This soft, buttery brioche bread made with fresh milled flour is perfect for sandwiches, french toast, or just plain toast and it uses basic ingredients that you already have on hand!
Brioche is a French bread that is enriched with eggs, butter, and milk. In this recipe I use the Tangzhong Method, plus a 25 minute autolyse to achieve the softest, and fluffiest brioche bread with fresh milled flour!
If you are looking for other brioche recipes with fresh milled flour, try my Soft and Fluffy Brioche Buns, and Cinnamon Rolls!
What Is The Tangzhong Method?
The tangzhong method is an Asian technique that is known to create soft, squishy bread. This method of pre-cooking a small amount of flour, milk, and water pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour, resulting in more moisture in the dough.
This is great! It gives the fluffy, soft texture that we’re used to in store-bought bread. If you want to read more about the tangzhong method, check out this article by King Arthur.
Pictured above is the process of the tangzhong method in action. It changes fairly quickly in about 2-3 minutes.
What You’ll Need To Make Brioche Bread With Fresh Milled Flour
Fresh Milled Hard White Wheat Flour
Whole Milk– This will still work with a lower fat milk or non-dairy milk, but for the best results use whole fat milk.
Instant Yeast– I use SAF Instant Yeast
Sugar
Salt
Eggs
Butter– You can use salted or unsalted. Totally up to you.
If you’ve made my brioche buns or cinnamon rolls this recipe is super close, but just a little different. This recipe is also incorporating the autolyse method, so we will be adding everything EXCEPT the yeast and salt until the end.
What Is The Autolyse Method?
The autolyse method is resting your dough mixture for 20-60 minutes BEFORE adding the yeast and salt. This will help ensure that your flour is fully hydrated and make your dough more stretchy, resulting in a softer loaf of bread. If you want to read more on the Autolyse Method read this article.
Making Your Brioche Bread With Fresh Milled Flour
Beginning with the Tangzhong ingredients: Combine the flour, milk, and water into a small saucepan and whisk over medium heat to make sure there are no clumps. Stir constantly until thickened. 2-3 minutes. I like to use a spatula after whisking so it doesn’t stick to the edges. It will look like a thick roux similar to thick pudding.
Next, in your mixing bowl add the Tangzhong mixture, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, and softened butter. Remember, DON’T ADD the yeast or salt at this step. Mix until thoroughly combined. We’re not fully kneading in this step. Cover and let this mixture Autolyse for 20-60 minutes. I just did 20 minutes for the pictures seen in this recipe.
After you’ve autolysed, add in your yeast and salt. Knead in your mixer for 6-8 minutes or until windowpane is reached. This will vary depending on your mixer.
Form the dough into a ball, put it in a greased bowl, cover and rise for about an hour or until doubled in size. This will vary by the temperature in your home.
Once it’s doubled in size, oil your hands and punch the dough down. Separate into 2 equal pieces, shape loaves, place in an oiled or parchment lined pan, cover and let rise until doubled.
*This recipe was just shy of being 2 pounds of dough, but it still filled out nicely in the small pullman loaf pans. You can also put all of the dough in the 2 pound large pullman loaf pan for a larger loaf if you’d like.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 24-30 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven and pans used. The small pullman loaf pans were done at 24 minutes. They will be 190 degrees F in the middle when done.
When they are done, remove them from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. At this time you can add butter to the tops if you’d like. Pictured below is one with butter and one plain.
Shop This Post
My top 2 places to order wheat berries are Azure Standard or Country Life Natural Foods. If it’s your 1st order through Country Life use code: freshmilledmama for 10% off!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars and leave a review below!
You can also Tag me on Instagram or Facebook @freshmilledmama and share a photo in my Facebook Group.
Brioche Bread Made With Fresh Milled Flour
Ingredients
For Tangzhong
- 18 grams fresh milled hard white wheat flour (2 tbsp.)
- 60 grams milk (1/4 cup)
- 30 grams water (2 tbsp.)
Dough
- 180 grams milk (3/4 cup milk)
- 2½ Tbsp. sugar
- 425 grams fresh milled hard white wheat flour (approx. 3 1/2 cups)
- 2 eggs
- 36 grams butter softened, (3 Tbsp.)
- 9.3 grams instant yeast (1 Tbsp) (I use SAF brand)
- 1½ tsp. salt
Optional
- 1 egg for eggwash
Instructions
Make Tangzhong
- Combine all ingredients for tangzhong into a small saucepan and whisk over medium heat to make sure there are no clumps.
- Stir constantly until thickened. 2-3 minutes. I like to use a spatula after whisking so it doesn't stick to the edges. It will look like a thick roux similar to thick pudding.
Make Dough
- In your mixing bowl add the Tangzhong mixture, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, and softened butter. Remember, DON'T ADD the yeast or salt at this step. Mix until thoroughly combined. We're not fully kneading in this step. Cover and let this mixture Autolyse for 20-60 minutes.
- After you've autolysed, add in your yeast and salt. Knead in your mixer for 6-8 minutes or until windowpane is reached. This will vary depending on your mixer.
- Form the dough into a ball, put it in a greased bowl, cover and rise for about an hour or until doubled in size. This will vary by the temperature in your home.
- Once it's doubled in size, oil your hands and punch the dough down. Separate into 2 equal pieces, shape loaves, place in an oiled or parchment lined pan, cover and let rise until doubled. When finished rising you can do an egg wash on top before baking for a glossy brown finish.*This recipe was just shy of being 2 pounds of dough, but it still filled out nicely in the small pullman loaf pans. You can also put all of the dough in the 2 pound large pullman loaf pan for a larger loaf if you'd like.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 24-30 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven and pans used. The small pullman loaf pans were done at 24 minutes. They will be 190 degrees F in the middle when done.
- When they are done, remove them from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. You can butter the tops if you'd like when they're warm from the oven.
Video
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you! Tag me on Instagram @freshmilledmama and please leave a review below on the blog!
MORE FRESH MILLED FLOUR RECIPES:
I found your website looking for fresh milled flour. I am going to make your recipes and know they will be good. I would like to know why basic bread recipe uses sunflower lecithin powder and wheat gluten and brioche bread doesn’t use it. I am definitely making the basic bread recipe today. Thank you.
Hello! So the basic bread recipe uses the lecithin and wheat gluten for a softer loaf. It is not required, but it does make a difference. The brioche bread uses eggs, butter, and milk which enrich and soften the loaf. I’d love to hear how your bread turns out!
Finally a bread with the same texture of regular white bread!! So so so happy with the results.
Since we have been eating bread with a heavier wheat flavor, the taste is a little bit bland. Can I substitute honey in the same amount for the sugar?
Also have you used anything different combinations of wheat for this recipe?
Thank you for sharing as we have been very frustrated with not finding a bread that doesn’t fall apart!
So glad to hear you enjoy it! You *should* be able to substitute honey with the same amount with no issues since it’s a small amount. So far I’ve only used hard white. You could substitute hard red with no problem.
This is so SOFT! The flavor is great and we can’t wait to try french toast with it. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh, yum! You’re welcome!
can this bread be made with hard red wheat instead of hard white wheat?
Hard red should be able to be substituted!
This bread 🍞 is delicious! It is definitely on my weekly baking list!
Made this! Amazing!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Would kamut grain be okay to use?
I haven’t used Kamut in this and am not sure how it would turn out. Sorry! If you try it please let me know how it goes.
I noticed with your brioche rolls you don’t do the autolyse. Is there a reason for that? I see with the bread do you use the autolyse method. Just curious if I should be doing it with the rolls?
I made that recipe before I ever heard of Autolyse. I think it’s fine either way, but it does help with the softness. So it’s totally up to you.
How would I use active yeast? I only use an active yeast with yeast listed as the only ingredient. Instant yeast will have 2-3 based on the brand. Thank you!
You would use the same amount. The only difference with active vs. instant is the active needs to be rehydrated in water before adding it in.
Can you use sourdough starter for this recipe?
I’m sure you could. I just don’t know the measurements for substituting it.
Made this yesterday, followed the recipe exactly, the bread came out delicious and soft, but shrank during baking. The dough rose great, until I baked it. I used Red Star quick rise yeast, it’s fresh, so don’t know what happened.
It sounds like the dough may have been overproofed?
Could I make this recipe in the zojorushi bread machine?
I have not tried this in a bread machine.