically liquids first, then dry ingredients, with yeast last and kept away from the salt). Add the warmed milk, then the 3 eggs, sugar, and salt. Add the bread flour on top, then make a small well in the center of the flour and add the yeast.
- 2
Select the Dough cycle on your bread machine and start it. Once the machine has been kneading for about 5 minutes and a shaggy dough has formed, begin adding the softened butter cubes a few at a time through the lid opening, waiting about 30 seconds between additions. The dough will look rough and greasy at first — continue until all the butter is incorporated and the dough is smooth, supple, and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pan, about 10–12 minutes into the knead cycle.
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