Bread Machine Brioche Buns

I am not going to pretend brioche is fast. It is not. It is enriched dough, which in this case means eggs, a half stick of butter and an overnight rest in the fridge. 

What I will tell you is that the bread machine takes the hardest part off your plate. Brioche dough is sticky and needs a long, patient knead to build structure around all that fat. A stand mixer can do it. Your hands can do it, eventually. But the bread machine just does it, while you go do something else. That’s why I these are the easiest brioche buns I’ve made.

Enriched Doughs and Your Bread Machine

Making GOOD enriched doughs in your bread machine can require a bit more than dump and go.  But I promise, it is easy.  The water, eggs, salt, flour, sugar, and yeast go in first. You hit the dough cycle and when the add-in beep sounds, you add the butter cubes.

Make sure you check the dough about five minutes after you add the butter. It should look wet, and have a little tackiness. If the butter isn't incorporating, you can add flour, a tablespoon at a time until it pulls together. Don't add more than ¼ cup.

The dough firms up considerably overnight in the cold, and flour you add now could lead to dry brioche.

Weigh Your Flour, Please

Here is the one place I want to save you a headache. In one of my first four test batches, the dough came out wetter than it should have. I added a quarter cup of flour, it came right, and the buns were great. Then I could not reproduce the problem in two more tries.

The variable that changed? I had measured by cups in that batch, and for the rest I switched to a scale. A wet batch is almost always a measuring quirk, not a broken recipe. Three cups of bread flour is 360 grams.

Why the Overnight Chill?

The dough will be wet when if finishes, and needs to be refrigerated overnight beforeshaping.

The cold rest relaxes the gluten so the dough shapes without a fight. It also gives the yeast time to develop more flavor than a quick room-temp rise ever could.

One warning from experience: this dough rises a lot in the fridge. Use a large enough container, or your dough will escape over the rim. I use bread buckets for this reason.

Also, know that I DID test skipping the overnight rise, and didn't like the results. The buns where crumbly and the texture was off.

When you are ready to bake, pull the dough out and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. This makes it easier to shape.

Shaping and the Second Rise

Divide the dough into six even pieces, about 115 grams each. For smaller rolls, go eight pieces at about 86 grams.

Roll each piece into a tight ball, then flatten it into a disk.

If the dough springs back and won't hold its shape, cover the pieces and let them rest 10 minutes. Relaxed dough shapes much easier.

Arrange the shaped buns on a bun pan or a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Cover with plastic wrap and rise for one hour.

The Egg Wash and Baking

Make the egg wash at the end of the rising time and brush the tops evenly.  

Bake at 350°F for 22 to 35 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Now Put a Burger on It

I will be honest about why these exist. I developed them to hold a proper burger, and to be pretty enough to shoot one on. They deliver on both. The crumb is tender but sturdy. There is enough structure to stand up to a thick patty and all its juices without dissolving into the bottom of your hands. (Which was a major problem with the first two versions of this I tested.)

For serving, toast the cut sides in a dry pan, under the broiler or on your griddle for a minute before building.

Burger night just got an upgrade it will be hard to walk back from.

Step-by-Step