Vegetarian Bread Machine Brioche
Brioche is one of those breads that feels almost impossibly luxurious, with a golden, deeply bronzed crust and a crumb so tender and buttery it practically melts on contact. The bread machine does the heavy lifting here — specifically the long, patient kneading that coaxes all that softened butter into the dough until it becomes smooth, supple, and gloriously rich. Adding the butter gradually during the knead cycle is the real trick, and once you see that dough transform from shaggy and greasy to silky and elastic, you'll understand why the process is worth it. The three-ball shaping method gives the finished loaf that classic pull-apart crown, and the egg yolk wash is what delivers that deep chestnut color straight out of a Parisian boulangerie window. Every ingredient here is straightforwardly meat-free — whole milk, eggs, butter, flour, and yeast — so there's no label-reading or substitution anxiety involved. Slice it thick for French toast, tear it warm with salted butter, or use it as the base for the most indulgent sandwich you've ever made. Just make sure you let it cool long enough for the crumb to set, because cutting in too early is the one mistake you'll genuinely regret.
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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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