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.
Ingredients to make this vegan brioche recipe
In traditional French brioche bread recipes, the fat from eggs makes a super tender crumb. In order to create a beautiful crumb in this vegan bread recipe, I used apple cider vinegar (an acid) to tenderise the gluten in the flour.
Don't worry - you can't taste the apple cider vinegar in the final bread! I managed to perfect ingredient ratios so no eggs are needed!
Instead of using conventional butter, I used vegan butter or olive oil for this brioche bread. Vegan butter creates a 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 this recipe with olive oil which you can see in this recipe video on my Facebook page.
To make dairy-free bread, I simply used plant-based milk! I prefer soy milk as it leaves virtually no flavour but almond, oat, coconut and other milks will work.
How to make vegan brioche: making the dough and the first rise
I used instant dried yeast which does not need to be proved or bloomed beforehand. To make the dough, simply add all the ingredients to a bowl, mix and knead it until it's soft and stretchy.
I used a stand mixer to knead the dough and it reached the perfect consistency within 3 minutes. If you don't have a stand mixer, You can absolutely mix and knead the dough with your hands! Consider it a free arm and hand exercise ;).
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.
How to make vegan brioche: second rise
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.
How to customise this vegan brioche bread recipe
There are a few ways you can customise this loaf:
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.
You can use the recipe to make individual vegan brioche buns instead. 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!
Baking the vegan brioche
This is my favourite part because the brioche makes your whole house/apartment smell AMAZING! Baking the bread is pretty easy. 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!
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 150%! 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 warm and loose for your dough to rise!
If you live in a cold climate here are a few things you can do:
- Turn your oven's light on, place the dough near the light 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 flours and milks 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 a common 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 or 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.
Check out my other vegan bread recipes!
Here's a secret: this brioche recipe is used as the foundation for my other yeast-based bread and scroll recipes! 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
You may also like:
Buttery Vegan Brioche (classic and healthier options)
Ingredients
- 3 ⅓ cups (415g) plain or all-purpose flour, or white spelt flour*
- ⅔ cup (165g) plant-based milk, such as almond, soy or coconut, warm
- ¼ cup (50g) cane sugar, or coconut sugar
- ½ cup (115g) melted vegan butter or margarine, or olive oil
- 1 tbsp instant dried yeast**
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt, if using unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp maple syrup, or any other light-coloured liquid sweetener
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients except the maple syrup to a large bowl and mix until combined. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes or until the dough becomes soft and elastic. If you're using a stand mixer, use the dough hook and knead until the dough is smooth and comes away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is a little dry, add a little more milk and knead again. If the dough is still sticking on the bowl, add a little flour and knead again.
- Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp tea towel (the damp towel prevents the dough from drying out). Leave it in a warm area to double in size for at least 1 hour.***
- 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 another 30 minutes - 1 hour. The dough should increase in size by 150% or 200%.
- 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 surface is golden brown. The loaf is fully cooked in the middle when you can tap the bottom of the loaf and it sounds hollow. If the bread is browning too quickly on the top and has not fully cooked, reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (320°F).
- When the brioche is still hot, brush the top with maple syrup then allow it to rest in the tin for 15 minutes. Turn it onto a wire rack and allow it to cool.
- 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 was updated in May 2020.
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help other readers and Rainbow Nourishments.
Really love this recipe, I ended up using the brioche for a french toast recipe. My brioche took a while to rise but I put it next the heater to start the process and that seemed to help a lot.
Hi thanks for the recipe, and we did enjoy eating it. However, I did find some inconsistencies that you might want to note. The liquid content was not nearly adequate for me. The 2/3 cup of soy milk suggested was not even close, I'd say that I used at least a 1/3 cup more. So, I'm guess more like a full cup. Note that the flour I used was just All Purpose Unbleached and has been consistent will all other bread recipes that I've made. The other thing that I noticed, which might be due to my lack of loaf pan, was that since I did not have a bread pan, I made a braid loaf. With my loaf being a braid and hence thinner, I likely should have cut back on the baking time as it was a little dry inside for a brioche. So, if I try again, I will likely cut back on the baking time or find a bread pan.
Hi Mike, thanks for your feedback! When using cups in a recipe, I find them to be inconsistent. Ingredients like flour should be sifted and spooned into cups (and levelled with a knife) for accuracy rather than using the cup to scoop out the flour. The scooping method can give you 50g extra flour per cup (about 1/4 cup) and will break a recipe! Also, interesting how your braid was dry inside. As the recipe is quite high in butter, I suspect there was an issue with the consistency of your dough or your oven was slightly too hot (oven thermometer's show that ovens can be 20C higher or lower than they say). The brioche recipe is the same as my vegan babka recipes which are braided so I'm very surprised yours was dry! I hope that helps!
Thank you! For a first time 'bread baker', this is very easy to follow. Other than the happiness after the brioche came out fresh from the oven and my partner is happy, it boosts my confidence that I'm looking forward to my next baking experience. Thank you!!
I'm so glad to hear that this recipe has boosted your confidence with baking!! Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂
Okay, I have to make these for V day. I made some GF pumpkin cinnamon rolls for Christmas and they were fine but nothing like the ones I used to make with brioche dough. Duh.
The thing I learned though from scrolling through multiple GF recipes is to a) add 1 Tbsp baking powder for insurance and because it doesn't rise as well; and b) assemble, shape and let rise ONCE. That whole Gluten Free flour yeast bread thing generally only proofs once and won't rise the second time.
Watch this space.
Yay! And love those tips about gluten free brioche. My mission for the next few months is to make this recipe gf so your tips will come in handy! Let me know how you go nevertheless 🙂
OK now I'm officially obsessed! I went looking for a GF brioche recipe because making it vegan is the easier part; I mean there's aquafaba (gack), I'll be trying 3 tapioca gel eggs (boil 1 Tbsp tapioca in 1 C water until gel like) and I'm not quite sure about the baking powder yet because the tapioca gel will help it rise. I love a puzzle!
Eek, forgot https://thereislifeafterwheat.com/2018/02/gluten-free-brioche/
Oooh, I've never heard of tapioca gel eggs! Can't wait to hear how you go. I'm going to try it out when I have a moment too!
Hi, I made this today and I used lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar but I felt like my bread came out more cakey than bread like? Is there any suggestions/tips I can follow? I want to make this again because I believe I can get this to work!
Hi! Sometimes that can happen if you don't knead the bread for long enough. Unlike cakes, bread dough needs to be kneaded to activate the gluten which makes it a little chewier! The dough should be stretchy when you first knead it and pass the 'bread windowpane' test (google for examples).
Or if your brioche was more 'doughy' it needs a little more liquid when mixing it together. Hope that helps?
Hi, I needed it for 5 mins using my hand mixer that has dough hooks. I put a timer on for 5 mins and when I pressed down on the dough it was elastic and springed back? Would you say this is sufficient enough or should I knead for longer? Thanks again!
This brioche turned out beautifully and made for the french toast of my dreams. Will definitely be making it again and checking out the other recipes on the blog!
Aw that's so great to hear and I LOVE that you used it for french toast! Thanks so much xo
Amazing vegan brioche! Thank you so much for this recipe!
I used F55 French flour and half/half olive oil and melted vegan butter.
I had to put the dough in the oven at 50 degrees Celsius since next to the heater wasn't enough.
By the end I decided to push into the 4 balls some Callebaut chocolate chips and it became so amazing and authentic tasting!
Definitely a new staple recipe in our house 😉
Thanks so much for all the tips and love your addition of chocolate :). Soo nice to hear that it tasted like authentic French bread too. Thanks again for your feedback xo
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
My pleasure! It keeps for up to 5 days and is best enjoyed warm!
This looks so good! Does one plant milk work better than another?
Aw thank you! I prefer soy milk but any will work 🙂
Can this be made in a breadmaker or do you need to tweak the recipe for that? Thanks!
Hi Helen, yes a breadmaker should be fine! Just keep an eye on it throughout the beginning to make sure the consistency of the dough is right! Let me know how you go :).
Amazing recipe, thank you for sharing! I appreciated a lot also the tips on how to kick-start the rising process of the dough, it's so cold in the house these days! XOXO
Yay, I'm soo glad to hear Paola! And I'm happy that all the little tips helped! Thank you so much xoxo
I made this recipe several times and always worked perfectly. Fluffy and buttery, no way to have any leftover. Thanks so much!
Aw that's the best news Judit! Thanks sooo much for letting me know - it makes my job all worth it xo
What's better on Christmas than warm, delicious Brioche bread? The answer: nothing! I loved this recipe. Thanks for the detailed recipe and instructions. I used unsweetened almond milk and light brown sugar and I topped it with honey instead of maple syrup because that's what I had. So good and easy too.
Aw that's great to hear Brett! It'd be perfect on Christmas :). Glad it worked with those adjustments too. Thanks soo much for leaving your feedback and I hope you had a lovely Christmas/holiday break!
Hi there,
I’m on my first prove of my second batch and again there is no rising happening.
I feel like the recipe itself needs adjusting because with your measurements (both using cup or metric) the dough is ultimately way too dry.
I have used my stand alone and hand kneading and seem to be getting exactly the same results which is so disheartening after wasting so much time and obviously the ingredients.
The first result is extremely dense due to no rising, no matter how long it was left or any adjustment of temperature.
Looking at previous comments it seems others have struggled too.
Maybe this could be revised with some adjustments.
Jay
Hi Jay, I'm sorry it's not working for you as it did for other people! This recipe is used as the basis for around 8 other recipes on my website so I've tested it over 30 times and I'm not sure how your measurements were different.
As Step 1 said, if your dough is too dry, simply add more liquid. All brands of flours and milks absorb differently. I hope this works for you another time.
For anyone wondering how this recipe works out with Gluten Free flour - don't 😅 haha way too dense sadly. Not good turnout at all. Wheat flour so much easier to use dangit
Yes I had the same experience! I'm still trying to figure out a good gluten free blend ratio. Watch this space 🙂
Hello! Have you tried putting the dough in the fridge to ferment overnight? If you did would you do it after the first proof and shape or straight in the fridge overnight then shape and proof?
Hi Ada, I've left the dough rest in the fridge overnight for both stages (different batches) and they both work fine! However, for the brioche, I prefer letting it rise in the fridge after shaping. Just make sure you let it come to room temperature before you bake it!
I am definitely going to make this but wonder if it will make a difference if I use bread flour rather than plain flour?
Hi Louise! Bread flour will work - your brioche will just be slightly chewier (and bread like) rather than cakey and that's fine!
Hi, can I use lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar? If not, is there anything else I could sub it with?
Hi Jacky, yes you can use lemon juice! It just needs to be acidic to help tenderise the flour 🙂
Heya,
I tried a vegan brioche recipe a while ago with olive oil and it wasn’t the best so I nearly gave up til I found this one!
I wanted to use up fresh yeast so doubled the amount (that’s what I’ve been advised before) but I’m worried I’m doing something wrong as the finished product turns into more a bready, denser texture, rather than light, fluffy and tearable!
I either am not kneading for long enough- did it for 5 mins, it went elastic and smooth- or the dough didn’t prove enough (it rose but not by double even above a tumble dryer!).
That being said I added veeg choc chips and it tastes lovely, just would love to know where I’m going wrong?!
Thanks again xxx
Hey Bex
Thanks for your comment. Yep, brioche with olive oil is much more dense and probably like a dry cake!
For this one, if you used olive oil or spelt flour, it'd be a denser loaf no matter what. I know fresh yeast can only be kept for a short time so it's either that or the dough just needed to be proofed for longer (1-4 hours if needed) until it's double or close to double the size. That happens to me sometimes - some days it rises really quickly near a heater and some days it doesn't!
That's great your dough was elastic and smooth though! I know every brand of flour has a different absorbency so sometimes I find adding just a little more milk (to make a softer dough) helps with the rise.
I hope that helps xo
Thanks so much for replying!
I used the butter instead of olive oil and the taste was much better/more briochey than the other one I’d made previously.
Just need to figure out how to get it less cakey!
Will 100% try again though with your tips and tricks. My flatmates and I have eaten it all today!!
Whats the shelf life on these?
Like most home-made breads, it's best eaten within a few days. However, I've kept my brioche for 1 week at room temperature (in Winter) and it's been fine. Just always heat it up before you enjoy the leftovers!
Love this recipe! Wish we could upload a picture. My 7 yr old and husband are pescatarian's and I love baking them items that cannot be found easily out on the street. Thank you
That makes me so happy to hear Roxee! It's great when family enjoys these recipes. Thanks for your lovely comment 🙂