MSG Free Bread Machine Brioche
Rich, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this brioche is the kind of bread that makes you wonder why you ever bought a loaf from a store. The ingredient list is refreshingly short and clean — whole milk, eggs, butter, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast — with absolutely nothing hidden or processed, so you know exactly what's going into every golden slice. That matters more than people realize, since many commercial enriched breads and flavor enhancers rely on additives that can be hard to spot on a label. Here, the deep savory-sweet flavor comes entirely from slow fermentation and a generous amount of real butter, worked gradually into the dough during the knead cycle for that signature soft, feathery crumb. The bread machine does the heavy lifting on mixing and the first rise, so you're mostly just shaping three dough balls and waiting for that gorgeous crown to rise above the pan. A brushing of egg wash before baking gives the loaf its deep chestnut finish — the kind of color that makes it look like it came from a serious bakery. Let it cool just long enough before slicing, and then try not to eat half the loaf in one sitting.
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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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