When high protein bread became a trend, I knew I had to jump in for the sourdough world. After all, all of us sourdough people that are looking for versatile and healthy ways to use our sourdough starter need a good recipe like this one.

Why Cottage Cheese Bread?

I had to ask myself this question when I discovered “cottage cheese bread” was trending on Pinterest and a viral recipe on TikTok. The reason this bread is so beloved: protein. This bread includes a large amount of cottage cheese and egg whites, which make it a protein sensation.

What Kind Of Cottage Cheese Bread Is This?

I have seen many versions of cottage cheese bread since beginning my research on this recipe. There are two kinds that stand out as the most popular: the flourless cottage cheese bread and the bread machine cottage cheese bread.  The flourless version, made by beating egg whites, mixing with cottage cheese, and baking, has been a social media sensation. It may be good, but it is not something attainable with sourdough baking. The bread machine version, made with flour, water, egg whites, cottage cheese, and yeast is simple, but I wanted even better, fluffier results and I wanted it to be sourdough. 

This cottage cheese bread is a simple sandwich bread made with the basics, similar to the bread machine version, and includes flour. To keep the bread light and fluffy, I have increased the hydration, creating a dough that is fairly wet. This version is developed by hand, rather than by stand mixer, because of this. It does not include enrichments like butter or sugar to make it taste “better,” which helps keep the health value high. Does it still taste good? Absolutely. I would not publish a recipe that didn’t. 

The Truth About The Comparison To Brioche

When described, this bread is often compared to brioche. I think this comparison is incredibly deceptive. Those who make this comparison may not understand the unique characteristics of brioche. 

Both breads are light and fluffy, due to the addition of egg. However, brioche is made with a lot of butter. The butter makes for an incredibly tender bread – one that melts in your mouth with each bite. The whole eggs in brioche also add fat and flavor, while the addition of sugar works to reduce sourness in the slow-rising dough.

Cottage cheese bread is only enriched with cottage cheese and egg whites. The only similarity is the fluffiness added from the egg whites. While cottage cheese bread and brioche are both fluffy breads, they are not the same. One is meant as a health food, while the other is used as a base for sweet recipes. The lack of fat in cottage cheese bread leads to a completely different end result.

What I Love About This Recipe

My honest-to-goodness favorite thing about this recipe is that I can feed it to my kids and they think it is just regular white bread. They love it. And, I get the satisfaction of knowing they are receiving a good amount of protein from it. There is absolutely nothing “bad” in this recipe. I did not even choose to wash the loaf with butter like I do many of my sandwich breads. The combination of high hydration plus large amount of egg whites creates a bread that is light and fluffy. The cottage cheese does not add a fowl flavor. It acts more like milk in the dough more than anything else, which is a common addition to sandwich bread. Overall, this bread is like a feel-good, healthy version of a white bread.

All The “Why’s”

Cottage Cheese

Because cottage cheese is a dairy product, the effects are similar to that of milk. Cottage cheese is a tightening agent, meaning it creates a firmer gluten structure that requires an extended fermentation (it needs more air to blow up). It also adds density to the dough and has a tendency to burn if baked at too high of a temperature in the oven.

If you are not a fan of cottage cheese, fear not – its use in this recipe does not lead to a strong “cottage cheese” flavor. The most important reason for its addition is protein, making the end product more nutritious. Because cottage cheese contains moisture, its use, combined with the use of egg whites, means the addition of any other kind of liquid (milk or water) is not necessary in this recipe. By keeping this ingredient in proportion with everything else, its health benefits can shine, while still producing a delicious bread.

Egg Whites Over Whole Eggs

Egg whites contain proteins that help structure the dough (as well as [maybe] help your diet). While they can help create a tall loaf with lots of fluff, they also result in an extended fermentation, due to the fact that they, along with cottage cheese, tighten the gluten structure.

I had to test both egg whites and whole eggs, knowing this question would come up. Both egg whites and whole eggs have the same effect, meaning whole eggs can be substituted for egg whites if you prefer. My personal preference is just the egg whites for their more neutral flavor. Because this dough is not enriched with copious amounts of butter (like brioche), I do not find the additional fat and flavor from the egg yolks to fit the neutral flavors I’m going for in this sandwich bread. It’s just not my preference.

This recipe can be made with freshly separated egg whites, or with egg whites that come in a carton at the store and have been pasteurized. And, of course, use whole eggs (the same amount by weight) if you prefer.

Neutral Oil

A small amount of neutral oil helps to lock in moisture and keep the bread (and crust) soft during/after baking. Sandwich bread is meant to be soft, not crusty or excessively chewy, making oil incredibly helpful to achieving the right texture.

Since we are only using a small amount of oil, gluten development is not affected enough that we have to change our technique. This bread is still easily developed by hand through time, a little bit of kneading, and folds.

Bread Flour

As per usual, I love to use bread flour. This recipe is no different. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of gluten-binding proteins, which helps gluten come together quicker and stronger, helping us to create a strong dough by hand. Due to the cottage cheese and egg whites, gluten will struggle to come together anyway, meaning bread flour can be very helpful.

You’ll also notice I use less bread flour in this recipe than I do others. Unlike other sandwich bread recipes, I found that a cottage cheese bread made from a stiff dough results in a bread that is far too dense and tastes like cardboard. A wetter dough (unlike a stiff dough) encourages gluten to come together, which helps the dough hold in air – keeping the loaf light. It could be that too much flour paired with tightening agents like eggs and cottage cheese just creates too tight a dough, causing fermentation to struggle. Either way, the extra moisture is helpful in this recipe.

Salt

Salt helps bring out flavor (without salt, bread would taste almost like nothing), but also has notable effects on the dough. Salt, just like cottage cheese and eggs, is a tightening agent, meaning it helps create a more elastic (strong) dough. It also slows fermentation, but this is something we must account for in our recipe because we cannot have a recipe without salt. It is important to use just the right amount, enough to bring out the flavor, but not so much that the loaf cannot ferment or come together.

If you are a bread nerd, you might notice that the percentage of salt I add to this recipe is strange. I agree, it is strange. I added my standard 10 g for a single loaf of bread (really, I wasn’t thinking about the math), which puts the percentage of salt (in relation to the flour; baker’s math) at 3% instead of 2%. In fact, 1.5% salt would pair even better with the effects of cottage cheese and egg whites. Why on earth would I use 3% salt when there are already so many other tightening agents in the dough?

To tell you the truth, I just was not thinking about the math. The way I strengthen this dough paired with a long, overnight fermentation means the dough actually turns out perfectly balanced; it’s not too elastic despite all the tightening agents. It ferments perfectly for me. And the salt? Well, this bread has never tasted too salty to me.

If you feel the need to reduce the salt, you can reduce it to 5 g (1.5%) or 7 g (2%), noting that your dough will be slightly more extensible, which will decrease the time it takes to ferment.

Sourdough Starter

The thing about this dough is that everything we add to it makes it tighter (aside from the oil). This bread doesn’t even contain water to help with extensibility. This isn’t necessarily a problem, it just means the dough needs more air to help blow it up. That is why I add more starter. By using extra sourdough starter, the dough gains a head-start on microorganisms that help with fermentation. I prefer this method over increasing the length of fermentation (bulk is already at 12 hours!) As long as your starter is healthy, you shouldn’t notice any sour flavor coming from the extra starter.

Hydration

This is a wet dough, even though it does not contain any water. The moisture comes from the cottage cheese and the egg whites – making the exact hydration difficult to calculate. While the wet dough is sticky at first, it plays to the benefit of gluten by creating an environment where molecules can bond easier. It also allows us to work this dough by hand through time and folds.

Dough And Gluten Development

Gluten needs just a little help to come together in this recipe. I give this dough two short rounds of kneading, followed by a thirty minute rest in between. By then, the gluten should have come together and the dough should have a windowpane. Then, the dough is fully strengthened through folds before being left to rest overnight.

The method in this recipe does a really good job balancing the tightening agents (cottage cheese, egg whites, salt). The dough is not too elastic; therefore, it ferments well and does not take forever to reach the top of the loaf pan. In fact, the dough is somewhat loose, which is surprising considering the circumstances. This looseness can lead to air bubbles forming at the top of your bread dough. Make sure to pop these before you bake the bread (they’ll only be at the top!). Since we shape the dough early, there is no degassing stage in this recipe.

Shaping

Shaping sandwich bread is so easy. You can really shape it however you want, as long as the top is smooth and the seams are sealed. I like to turn the dough out, pat it into a rectangle, fold the outer thirds inward, then roll it into a log. Because this dough is being shaped early in the fermentation process, it is still fairly sticky. I use a heavy dusting of flour to make shaping more manageable.

Bulk Fermentation

Letting the dough rise as much as possible, but not too much, contributes to the airiest of loaves. This recipe works a bit in reverse order; the majority of fermentation occurs in the loaf pan. This way, you’ll know exactly when your dough is ready. Fermenting dough for this long is only possible if the dough is well-developed (otherwise it would deflate). The tightening agents – cottage cheese, egg whites, and salt – also keep the dough strong and allow this long fermentation.

I chose to do it like this for the sake of simplicity. I can start the dough early in the evening (before I am too tired), develop the dough before I go to bed, and let it fully ferment overnight. I can bake it first thing in the morning, or I can stick it in the refrigerator and bake it when I am ready. It’s a different method; however, it’s one that I find works for a busy schedule.

In an attempt to favor the yeast and reduce sourness, I recommend keeping the dough temperature between 70-75 F (21-24 C). I usually ferment this dough around 70 F (21 C). This dough can rest about twelve hours in the loaf pan in cooler home temperatures (68-70 F; 20-21 C) and about nine hours in warmer home temperatures (75 F; 24 C). If your home is much warmer than this, I recommend beginning this recipe in the morning and baking when the dough is appropriately risen, which will be a much quicker timeline. Watch the dough and ferment until it surpasses the top of the loaf pan.

Egg Wash

I wanted to keep all the ingredients for this recipe simple, healthy, and high protein. Therefore, I chose not to use butter (my favorite sandwich bread wash) for this loaf. Instead, I use an egg, which is whisked altogether and brushed on top before baking.

Depending on if you are separating fresh eggs or using pasteurized egg whites from a carton, you may or may not have extra egg yolks. A single egg yolk can be used in place of one whole egg for the wash. The difference here will be the shine. Egg whites create shine on baked goods, while egg yolks create a beautiful dark color. A bread washed with one whole egg will have a beautiful golden color and be shiny, while a bread washed with just the egg yolk will have a beautiful golden color without shine.

Baking Method: Temperature

Many cottage cheese bread recipes bake their loaves at a higher temperature than I have written for this recipe. The problem here is that cottage cheese is a milk product, and milk products need low and slow baking because they tend to burn. I did, however, test a loaf at 400 F (205 C) just to see what would happen. Of course, it became exceedingly dark and, surprisingly, developed a really thick crust. Baking the bread lower (350 F; 175 C) turns out much better results.

Baking Method: Steam

Since this is a sandwich bread – which is purposefully soft – you don’t have to remove the steam from the oven like you would for a crusty bread. It helps the dough stay soft, which leads to better expansion and texture. I use a pan of boiling water next to my dough, but you can use any method you like.

Suggested Timeline

Suggested Timeline

Quick Tip: Read the recipe in its entirety before you start cooking. This will help you understand the ingredients, steps, and timing involved, and allow you to prepare any necessary equipment or ingredients beforehand.

This is the first bread recipe I ever learned to make, only converted to sourdough. It’s simple and it’s made from a stiff dough – making it the perfect beginner sandwich bread recipe (I’ll explain more on why a bit later). It doesn’t use any fancy techniques, like sweet stiff starter or tangzhong (though I know for a fact we could enhance this bread greatly with them!). This recipe is just your basic, white sandwich bread.

What Is Sandwich Bread?

Sandwich bread is a type of bread made specifically for sandwiches. It is typically made in a loaf pan (though not always!). These breads are soft, yet sturdy, with a tight, even crumb (to make sure none of the sauce slips out!).

What I Love About This Recipe

This recipe is perfect for the beginner sourdough baker. The dough is easy to work with: it is soft (not sticky) to the touch. It uses a stand mixer and can be left to rise overnight, which makes it fairly hands-off and perfect for busy weeks. The flavor is still phenomenal, reminiscent of Wonder Bread, only better.

All The “Why’s”

Milk Mixture

This is a technique that stems from the beginning of my bread journey, when I first started making bread doughs using commercial yeast. This bread, actually. This is the one I learned this technique from. The warm mixture activates commercial yeast, which isn’t necessary in sourdough. However, it also dissolves the sweetener, softens the butter, and gives the dough warmth – giving it a great kickstart to fermentation.

Let’s talk about the specific ingredients more in-depth:

Milk + Water

Milk is a tightening agent in bread, meaning it makes the gluten network stiffer and stronger, often increasing the time the dough ferments. This is because it takes twice the air to blow up a stiff balloon (our gluten network). However, it also adds a really good flavor and texture to sandwich bread. It makes the bread denser, softer, and creamier. It also helps the bread darken in the oven. For these reasons, I love to use milk in my sandwich bread recipes, but I also find it is best to balance the milk with water.

Water is the opposite of milk. It creates an extensible gluten network (loose, stretchy). It balances out the stiffness from the milk. It makes the dough lighter and airier. However, water does not really have a flavor and it doesn’t darken in the oven (unless you bake the bread at a really high temperature).

For these reasons, I like to balance these two ingredients accordingly, depending on the outcome I am trying to achieve. For a bread like this, milk is the winner for its tight, even crumb, flavor, and darkening capabilities. I use three parts milk to one part water to make this dough.

Honey

Honey is used as a sweetener. This recipe contains about 11% honey, which is the perfect percentage to create osmotic stress, especially paired with the stiffness of this dough. If you don’t know what osmotic stress is, it’s when the bacteria in your starter (they create sourness) are suffocated, in a sense. It helps to reduce sourness. The honey also works to sweeten the bread, but only a bit. This is not a sweet bread.

Honey can be substituted with most other natural sweeteners – granulated sugar, molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar. I have not tested this recipe with sugar substitutes.

Butter

Butter (any kind of fat, really) is a tenderizer; it makes the dough fragile and soft. In this recipe, I only use a small amount, which is meant to keep the bread soft in the oven and after baking – so important for sandwich bread! My personal choice is butter, but you can use any kind of fat (olive oil, neutral oil, bacon fat, lard, tallow, etc.) as long as you like the flavor.

Bread Flour

Bread flour absorbs more moisture, so you’ll find that if you substitute this ingredient with all-purpose flour, the dough will be wetter and you may need to add more flour. I prefer bread flour in my stiff doughs because of its higher protein content, which helps the gluten bind. This is especially important in stiff doughs because the lack of water makes it more difficult for gluten to come together. Without gluten, the dough will not be able to trap air, and it will not rise properly. I use King Arthur Bread Flour, protein content about 12.7%, in any recipe that calls for bread flour (unless otherwise noted).

Vital Wheat Gluten (Optional)

I only recently (a few months ago) discovered vital wheat gluten, and have since come to be a big fan. I’m not really sure if there’s a debate about it (because it is processed). Vital wheat gluten is essentially straight gluten, and it can be a game changer when it comes to fermentation. Vital wheat gluten is like bread flour’s secret side kick, and it can make a world of a difference in your bread. For stiff doughs like this one, it helps create a lighter texture, in addition to helping the dough rise taller.

Because a stiff dough has less water in relation to flour, gluten struggles to form. While the dough may be easier to work with and is capable of holding its shape without gluten, it still suffers from its lack of gluten. Without proper gluten development, the dough cannot hold in air, decreasing the dough’s ability to rise to its fullest potential, resulting in a denser crumb and texture. This is why vital wheat gluten can be so helpful – because it helps the gluten to finish forming during fermentation.

Salt

Salt helps bring out flavor (without salt, bread would taste almost like nothing), but also has notable effects on the dough. Salt is a tightening agent, meaning it helps create a more elastic (strong) dough. It does slow fermentation, as well as gluten development, but these are things we must account for in the recipe because we cannot have a recipe without salt. It is important to use just the right amount, enough to bring out the flavor, but not so much that the loaf cannot ferment or come together. I use the standard – 2% salt – in all my recipes, unless otherwise noted.

Sourdough Starter

Because of the milk and honey, this bread tends to ferment slower. I love to do this one as an overnight dough. That being said, using a little more than the standard 20% starter can be helpful. That’s why there’s a starter increase here – to ensure your dough rises right without taking obnoxiously too long.

Hydration

This recipe has an approximate hydration of 57%. That is very low, especially with the use of bread flour. The stiff dough makes it easy to knead this dough by hand or in a stand mixer. It just needs to be kneaded for about 10-12 minutes, until it is smooth and soft. Then, it can rest until it doubles in size.

The low hydration makes the dough easy to work with. It’s smooth, soft, and just barely sticky – sticky enough to stick together, but not sticky enough that the dough is hard to manage.

Mixing

For this recipe, we just need the dough to form a gluten network. Milk is a tightening agent, so we do not need to work the dough too hard to get the gluten to form. Ten to twelve minutes in a stand mixer or by hand should do, especially when paired with vital wheat gluten, which will enable the dough to finish coming together after mixing (if you did not develop it completely in the mixer). Follow your stand mixer’s directions for a stiff dough, generally a low speed is all you need, and you will be on your way! This recipe does not require any folds.

Bulk Fermentation

Letting the dough rise as much as possible, but not too much, contributes to the airiest of loaves. In an attempt to favor the yeast and reduce sourness, I recommend keeping the dough temperature between 70-75 F (21-24 C). Watch the dough and ferment until it doubles in size (at least; eight to twelve hours). Then, you can shape it and let it double again. Though I favor an overnight method for this dough, use your knowledge of your environment to bulk ferment this dough appropriately.

Shaping

Shaping sandwich bread is so easy. You can really shape it however you want, as long as the top is smooth and the seams are sealed. I like to turn the dough out, pat it into a rectangle, fold the outer thirds inward, then roll it into a log. Since the dough is stiff and well-fermented by this point, try to shape it smoothly (all-in-one go), otherwise the gluten will tighten up (tension) and you’ll have to give it a rest before trying again.

Butter Wash

Washing your loaf with butter helps keep the crust soft during baking. I also like to brush my loaves with butter after baking, for the best flavor and softness.

Baking Method: Temperature

For breads with milk, a lower baking temperature is better. Because milk contributes to the Maillard reaction, the bread will still brown fine in the oven. Your dough will rise and bake slowly, contributing to an even crumb. The low-and-slow bake will also keep the dough soft, as it is able to retain more moisture this way.

Baking Method: Steam

Since this is a sandwich bread – which is purposefully soft – you don’t have to remove the steam from the oven like you would for a crusty bread. It helps the dough stay soft, which leads to better expansion and texture. I use a pan of boiling water next to my dough, but you can use any method you like.

Suggested Timeline

Suggested Timeline

Quick Tip: Read the recipe in its entirety before you start cooking. This will help you understand the ingredients, steps, and timing involved, and allow you to prepare any necessary equipment or ingredients beforehand.

Sometimes, I have to move away from the chocolate and pull out the citrus. Pair delicate citrus flavors with warm, fluffy layers of pull-apart bread and the subtle crunch of poppy seeds – oh my! This enriched, sweet bread is a joyful twist on classic lemon poppyseed flavors, perfect for breakfast or brunch gatherings, or simply as a treat to brighten your day.

What Is Pull-Apart Bread?

Pull-apart bread is a type of bread divided into separate, small pieces, which are then assembled in a baking dish. During the final proof and bake, the pieces rise and fuse together, but remain distinct enough to easily be pulled apart by hand or with utensils. The pieces are usually coated in butter paired with a sweet or savory flavor combination, which aids in the pull-apart factor.

Considerations For Enriched Doughs

Enriched doughs, like this pull-apart bread, contain ingredients that can make it difficult for gluten to come together. Fats (usually butter) and sugars in medium to large amounts mean it is necessary to develop the dough to a windowpane up front, in order to have the best fermentation experience. Without gluten, the dough simply cannot hold in air the same way. A dough that is not developed properly may taste flaky, like a biscuit, instead of tender or airy (as is the goal).

On a scale of 1-10, one being unenriched (like country bread) and 10 being heavily enriched (like panettone), this bread is about a “5” – it contains a medium amount of sugar and butter, but not an obnoxious amount. With any enriched dough, though, I always resort to my stand mixer for the best experience. You’ll find this dough needs 15-20 minutes of kneading to achieve a windowpane. Especially because of the addition of butter, I always find this process simpler and more efficient using my stand mixer.

Some home mixers are not built for kneading bread efficiently. Check the manual for your mixer, and be sure it is safe to endure mixing times of up to thirty minutes, just to be on the safe side. The most complicated bread in the bread-making world is panettone, which requires mixing times of up to sixty minutes. It is so very important not to overwork the dough or the motor on your mixer. I love my Ankarsrum stand mixer, which is more than capable of living up to the task of kneading even the toughest of doughs. If you do not own a mixer, it is possible to knead by hand, as long as you are willing to endure the task of kneading to a windowpane up front. You can use any preferred method, or find ideas in my video on methods of gluten development, here.

The “Why” Behind The Starter Build

Why Build A Starter (Levain) For This Recipe?

A “sour” flavor is not generally preferred for sweet breads. By building a levain, we can use a formula that helps to reduce overall sourness in the starter and in the bread. To do this, it is important to understand the starter, which consists of yeast and bacteria, and how the formula works to reduce sourness.

Sourness comes when bacteria are overpopulating in your sourdough starter, meaning they are out of balance with the yeast. This happens naturally, as bacteria reproduce faster than yeast do, especially in ideal climates. To limit sourness, it is important to favor the yeast in starter care. In this levain formula, I do just this in order to limit acidity and reduce overall sour flavor.

Stiff Starter

By giving the yeast more food (this means they can continue to eat, multiply, and produce CO2) and reducing the amount of water (bacteria favor wet climates), we can effectively reduce the amount of acidity in our starter at the same percentage of rise as a starter made with equal amounts of flour and water.

Sugar

This is one of the most important components of this levain – do not skip it! Sugar is a powerful tool. Added in low amounts, it feeds the yeast and speeds up fermentation. Added in high amounts, it dehydrates yeast cells and potentially stops fermentation altogether. Added in just the right amount, the yeast still thrive, but the bacteria suffer. 10-15% sugar in a recipe or levain creates something called “osmotic stress.” This stress to the bacteria limits their ability to reproduce, which limits acid buildup, thereby limiting overall sourness coming from the starter.

Temperature

In order to favor the yeast, I aim to keep this levain between 70-75 F (21-24 C) and use it when it has approximately doubled in size. Yeast produce most abundantly in these temperatures, while the bacteria in your starter (there are two types – lactic and acetic) favor temperatures both higher and lower than this. This specific temperature helps provide balance to the starter, which translates to how efficiently the starter ferments the bread and how mild the overall sour flavor is.

Optional Kneading

Have you ever heard of developing gluten in your starter? While it is not essential, kneading this starter for just a few minutes will help trap air, introducing oxygen and stimulating yeast growth. It also provides structure (by creating a slightly more elastic gluten network), which helps the levain rise and maintain peak more efficiently. 

The “Why” Behind The Dough and Process

Tangzhong

Since I chose not to use a tangzhong in my cinnamon roll recipe, which this recipe is based off of, I figured excluding one here would be okay. Oh man, did I prove myself wrong. Tangzhong is magical, and provides impressive fluff and moisture retention to the dough, qualities that can only be achieved through similar techniques (such as yudane or brühstück). This pull-apart bread is not quite as butter-saturated as some of my other enriched doughs, namely brioche and cinnamon rolls, which seems to leave an opening for tangzhong to provide a needed final touch. Learn more about tangzhong here.

While tangzhong is magical, sometimes it is an extra step that we just do not have time for. Do not fear! If you desire to skip the tangzhong in this recipe, I provide the alternative milk and flour measurements at the end of the recipe card.

Buttermilk Mixture

This is a technique that stems from the beginning of my bread journey, when I first started making bread doughs using commercial yeast. I have kept this technique for a long time. Recently, though, I have started to change this technique, moving away from heating my milk, butter, and sugar on the stovetop. This is because a well-kneaded enriched dough gains extra heat through friction during mixing; therefore, heating the ingredients is not necessary (and could even bring too much warmth to the dough, depending on your mixer). Despite this, let me tell you my previous reasoning as to why I created a “buttermilk mixture” in this recipe:

First is a caution: buttermilk curdles easily. Be sure to stir consistently if you use this technique and keep your heat rising at a slow pace. You can also use milk in place of buttermilk.

By heating the liquid in the recipe with the sugar and the butter, we are able to simultaneously: a) create warmth that gets the yeast moving quicker, b) fully dissolve the sugar, and c) warm the butter without having to remember to soften a stick beforehand. There is not enough butter in this recipe to create greasy dough, as is the case with brioche, so melting (or, partially melting) it is definitely okay.

Let’s talk about the specific ingredients more in-depth:

Buttermilk

The truth is, I only discovered buttermilk by accident as I had extra leftover from my long-fermented corn muffin recipe. In all technicality, this ingredient is optional and can be replaced with milk instead. It’s acidic, but I do not find it produces a gross sour flavor. The acidity of the buttermilk, in my opinion, only enhances the acidic flavor being brought to this dish through the lemon. There is not any actual lemon in the dough, and if I had chosen to use a milk + lemon combination instead of buttermilk, it would have the same effect. Altogether, this addition brings complex and fun flavors, but is completely optional.

Sugar

This recipe contains approximately 16% sugar (speaking for the dough only). This is slightly more than just the 10-15% of sugar that is sometimes added to bread to create osmotic stress, meaning I did have to increase the percentage of starter to help this recipe ferment more efficiently. It also means the sugar does work to sweeten the dough (just a bit), while also reducing overall sourness.

Butter

Butter is a tenderizer; it makes the dough fragile and soft. The amount of butter here is about 14% of the total weight of the flour, small enough to not interfere with the gluten network (too much), but large enough to help keep the bread soft during baking.

Bread Flour

Bread flour increases the strength (elasticity) of the gluten network, which is helpful for enriched doughs containing butter and sugar (ingredients that can interfere with gluten). Bread flour also helps the dough come together more efficiently when kneading, reducing the total amount of necessary mixing time. While I used to make this recipe with a blend of all-purpose flour and bread flour, I now use bread flour only, just for the incredible way it holds the dough together. I use King Arthur Bread Flour, protein content about 12.7%, in any recipe that calls for bread flour (unless otherwise noted).

Salt

Salt helps bring out flavor (without salt, bread would taste almost like nothing), but also has notable effects on the dough. Salt is a tightening agent, meaning it, in addition to milk, helps create a more elastic (strong) dough. It does slow fermentation, as well as gluten development, but these are things we must account for in the recipe because we cannot have a recipe without salt. It is important to use just the right amount, enough to bring out the flavor, but not so much that the loaf cannot ferment or come together. I use the standard – 2% salt – in all my recipes, unless otherwise noted.

Mixing

Because butter and sugar can interfere with gluten’s natural ability to come together over time, it is preferable to knead this dough to complete development up front. That’s why I choose to use a stand mixer – because the process for this can be kind of enduring by hand (though it is possible). Using a stand mixer ensures a perfectly and effectively built dough with minimum effort on the baker’s part. Watch this video for all the ways to develop gluten in your bread.

I want to be more specific in this updated post about how to develop the dough properly in the stand mixer than I was when I originally published this recipe. This way, you can be successful mixing this dough using any stand mixer, or even by hand.

The ultimate goal: to knead this dough to a clear windowpane. When you pull up on a section of dough, it should not tear. You should be able to stretch the dough to a point where you can see through it before it breaks. The dough will show other signs of being ready, too, such as clinging to itself or forming a ball around the dough hook. If you have a KitchenAid or similar mixer, the stand mixer may start to “jump” when the dough builds sufficient strength.

The first step to achieving this is to mix the dough on a low to medium-low speed until the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture forms one cohesive mass of dough. This step simply brings our dough together and hydrates the proteins in the flour before the speed is increased and the focus shifts from combining ingredients to forming gluten. Too fast a speed during this initial mix can start to organize gluten that is barely created, negatively impacting the development of the dough.

Next, we increase the speed and knead the dough forms a windowpane. The speed you choose is up to you and what your mixer (and dough) can handle. The basic guidelines are this:

• A lower speed will take longer, while a higher speed will knead the dough much faster.
• A lower speed will keep the dough elastic (strong, not stretchy), while a higher speed will create extensibility (stretchiness).
• The dough temperature should not exceed 78 F (26 C).
• Use the guidelines from your mixer to determine what it is able to handle.

Bulk Fermentation

Letting the dough rise as much as possible, but not too much, contributes to the airiest of loaves. In an attempt to favor the yeast and reduce sourness, I recommend keeping the dough temperature between 70-75 F (21-24 C). Watch the dough and ferment until it doubles in size (at least; eight to twelve hours). If you developed the dough well in the stand mixer, you can let it triple in size before shaping. Though I favor an overnight method for this dough, use your knowledge of your environment to bulk ferment this dough appropriately.

The Filling

I tried many techniques for filling and shaping this pull-apart bread, and ultimately landed on creating a paste with softened butter. Melted butter does absolutely no good, as it all seeps to the bottom of the pan during the final proof. Adding the ingredients separately (as I do for my cinnamon rolls) leads to a lot of ingredients falling out during the slicing and stacking process. Making a paste is by far the superior technique and allows the filling to easily be spread from corner to corner of the rolled-out dough.

Sugar + Lemon

By rubbing lemon zest into the sugar, oils are released, contributing to a stronger lemon flavor.

Softened Butter

By using softened butter, we can effectively spread the butter (unlike cold butter) all over the dough and shape the mini loaves without fear of the butter pooling on the bottom of the pans (unlike melted butter) during the final proof.

Shaping

To shape this pull-apart bread, I chose to position the loaf pan vertically and stack the slices. This makes them easier to stack without having the slices falling over during the process. The slices will not reach the top of the pan, and that is perfectly okay. It is necessary for the slices to have room to expand during the final proof and bake, so they need to be loose and sort of spread out after they are stacked. To do this, I take my finger and place it on the top slice while I reposition the loaf pan horizontally. This keeps the slices from tipping over. Then, I give the pan a little shake to loosen and evenly distribute the pieces before their final proof.

Baking

These loaves are simple to bake, as they do not require the preparation of steam or a wash. Milk, sugar, and a good fermentation will cause perfect browning in the oven. I bake my milk breads (like this one) at a lower temperature than my water-based breads: 350 F (175 C). This “low and slow” temperature prevents over-browning and over-baking. A final internal temperature of 185 F (85 C) cooks these loaves until they are just done, leaving you with the softest and fluffiest end result. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

The final touch and perfect garnish. Though you don’t have to have it, I wouldn’t skip it.

Suggested Timelines

Overnight Timeline

Refrigeration Timeline

Quick Tip: Read the recipe in its entirety before you start cooking. This will help you understand the ingredients, steps, and timing involved, and allow you to prepare any necessary equipment or ingredients beforehand.

Butter makes everything better – right? Well, at least that’s what the inventor of brioche must have believed. Brioche could be considered the butter-lover’s bread for the amount of butter that is inside of it. Brioche makes the ultimate French toast bread, sandwich bread, dinner roll bread, and sweet bread base. Once you’ve mastered it, you will have unlocked a whole new world of bread.

What Is Brioche?

Brioche is a type of French bread made with a high percentage of fat and eggs. These ingredients contribute to a rich flavor, soft and airy texture, golden color, and tender crumb. It is enjoyed in many forms and is used as a base for all kinds of meals, both sweet and savory. Examples include: loaves, rolls, pastries, and desserts. It is perfect for sandwiches and is the number one choice for making French toast.

What Makes Brioche Difficult?

Brioche contains a high percentage – 45% – of added fat (butter, in this recipe), not including the additional added fat from eggs and milk. This extreme amount of fat creates an amazing bread, but a dough that is more difficult to work with. Fat coats gluten proteins, which prevents them from bonding properly to form a strong network. This means gluten will struggle to properly develop naturally, and careful consideration to mixing is extremely important.

But, why is the gluten so important? Without gluten, the dough will not rise properly, both during bulk fermentation and during baking. The dough may be extremely sticky and difficult to shape, and the end result may taste flaky, like a biscuit, instead of tender. In worst case scenarios, the bread may actually deflate after removing from the oven, due to the high percentage of fat and lack of gluten.

Not only is gluten more difficult to develop, the high percentage of added fat can also make the dough greasy and difficult to handle. Special consideration to fermentation, handling, and dough temperature is required to keep the dough from pooling in its own grease, and to keep it manageable during shaping.

Why Is A Good Mixer Important For This Recipe?

This dough must be kneaded to a windowpane up front. While an unenriched dough may only take eight to ten minutes of kneading to achieve a windowpane, an enriched dough like this one can take thirty to forty minutes. By hand, this is an extremely long and treacherous journey, made more difficult by the (again) high percentage of fat, which can be extremely messy.

Some home mixers are not built for this task either. Check the manual for your mixer, and be sure it is safe to endure this long and hard amount of kneading, without overworking the dough or the motor on the mixer.

For this recipe, I’ll be using my Ankarsrum stand mixer, which is more than capable of living up to the task. This mixer is designed to knead with efficiency, and is barely phased by even the toughest of doughs (like this one).

The “Why” Behind The Starter Build

Why Build A Starter (Levain) For This Recipe?

A “sour” flavor is not generally preferred for brioche bread, especially in its use as a base for sweet bread recipes. By building a levain, we can use a formula that helps to reduce overall sourness in the starter and in the bread. To do this, it is important to understand the starter, which consists of yeast and bacteria, and how the formula works to reduce sourness.

Sourness comes when bacteria are favored in the care of a sourdough starter, and when those bacteria are out of balance with the yeast. To limit sourness, it is important to favor the yeast in starter care, which helps create balance in the starter. In this levain formula, I do just this, plus a few additional measures, to limit acidity and reduce overall sourness.

A Small Amount Of Seed

By feeding a small amount of starter with a large proportion of flour and water, any bacteria build-up from the “mother” is diluted. This means that if we leave the levain in the right conditions (i.e. favor the yeast), we already have a head start to less sour bread.

Milk

I use milk, rather than water, to hydrate the starter, giving the bacteria and yeast freedom to move around as they feast on flour and sugar. The specific reason that I chose milk is actually not at all scientific. I wanted the starter/levain to mimic the bread dough itself. This brioche recipe contains milk and eggs as a means of hydration over water, so naturally I chose to hydrate the starter with milk as well.

The good bacteria in your sourdough starter will keep the milk from going bad. This means that you do not have to worry about this levain spoiling before it is added to your dough. If this worries you, it is an option to use water instead.

Egg Yolk

Egg yolks absorb acidity, making them the perfect addition to a sweet starter (where the goal is to get acidity, i.e. sourness, under control). Just like with milk, there is no fear in the egg yolk spoiling, as the good bacteria keep it from doing so.

Normally, I use a sweet stiff starter when I want to reduce overall sour flavor. Instead of creating a stiff starter to help favor the yeast, I keep this starter at 100% hydration and use an egg yolk to reduce acidity instead. It works wonderfully, and there is no hint of sour in my final, baked bread.

If you do not have an egg yolk on hand or, again, this freaks you out, it is an option to replace the egg yolk with additional milk (or water). You could also eliminate the egg yolk altogether to create a stiffer starter.

Sugar

This is one of the most important components of this levain – do not skip it! Sugar is a powerful tool. Added in low amounts, it feeds the yeast and speeds up fermentation. Added in high amounts, it dehydrates yeast cells and potentially stops fermentation altogether. Added in just the right amount, the yeast still thrive, but the bacteria suffer. 10-15% sugar in a recipe or levain creates something called “osmotic stress.” This stress to the bacteria limits their ability to reproduce, which limits acid buildup, thereby limiting overall sourness coming from the starter.

Temperature

In order to favor the yeast, I aim to keep this levain between 73-75 F (22-24 C). Yeast produce most abundantly in these temperatures, while the bacteria in your starter (there are two types – lactic and acetic) favor temperatures both higher and lower than this. This specific temperature helps provide balance to the starter, which translates to how efficiently the starter ferments the bread and how mild the overall sour flavor is.

Optional Folds

Have you ever heard of developing gluten in your starter? While it is not essential, folding this levain one or two times helps to aerate it, which introduces oxygen and stimulates yeast growth. It also provides structure, which helps the levain rise and maintain peak more efficiently. 

The “Why” Behind The Dough

High Protein Bread Flour

In order to be able to withstand the large amount of fat in this recipe, it is essential to use a high protein bread flour. The protein content should be at least 12.5% or higher. I use King Arthur Bread Flour (protein content 12.7%) for this recipe, which holds the bread together perfectly. Though I have not tested this, it may work to add vital wheat gluten to your dough if you do not have access to a high protein bread flour.

Sugar

Again with the sugar – the purpose it not to sweeten! If we wanted to sweeten the dough, we would need to add more than just 12%. The purpose of the sugar in this dough is the same as the purpose of the sugar in the starter: it provides acidity control. The sugar here works to create osmotic stress, which limits the bacteria’s ability to reproduce and create acid, i.e. sourness.

Eggs

Eggs are the primary source of hydration in brioche. Eggs have a unique effect on bread dough that is simply mesmerizing: they contribute to an extremely light and airy loaf of bread. That’s because proteins in the eggs trap air during the mixing process, which expands during baking. In addition to their affect on the texture of the baked product, eggs also contain proteins that help create structure in the dough, which helps it maintain strength and endurance through fermentation and contributes to the dough’s ability to support all of the added fat.

Milk

Milk also contributes to the hydration of this dough. Milk (as opposed to water) adds a subtle sweetness and enhanced richness to the dough. It also acts as a tenderizer, which is perfect for a soft bread like this one, and encourages browning in the final baked product.

Cold Ingredients

Cold ingredients (namely the milk and eggs) are necessary to helping control dough temperature during mixing. Because this dough has a long mixing time, friction factor plays a role in heating up the dough a considerable amount. Starting with cold ingredients helps keep the dough from getting too warm during mixing.

Butter

Butter is the main source of fat and flavor in classic brioche. Using a high quality butter will enhance the flavor of this bread significantly.

It is important that the butter is at room temperature during mixing (not too soft, not too firm). Neither a butter that is too cold or a butter that is too warm will incorporate into the dough correctly. The butter needs to be warm enough that is can dissolve into the dough without issue, but cool enough that it does not melt and cause a greasy mess during mixing.

The “Why” Behind The Process

Mixing

The technique behind mixing is incredibly important in this recipe. First, we start mixing on a low to medium-low speed until the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture forms one cohesive mass of dough. This step simply brings our dough together and hydrates the proteins in the flour before the speed is increased and the focus shifts from combining ingredients to forming gluten. Too fast a speed during this initial mix can start to organize gluten that is barely created, negatively impacting the development of the dough.

In order to ensure gluten is developed without over-working or over-mixing the dough, we work to create a strong (but not a fully developed) dough through the next stage of mixing (before copious amounts of fat are added). This stage of mixing can also be referenced as “kneading” the dough. For this step, we can increase the speed on the mixer to medium and work the dough until it comes together and builds some strength, but is not fully developed. Working the dough on a higher speed will contribute to a more extensible dough, which helps the dough expand during fermentation and have a more pronounced oven spring. We can use the “pull test” to see if our dough is gaining strength. If we can pull up on the dough without it falling apart, it is ready to take on fat. 

Next, we reduce the speed again in order to incorporate butter. The butter is added, one pat at a time, and mixed until fully dissolved. It can take twenty to twenty-five minutes to incorporate all the butter, which is another reason why having a quality stand mixer is important for this recipe.

The dough may be at a complete windowpane once the butter has been fully incorporated, and if that is the case, we can stop mixing, gather up the dough, and proceed with bulk fermentation. But, if a windowpane still is not present, we can increase the mixing speed again, checking the dough every one to two minutes, until a windowpane is formed. Because of the high percentage of fat in brioche, it is essential to obtain a complete windowpane by the end of mixing for the best fermentation experience.

Ankarsrum Assistent Original Stand Mixer

Though I have not tried every home mixer, I have tried a few and my Ankarsrum remains at the top of the list. Home mixers are meant to be versatile and affordable, able to whip meringues, mix cookies and cakes, knead bread dough, and more. The problem is that while many home mixers can knead bread dough, they are not truly cut out for the task. By design, many home mixers fail to hold up to the task of working doughs that contain more liquid or require longer mixing times. My Ankarsrum mixer can do both of these things with ease, without risking the mixer’s life (i.e. burning the motor or breaking the machine) or overheating bread dough (which degrades fermentation quality). This is why I highly recommend an Ankarsrum stand mixer for this recipe: it is sturdy, gentle on the dough, and holds up to the task. You can find a list of authorized Ankarsrum retailers here.

Fermentation

Bulk fermentation for brioche requires special consideration to dough temperature. Dough temperature is important for two reasons: 1) the high percentage of fat (butter) and 2) our attempt to favor yeast (over bacteria) production for reduced sourness. If the butter melts, the dough becomes greasy and difficult to manage. We want to keep the butter soft and pliable (room temperature, 70-75 F or 21-24 C), rather than melted and messy. This same temperature (70-75 F or 21-24 C) is also ideal for favoring yeast production, which contributes to a reduced sour flavor.

This dough can be fermented to triple in size during bulk and double in size again during the final proof. Fermenting to this extent will contribute to the lightest, airiest brioche, which is full of gas and air from yeast production.

Refrigeration

This dough must be refrigerated for a minimum of two hours, or up to twelve hours, before handling for shaping. Handling this buttery dough can be messy, as your hands transfer warmth to the dough. A cold dough makes shaping much more manageable and a lot less messy.

I do not recommend refrigerating the dough for more than twelve hours. A longer refrigeration time leads to more complex, and eventually sour, notes in the baked bread. The temperatures from the refrigerator favor the production of acetic acid bacteria and slow yeast production, which in small amounts can be preferable (and in some breads desirable), but is not ideal for brioche.

Shaping

Brioche is a bread that is incredibly versatile and can be shaped in many different ways. This bread can be used as a base for pastries, desserts (like cinnamon rolls, babka, and pull-apart bread), and savory dishes (like sandwich breads, hamburger buns, or dinner rolls). This recipe makes two (1 lb) loaves, so I share just two of the many options. With brioche, bread pull is generally emphasized over openness of crumb, and I like to shape it in a way that shows this off.

Wash Options (And Why I Don’t Include One)

Generally, brioche is brushed with an egg wash. The purpose of an egg wash is simply to add color and/or shine to the top of baked goods. Brioche contains milk, a hefty amount of egg, and sugar: ingredients that contribute to the Maillard reaction and enhance browning in the oven. Typically, milk-based breads are baked at low temperatures (350 F; 175 C) to prevent burning on the outside before the inside is fully cooked. However, this recipe utilizes a higher baking temperature (400 F; 205 C), which bakes and browns this well-fermented brioche perfectly, without the use of an egg wash.

Other wash options include butter or an egg white wash. Butter works to keep the loaf soft during baking, which I do not find necessary due to the already copious amounts of butter inside the dough. Brushing the loaves with butter after baking is also an option for the same effect. Last, an egg white wash simply adds shine to the top of of the bread, rather than color, and is a great option if this is a characteristic you are after in brioche.

Baking

These loaves are simple to bake, as they do not require the preparation of steam or a wash. Simply stick them in a preheated, 400 F (205 C) oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 200 F. This temperature is just right for gaining a gorgeous oven spring, as well as perfectly browning the exterior of the loaves.

Suggested Timelines

Suggested Timeline

Overnight Timeline

Quick Tip: Read the recipe in its entirety before you start cooking. This will help you understand the ingredients, steps, and timing involved, and allow you to prepare any necessary equipment or ingredients beforehand.