Pescatarian Bread Machine Brioche
Rich, pillowy, and impossibly tender, this brioche is the kind of bread that makes you feel like a serious baker the moment you pull it from the oven. The bread machine does the heavy lifting on kneading, which is genuinely the trickiest part of brioche — getting all that butter fully incorporated into the dough takes patience and time, and the machine handles it beautifully while you go about your day. The slow butter addition during the knead cycle is the real secret here, coaxing the dough into something smooth, supple, and gloriously golden once baked. Eggs and dairy are the stars of this recipe, and since there's no meat or poultry anywhere near it, it fits naturally into a pescatarian kitchen without any substitutions or workarounds needed. The egg wash gives the finished loaf that deep chestnut crust you'd expect from a French bakery, while the crumb inside stays soft and slightly sweet. It's stunning sliced thick for French toast, layered with smoked salmon and crème fraîche, or honestly just eaten warm with good butter. Once you see how straightforward the process is, store-bought bread is going to have a hard time competing.
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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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