Buttery and fluffy vegan brioche with a tender crumb which just melts in your mouth. I included a 'classic' version using vegan butter and 'healthier' version with spelt flour, olive oil and no refined sugar! This brioche is egg-free, dairy-free and can be made soy free and sugar free!
Conventional brioche bread recipes use butter, eggs and dairy milk. However, with a few easy substitutions you can make brioche vegan.
This brioche has no eggs, dairy or animal products! I can assure you that this vegan bread is fluffy and tender and will just melt in your mouth.
Table of contents
Ingredients to make this vegan brioche
In traditional French brioche bread recipes, eggs and egg yolks help create a tender and fluffy crumb. I still wanted this beautiful texture so managed to perfect ingredient ratios without vegan egg replacers or vegan egg yolk substiutes!
Instead of eggs, I simply increased the amount of fat (through extra vegan butter) and raising agents (through extra yeast). This combination creates a soft, fluffy and tender vegan brioche.
Instead of using conventional butter, I used vegan butter or olive oil for this brioche bread. Vegan butter creates a fluffier and lighter crumb than olive oil (more info in the section about 'customising your loaf').
One benefit of using olive oil is that the oil's naturally bold yellow colour can give the loaf a beautiful golden hue. I tested an older version of this brioche recipe with olive oil which you can see in this recipe video on my Facebook page.
To make dairy-free bread, I simply used dairy free milk! I prefer soy milk as it leaves virtually no flavour but almond, oat, coconut and other milks will work.
Making the brioche dough
This is a very easy vegan bread to make! To make the brioche dough, simply add all the ingredients to a bowl, mix and knead it until it's soft and stretchy. I used instant dried yeast which does not need to be proved or bloomed beforehand.
I used a stand mixer to knead the dough and it reached the perfect consistency in around 10 minutes. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can absolutely mix and knead the dough with your hands! It will take a little longer so consider it a free arm and hand exercise ;).
First rise for the brioche
Place the dough in a bowl, cover it and place it in a WARM area for 1 hour until it doubles in size, like below. With the angle of the bowl and dough, you can't see a significant increase, but I assure you that it did.
If your dough doesn't grow, reposition it in a warm spot and wait until it does. Sometimes when it's cold at home, I have to place the bowl above or near a steamer for just 3 minutes to kickstart the dough.
Second rise for the brioche
To prepare your loaf/cake tin, you can line it with baking paper or brush it with butter/oil and dust it with flour.
Now that your dough has risen once, place your dough on a floured surface. Divide it into 4 equal parts then place it in a loaf tin!
Feel free to shape the dough in other ways, such as dividing it into less or more parts, or even braiding it!
Next step is, you guessed it - cover the dough and let it rise again.
Baking the vegan brioche
This is my favourite part because the brioche makes your whole house/apartment smell AMAZING! This is an easy vegan bread to bake! Just pop it in at 180°C (355°F) for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
While the bread is still warm, brush it with a little maple syrup to create the most beautiful glaze ever! I tried brushing the brioche with dairy-free milk and aquafaba but they don't leave a beautiful golden glaze.
See, it is 100% possible to make DELICIOUS vegan french bread!
Customising this recipe
There are a few ways you can customise this vegan brioche bread:
Replace plain flour with white spelt flour. Spelt flour doesn't rise as well as plain flour but it still creates a beautiful crumb!
Replace vegan butter for olive oil. The taste and colour is probably the biggest difference in the final products. Butter helps create a lighter crumb so the bread 'tears' like a traditional brioche. Olive oil creates a crumb which is more similar to cake! Note that if you use oil, it'll take longer to rise and it will be more dense.
Replace organic cane sugar for coconut sugar. Baking with a light-coloured cane sugar will result in a lighter coloured and fluffier bread than baking with coconut sugar!
Replace yeast with a sourdough starter. I've tried a similar recipe using about 75-150g of a bubbly active sourdough starter and it worked wonderfully! 75g was the minimum I needed to use to make the bread rise. For a stronger 'sourdough' taste, I increased the starter.
Alternatively, you can use the recipe to make individual vegan brioche buns. See my post for more details!
Or you can make a savoury vegan brioche bread simply by reducing the sugar to 1 tablespoon. The sugar is still needed in the recipe to feed and activate the yeast
Several readers have said this brioche recipe does not work with a 1:1 gluten-free flour. I am working on a gluten-free vegan brioche so watch this space!
Troubleshooting baking issues
Every time I made this brioche, it worked well. However, I've definitely had my fair share of 'baking with yeast' fails so I'll share how I fixed them:
"My bread didn't double in the first rise (when it's in the bowl)"
Your vegan brioche dough doesn't need to double in size - it just needs to grow at least by 50%! However, if it doesn't grow at all, this could be due to various factors:
Possible issue 1: The brioche dough needs to be placed in a WARM place. Unlike bread, this brioche has butter in it so the butter needs to be soft and warm for your dough to rise!
If you live in a cold climate here are a few things you can do:
- Turn on your oven light, place the dough in the oven and close the door.
- Preheat your oven or dehydrator to only 30°C / 85°F then turn it off. Place the covered dough inside.
- Steam your dough double-boiler style for only 1 minute. Heating your dough to 50°C / 120°F will kill the yeast so don't heat up the dough too much!
Possible issue 2: Your yeast is old and no longer active. Before baking, you can 'proof' your yeast to 'prove' whether its still useful. Add it to a small bowl of warm milk with a pinch of sugar and wait until it bubbles. If it doesn't, the yeast may no longer be good for baking!
Possible issue 3: Your brioche dough is too dry. All brands of flour, vegan butter and milk absorb differently. As Step 1 says, if your dough is too dry, simply add a little more milk and knead again. Use the above pictures as a guide for the consistency of your dough. It should be smooth and without cracks!
"I used a different ingredient and my bread didn't increase in size"
- You used a different type of yeast which may need to be activated beforehand. Simply add it to a small bowl of warm milk with a pinch of sugar and wait until it bubbles. I used instant dried yeast which does not need to be activated before mixing with the other ingredients.
- Different flours and fats will affect how much the brioche dough rises. For example, spelt flour and olive oil will inhibit the rising of the dough!
"My bread didn't bake in the middle"
Before you finish baking, make sure you test your dough by sticking a knife or skewer in it.
If the outside is brown and inside is uncooked, cover it with an oven-proof bowl, plate or aluminium foil. This minimises the oven's radiant heat (which cooks the outside of the brioche) and forces the heat into the middle of the loaf.
If you have any other questions or issues, leave a comment below!
How to serve the vegan brioche
If you don't devour the whole brioche loaf fresh from the oven, you can enjoy it in many ways:
- Toast a slice and smother it with jam, cream or any sweet spread!
- Use the leftovers for french toast, a nourishing self-care breakfast or dessert! You deserve it!
- Freeze and enjoy it when the cravings hit.
- Crumble the vegan bread, bake it at a low heat and use it as decadent topping for ice cream or other desserts.
Other easy vegan bread recipes!
Here's a secret: this brioche recipe is used as the foundation for my other yeast-based bread and scroll recipes! Here's a full list of ways to use brioche-like dough. My favourites are:
If you want to make a yeast-free version of this brioche, check out my Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls recipe. Simply follow the ingredient ratios for the bread and skip the filling.
Or if you want to make this brioche into BUNS, check out my Buttery Vegan Brioche Buns recipe.
Enjoy! xo
Buttery Vegan Brioche (classic and healthier options)
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) plain or all-purpose flour, or white spelt flour*
- ¾ cup (190g) plant-based milk, such as almond, soy or coconut, warm, plus more if needed
- ⅔ cup (150g) vegan butter or margarine, room temperature or ½ cup (125g) olive oil
- ¼ cup (50g) cane sugar, or coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp instant dried yeast**
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt, if using unsalted butter or oil
- 3 tbsp maple syrup, or any other light-coloured liquid sweetener
Instructions
To make the brioche dough:
- Add all the ingredients except the maple syrup to a stand mixer bowl with the dough hook. Knead for at least 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth, soft and elastic. You can also do this in a bowl and on a floured surface but it will take a little longer. The dough will be very tacky but should just come away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still sticking on the bowl, add a little flour and continue kneading. If the dough is too dry, add a little more milk and knead well.
- Shape the dough into a smooth ball, place it back in the bowl and cover with a damp tea towel (the moisture prevents the dough from drying out). Place the dough in a WARM area to double in size (or grow by at least 50%) for at least 1 hour.***
To shape the brioche:
- When the dough is puffy, divide it into 4 even sections. Shape each section into a round ball and place them a lined loaf tin (I used a 12x22 cm or 5x9 inch tin but any size tin will work). Cover the tin with a damp tea towel and leave it in a warm area to rest for at least 30 minutes. The dough should increase in size by 50% - 100%.
Baking the brioche:
- When the dough is puffy again, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. The loaf is fully cooked in the middle when you can tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. If the bread surface is browning too quickly but the bread is not fully baked, reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (320°F) or cover the bread with aluminium foil.
- When the brioche is still hot, brush the top with maple syrup then rest it in the tin for 15 minutes. Turn it onto a wire rack and allow to cool slightly.
- Serve the brioche warm or heat/toast the leftovers. Store the brioche in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been updated a few times since then to provide more useful information and an improved recipe which is more similar to traditional French brioche.
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.
Hello! And first of all, thank you for the recipe, I know how hard it can be sometimes to veganise a recipe, with all the trials and errors.
I have a question as this is probably the 4th recipe I've been trying and still the same result: as mixing and kneading, I still end up with what I could call a 'shaggy mess'... No way I can shape any form from the dough. So, after a time of reflexion and deep thoughts, I was wondering: what is the fat content of your vegan butter? Mine is 54%, which is far away from butter (around 80%). That means that I have a lot more liquid (water or whatever this can be) and I end up with a very very soft dough. Depending on the fat content of your vegan butter, I can maybe make some calculations to decrease the amount of milk to add to the mixture... Just a though but I will definitely give a try and keep you posted. Thanks again for the recipe, that would be brilliant to have some vegan brioche for breakfast, once I've sorted out my fatty problem 🙂
Hi! And it's my pleasure!
With the brioche, I found that it's initially a 'shaggy mess' but after a lot of kneading, the gluten in the dough is strengthened which reduces the stickiness so it can become a smooth ball (the 4 image collage above is a good example of what the kneading time can do). With my stand mixer, it can take 10+ minutes so if you're doing it by hand, it can take longer! To answer your question, I've tried both a vegan margarine spread (around 50% fat) and a block butter (around 80% fat) for this recipe and they both work. With the margarine spread, you may need to add a little more flour (say 2 tbsp) or decrease the milk (as you mentioned) as the dough is a little more sticky than the other. I hope that helps - let me know if you have any other questions!
Honestly, I shouldn't even be posting yet, because I haven't even made the recipe. However, is the ratio 190 g liquid to 375 g flower way too high? I feel like the dough will be sooo sticky. Am I missing something?
No the ratios are fine - I've made the recipe several times (and so have others) and it's always worked out. Brioche dough is meant to be tacky as that's what helps make a soft bread. When you knead the bread for long enough, it activates the gluten which makes a more firm (and less sticky) dough.
Can this be made with Oat milk?
Yes!
I just tried making this yesterday and it turned out so well! The texture of the loaf is super soft and fluffy - honestly it doesn’t seem any different from a regular brioche.
I used my sourdough starter instead of instant yeast and left it overnight to proof in the fridge, so the loaf had a delightfully tangy taste. I also used almond milk, which left a slight taste so will try and make this the next time with soy milk instead.
Thank you Anthea for this recipe! I’ve been meaning to try a vegan brioche for a while now so I’m really glad I found yours 🙂
That's amazing you found it as delicious as a regular brioche and I'm so glad it worked with a sourdough starter too!! Soo interesting about the milk but good idea to use soy milk next time (it's my fav). Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your feedback xo
Hey from Latvia! We absolutely loved this recipe and ate it all in minutes! Thanks!
Aw I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks for your feedback x
Hey you say that if the brioche isn't cooked in the middle to cover it up but isn't it then too late to cover it up ?
No it isn't too late - covering the brioche in the later part of baking traps in the heat so there isn't as much heat hitting the surface of the loaf. It's just like baking a cake, like what Nigella says here.
Hi Dana! I've updated the recipe since then and ACV/lemon juice isn't needed anymore. I hope that helps!
Wow that was great fast response! Ok, I usually feel like it makes such a tender crumb. Would you recommend if swapping butter for olive oil or do you think it’s just no difference at all?
Yes it does, however I find it better for cakes :). With this brioche, we want a mix between a bread with nice 'feathery' strands and a soft cake, and the ACV lessens the 'featheriness'. In my opinion, the butter based brioche is better as it's fluffier and softer but olive oil is a workable substitute!
My dough seems to keep “breaking” on the mixer—it will come together and then never get smooth again just start breaking. I used coconut milk is that perhaps the issue?
Coconut milk is fine! However, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by breaking. Perhaps there is more vegan butter/oil in parts of the dough which seperates the dough? It just needs to be mixed for longer, even up to 30 minutes!