Xanthan Gum Free Bread Machine Brioche
Rich, buttery, and impossibly tender, this brioche is the kind of bread that makes people think you spent all day in a professional kitchen. The bread machine does the heavy lifting on kneading, which is especially helpful here because incorporating that much butter into a dough by hand is genuinely exhausting work. Softened butter is added gradually during the knead cycle, giving the dough time to absorb each addition until it becomes smooth, supple, and glossy — no shortcuts, no gums, no additives needed to achieve that signature texture. The entire formula relies on bread flour, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, salt, and yeast, so there is nothing hidden or unnecessary in the ingredient list. For anyone navigating a sensitivity to common baking additives, it is reassuring to know that brioche has always been naturally structured by gluten and fat rather than any thickening agent. The egg wash gives the finished loaf a deep chestnut crust that looks stunning on a cutting board, and the crumb inside is pillowy with just enough chew. Let it cool the full thirty minutes before slicing — the wait is genuinely worth it.
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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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