Best, Soft Sourdough Brioche Bread Recipe

Sourdough Brioche Bread is soft, fluffy and perfect for everything from PB&Js and grilled cheese, to fancy French toast.

Lately I’ve been starting my week with a big batch of sourdough brioche dough to turn into hamburger buns, and we are becoming a little addicted to having it around! We all love that traditional, artisan sourdough bread with its crisp crust and chewy bite, but for certain things you just can’t beat soft and fluffy sourdough brioche. Especially with kids you want to have a soft go to bread that they will both enjoy and that you can feel good about giving to them. My boys right now are growing so fast, I love knowing that they’re going to love eating this bread and be properly nourished. 

Brioche is the foundation for so many of the baked goods we sell at the Flour Barn. Whether it be our cinnamon rolls, sweet brioche rolls, or Danishes, they all start with a big batch of brioche dough. So when we were working on developing the perfect recipe, we knew we wanted a no fail, easy to throw together dough with a simple process that resulted in flavorful enriched bread with a soft texture. Now, our brioche recipe is one that we are so proud of and love serving to customers each week.

When I first decided to bring the recipe into my home, I knew I wanted to use natural leavening (sourdough starter). We love the flavor and health benefits that bulk fermentation adds and, honestly, I’ve really come to love the longer dough rise times. I love mixing dough in the morning or right before bed and knowing that I don’t have to revisit it for 8 hours. This sourdough brioche combines the ease and flavor of our original Flour Barn Brioche with the magic of sourdough and I am so happy with how it turns out each and every time! The first time you try this sourdough brioche recipe I am sure you will be amazed at the sweet softness of this enriched bread. 

Benefits of Sourdough Brioche

If you are looking for a more classic Sourdough Bread recipe, check out our Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe HERE!

Baking with a sourdough starter and utilizing bulk fermentation (long fermentation times) has benefits to both the nutritional value and flavor. As the flour in the bread dough ferments, some vitamins and minerals become more accessible to your body making sourdough more nutrient dense than other breads. Also, the same fermentation process can break down proteins in the flour that may cause digestive issues. This is why some people with gluten intolerance are able to enjoy sourdough bread.

As the flour in sourdough brioche hydrates and ferments over an eight-hour period, complex flavors can develop, and more sugar is released leading to a bread with a better taste. During my sourdough classes, I often get a lot of questions about how to speed up the rising time but I think the real trick is learning to embrace these long waiting periods. Not only will they help you make better bread, I personally think they will help to make bread baking a more natural part of your daily routine.

I should mention that there are ways to speed up the bread baking processes. The rise process is sped up by putting your dough in a warm spot or adding more active dry yeast. However, as I mentioned you sacrifice flavor and texture by cutting the fermentation process short. Sure, you can achieve a good rise in a faster amount of time, but you cannot develop that rich flavor created during fermentation in a shorter amount of time.

Why does this Recipe Work?

Sourdough brioche is incredibly simple to throw together. We’re going to put all of the ingredients, in any order, into the bowl of a stand mixer, and let the dough hook attachment do all of the work for us. After that we can just cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap and basically forget about it for six hours for this first rise. After the initial rise, we will shape it and let it have a second rise for two more hours before baking. I love that I don’t have to remember to come back and stretch and fold it throughout the day.

What really sets this recipe apart is the addition of 1/4 teaspoon of commercial yeast, which is foreign to most sourdough recipes. I’ve found that the additional ingredients in the brioche can cause the rising time to be too long. For example, if you decide to leave out the commercial yeast entirely, it will take the dough a long time, 16-20 hours to rise sufficiently. This is just too long. You will end up with a bread that has a very sour, almost acidic taste that does not jive with the rich brioche that we’re going for.

Adding just a little bit of commercial yeast really solves this problem. Our sourdough brioche is still going to rise and ferment for a total of eight hours, which is plenty of time for it to develop the perfect flavor while still being gentle on our bellies.

Shaping Sourdough Brioche

To create a traditional loaf of brioche bread, we are going to divide our dough into eight equal pieces. You can definitely use a scale if you would like to have a more uniform loaf with equal portions, but I usually just eyeball it. Form each piece into a ball as if you were making dinner rolls. You can do this by cupping your hand around the dough and rolling it in a circular motion on the counter until it forms a smooth ball with good surface tension.

Place the eight rolls into a loaf pan making two rows of four. They will fit tightly, and you may have to flatten the rolls slightly to place them in the pan. As they complete the final rise and then bake, they will come together to form a loaf of bread that can be sliced just like any other. But it will have the beautiful distinction of a loaf of brioche bread!

Using your Sourdough Brioche

I love making sandwiches with sourdough brioche, and I can tell you it makes the most delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich you will ever eat! This is perfect for our house because I don’t always think my traditional sourdough loaf makes the most kid friendly pb&j. This sourdough brioche is great for BLT’s and grilled cheese, but when you really want a treat, turn it into French toast and slather it with blackberry compote and syrup! You’ll find so many ways to use it! I often will make a loaf and then work it into my meal plan for the week. It is such a great base for some super simple dinners. As I mentioned, French Toast, Gourmet Grilled Cheese, BLTs and it also makes an awesome piece of toast with some jam…

For all of our favorite bread baking tools including a bench scraper, kitchen scale, Danish dough whisk, loaf pan,  click HERE.

I love making this Brioche recipe in my Ankarsrum Original Stand Mixer. It was definitely a splurge, but when I got serious about baking all my own bread at home, I needed a machine that was up for the job. This mixer is designed to handle whatever you can through at it, and I think it’s beautiful!

Best, Soft Sourdough Brioche Bread Recipe

Brioche is special kind of dough that is both decadent and versatile. We started a business around our favorite brioche dough recipe, and when we found a way to add a sourdough component it was so exciting. We hope you enjoy this simple, soft Sourdough Brioche Recipe as much as we have. I am still always blown away by the pillowy soft texture, and the rich buttery flavor this bread has. So many times when using sourdough we are hoping to achieve a hardier, crustier, more artisan result. This is a whole different texture and taste and will allow you to have more variety when it come to using your sourdough. Please let us now what you think of this recipe! Did you use it for French toast? Hamburger Buns? Gourmet Grilled Cheeses? Toast and jam on a Sunday Morning? Let us know in the comments below:)

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