We all love brioche bread because it contains large quantities of butter. Some brioche recipes even call for equal weights of butter and flour! Add a few eggs to the mix and you’ll have one super sticky dough. That’s why most brioche recipes instruct you to use a stand mixer, like a KitchenAid. Well, I wanted to share with you my Poor Man’s Sourdough Brioche recipe that you can actually make by hand.
First, What Is Brioche?
Brioche is an enriched bread of French origin that usually contains eggs, butter, and sometimes milk or cream. It can be leavened with yeast, sourdough starter, or both. Because of the large amount of butter added to most brioche doughs, brioche falls somewhere in between a pastry and a bread.
There have been various styles of brioche that have popped up throughout the centuries. At risk of oversimplifying things, brioche can be put into a few different categories based on how much butter is added to the dough. Poor man’s brioche, rich man’s brioche, and royal brioche are just a few typical kinds of brioche dough.
Royal Brioche
Royal Brioche is an enriched bread recipe of French origin that was made famous by culinary arts historian Pierre Lacam. What makes royal brioche unique is that the recipe calls for 625 grams of butter and 500 grams of flour (source). That’s an extremely high butter to flour ratio.
What a crazy amount of butter! It is very difficult to incorporate that much butter into your dough. I might attempt to make royal brioche some day, but for now, I’ll leave it to the experts.
Rich Man’s Brioche
Rich Man’s Brioche is an enriched bread of French origin that is made with a high quantity of butter. The amount of butter is typically at least half the weight of flour. So, if a loaf of rich man’s brioche calls for 500 grams of flour, it will most likely contain at least 250 grams of butter.
Recipes for this style of brioche vary. Some call for a 1:2 butter to flour ratio, and some even call for a 1:1 butter to flour ratio. Either way, rich man’s brioche is rich and decadent.
Since we’re here to make a poor man’s sourdough brioche, let’s talk about what poor man’s brioche is.
Poor Man’s Brioche
Poor man’s brioche is an enriched bread of French origin made with flour, eggs, butter, salt, sugar, and milk. It can be leavened with either yeast or sourdough. This style of brioche is different from others in that it contains a relatively lower quantity of butter. Poor man’s brioche usually has a 1:4 butter to flour ratio. For every 500 grams of flour there would be 125 grams of butter.
How to Make Poor Man’s Sourdough Brioche
To make my poor man’s brioche recipe, you can follow my video tutorial below, and reference the printable recipe at the bottom of the page for the exact ingredient amounts and steps.
Video – Grant Bakes’ Poor Man’s Sourdough Brioche
Recipe Tips
- Weighing Your Eggs – If your three eggs don’t quite add up to 150 grams, you can add some milk to make up the difference. Similarly, if your eggs weigh more than 150 grams, you can subtract some of the milk. My three eggs only added up to 137 grams, so I added 13 grams of milk to the dough to get the right consistency.
- Using a Stand Mixer – If you don’t want to knead by hand, you can use a stand mixer for this recipe. Just knead the dough for 5 minutes with the hook attachment at medium low speed. Then, cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. Start kneading again on low speed, adding in the whole stick of butter a tablespoon at a time. When the first chunk of butter disappears into the dough, add the next one. Keep doing this until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough passes the window-pane test. Then follow the recipe as written.
Shaping Tips
- Shaping Your Brioche – I chose to shape my brioche into six equal balls and bake them in a loaf pan. If you want to keep things easy, you could shape the dough as sandwich loaf, like in my sourdough sandwich bread recipe. For another fun shape, you could divide the dough into three strands and braid it before placing it into the loaf pan.
- Making Other Things with Brioche Dough – After the proofing stage, this brioche dough could be divided into eight equal pieces to make hamburger buns. You could also divide it into 12 equal pieces to make dinner rolls. You could even use this dough as a base for a sourdough version of conchas, the famous Mexican sweet bread. This poor man’s brioche can go savory or sweet depending on what you do with it.
Poor Man's Sourdough Brioche Recipe
My poor man's sourdough brioche contains just enough eggs, butter, and milk to be rich, but it's also easy enough to knead by hand. Your friends and family will never believe that this rich, tender, and lightly sweet bread is actually sourdough.
Ingredients
- Bread Flour - 450 grams
- Eggs - 150 grams (about 3 medium eggs)
- Milk - 100 grams
- Sugar - 40 grams
- Salt - 10 grams
- Sourdough Starter - 150 grams
- Butter, Softened - 114 grams (1/2 cup or 1 US stick)
Instructions
- The night before you want to make your brioche, or at least 4-8 hours beforehand, feed your sourdough starter so that you have at least 150 grams to use for the recipe. I took 25 grams of starter from the fridge, then mixed in 75 grams of water and 75 grams of bread flour. The next morning it had doubled in size and it was ready to use.
- To a mixing bowl, add the milk, eggs, sugar, salt, and active sourdough starter. Stir everything thoroughly to combine.
- Then add the total amount of flour and mix everything with a spoon or bowl scraper until the flour becomes hydrated by the wet ingredients. Knead the dough on the counter for about a minute so that everything holds together. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- Uncover the dough and add half of the butter on top of the dough. Spread the butter across the dough with your hands and then dimple the butter into the dough with your fingertips. Flatten and fold the dough a few times until the dough finally breaks apart and exposes the layers of butter.
- Knead the dough on an un-floured countertop for about five minutes, or until the butter fully incorporates into the dough. At first the counter will get buttery, and then in will get doughy, and finally the dough will all hold together. Use a bench scraper to help you clean up the counter throughout this process. When the dough holds together, form it into a ball, cover it, and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the other half of the butter. Spread, dimple, fold, and then knead the dough for another five minutes until the butter fully incorporates into the dough. When the dough is fully kneaded, let it rest for five minutes and then check for gluten development with the window-pane test. If you need to, knead the dough for another five minutes.
- Ball the dough up and place it into an oiled or buttered container. Let it rise for 5-10 hours, or until doubled in size. Once the dough has doubled, you can shape the dough right away, or move it to the fridge for up to 24 hours. I usually keep my dough in the fridge for around 3-12 hours. The colder dough is easier to shape.
- Divide the dough into six equal pieces and shape them into balls. You can use a digital scale to weigh the dough equally. Place all six balls of dough into a loaf pan, using your dough scraper to help them fit tightly together. Cover up the dough with oiled plastic wrap and let it proof at room temperature for about 3-6 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Brush the dough with egg wash (one beaten egg) and bake it in a preheated oven for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you want to check with a thermometer, the internal temperature of the brioche should be at least 190 degrees Fahrenheit when fully baked. Note: Tent the top of the brioche with aluminum foil if the bread is getting too dark half-way through the bake time.
My favorite tools for baking bread in a loaf pan:
Non-stick Bread Pan
Internal Temperature Thermometer
Conclusion
I really hope you give this recipe a try. If you’re not quite ready to go full brioche, try out my Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe here. It’s also a great loaf of sourdough bread that gets its inspiration from brioche, but it’s more beginner friendly. Enjoy!