Dairy Free Brioche Bread

Somethings in life are so darn good that you can only identify them in French. Like Brioche for example. A classic French bread, brioche is a sinfully rich, golden, soft bread with a thin, flaky crust and a silky crumb. In other words, I love brioche! And in part two of this Mother’s day inspired post (continuing from yesterday’s Dairy Free Nutella recipe), I’ve got a dairy free version of brioche that I KNOW my mom will absolutely love! After all, what better way to eat dairy free nutella than with a warm, toasted slice of Dairy Free Brioche Bread!

Brioche is a wonderfully rich bread due to its high butter and egg content which also gives it that characteristic golden, lustrous exterior. It’s a soft dough because of that richness and converting it to a dairy free version proved to be a little more difficult than I had envisioned. Especially because butter is an absolutely crucial ingredient in making brioche. It took me a few tries to get it right, but the final payoff made it all the more worthwhile!

So what did I do?

Usually when you have to substitute butter to make a recipe dairy free, you have to take into account the typically higher water content of the dairy free butter alternative (compared to real butter). Which meant I had to rely more on the eggs (than the butter alternative) to get that characteristic richness of brioche. My first couple of attempts at this didn’t work because I used too much butter and the dough didn’t rise properly. I ended up with something that resembled a dry cake that crumbled at the slightest touch. So back to the drawing board, I went.

I also had to take into account the type of liquid I used to make the brioche loaf soft (and delicious!). Milk is what I usually use at this point, but that was obviously out of the question. I tried coconut milk (diluted with water to replicate the consistency of regular milk), but that didn’t work either.

Mr K seemed to be happy with the failures and went on devouring them nonetheless, but I was getting increasingly more frustrated. I usually have a much easier time converting a recipe into a dairy free version.

And then finally, success! I used high gluten flour and lactose free milk (the idea was to make it lactose free, not gluten free or vegan, so it wasn’t an issue to use lactose free milk – almond milk or soy milk should has worked well for a completely dairy free version too ).

I have used a dough hook as you can see in the picture above, but this dough is so incredibly soft which means it’s going to stick to the bottom and the sides of your mixer, so you will need to scrape down the sides of your mixer as you go to ensure complete mixing. When I make regular brioche I use the paddle beater in my mixer, but that won’t work for this dough because if you mix this too fast, the gluten strands will break and you will end up with a very cakey loaf of bread. Not pretty, not yummy, not good.

But with a dough hook though? EXCELLENT results! I mean look at that crumb? 🙂

This dough is probably one of the softest doughs I’ve ever handled. It was so soft that the impressions I made in the dough with my fingers when I transferred it into the loaf pan actually remained. So handle this dough very gently, like you would handle your friend’s baby.

On to the recipe now.

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5 from 5 votes

Dairy Free Brioche Bread

Author: Dini K.

Servings: 1 loaf

Print Rate

Ingredients:

• ▢ 18 oz / 510 g bread flour
• ▢ ½ cup warm water warm to the touch
• ▢ ½ cup Soy Milk or Lactose Free Milk will work too
• ▢ 3.5 oz/ 100g white sugar
• ▢ 3 egg yolks
• ▢ 3 oz / 85 g of vegan butter softened (I used Earth Balance baking sticks)
• ▢ 2 ½ tsp instant dry yeast
• ▢ 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Instructions:

• In your mixing bowl, combine ½ cup of the bread flour, water, 2 tbsp of the sugar. Mix until the sugar has dissolved. Then mix in the yeast and let it stand for 30 minutes until it becomes frothy.
• In a separate small bowl, whisk the milk and egg yolks together. Add this milk+yolk mix into the yeast along with the rest of the flour and sugar. Using a spoon, mix the ingredients together, till the flour absorbs all of the liquid.
• Attach the dough hook to your mixer and knead the dough for 15-20 minutes, pausing from time to time to scrape the sides and the bottom to ensure even mixing.
• Add the butter in 3-5 additions, mixing well in between, to make sure each portion of butter is well incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the sides and the bottom (dough is very soft and sticky), and knead for a further 10 minutes. You may need to increase the speed a little to make sure the butter incorporates full into the dough.
• Cover the bowl with a moist cloth or plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size - about 1 hour (in colder weather, it can take a bit longer).
• While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and grease a loaf pan - I used one that is 9inch long 5 x 5 inches.
• Knock down the dough and carefully transfer it into the bread pan. Let this rise again for about 40 minutes until it has risen to the top of the loaf pan.
• Lower the heat to 300° and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, until the bread turns a golden brown. (keep checking the oven every 15 minutes to make sure the bread doesn't get burnt. Cover with foil, if the crust is starting to burn. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on top). The BEST sure-fire way to tell if the bread is done is by using a probe thermometer - insert the thermometer from the side of the bread to the middle (so that noone can tell you've pierced the bread) to check the internal temperature. When it registers at least at 200°F/ 93°C the bread is done.
• Leave it to cool for a few minutes, or until it is cool enough to handle. Then remove from the pan and let it cool to room temperature. The bread may deflate slightly and will be extremely soft when warm.
• Slice and serve.

“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”

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If you are anything like Mr. K and I, you’re not going to wait until the brioche loaf cools down to cut into it and then devour it. And look how soft it is? Like a hot knife through… brioche.

The first thing we did was to toast some bread slices, and then spread some dairy free butter & some raspberry preserve on top. It was amazing! A freshly baked bread, a toasted bread slice and some fruit preserve on top. The beauty in the simplicity will never cease to amaze me!

We also enjoyed a slice with some of this dairy free Nutella spread {Mocha Hazelnut Spread}, but we did more with this bread too! 🙂 And it was beautiful! But that’s a post for next week, so don’t forget to stop by next week for that. 🙂 I know you will love it!  Especially if you have lactose intolerant friends and/or family.

Here it is – Dairy Free Basil infused Brioche French Toast stuffed with Mocha Hazelnut Spread (Topped off with Strawberry and Black Pepper Compote)

I cannot tell you enough how insanely soft and rich this brioche bread is! If you decide to eat this bread just on its own, with nothing else, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit!

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