Honey Free Bread Machine Brioche
Brioche is one of those breads that feels almost impossibly luxurious — golden, feathery, and rich with butter and eggs in every single bite. What makes this version so satisfying is that the bread machine handles the most demanding part: the long, patient incorporation of all that softened butter into the dough. You add the cubes gradually during the knead cycle, and the machine does the heavy lifting until the dough is smooth, supple, and completely transformed. The recipe relies entirely on pantry staples like bread flour, granulated sugar, eggs, and unsalted butter, so there's no sweetener sourced from bees anywhere in the formula — just clean, straightforward ingredients. That matters more than it might seem, since many enriched bread recipes quietly call for a drizzle of something golden that not everyone wants or can use. After the machine completes its dough cycle, a second proof in the loaf pan lets the three dough balls rise into that signature domed crown before a hot oven turns them a deep, glossy chestnut. Slice into it after it cools and you'll find a pillowy, pull-apart crumb that's equally at home with jam at breakfast or alongside a bowl of soup at dinner.
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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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