Buttery Vegan Brioche (classic and healthier options)

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

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"

1. 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.
2. 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:

• Ultimate Blueberry Cinnamon Scrolls
• Jam Donut Babka
• Double Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns

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

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.