Enriched Sourdough: How to Make Brioche, Milk Bread and Sweet Doughs Rise

An enriched dough is any bread dough with fat, sugar, eggs or milk added to the basic flour, water and salt. It is what turns bread into brioche, milk bread, cinnamon rolls, challah and hot cross buns. Enriched sourdough is some of the most rewarding baking there is, with a soft, tender crumb, a deep golden crust and a gentle tang that balances the sweetness. It is also where a lot of bakers who are confident with a plain loaf come unstuck, because the dough that rose beautifully last weekend suddenly sits in the bowl for ten hours and barely moves.

That is not your starter failing. It is what enrichment does to fermentation, and once you know why it happens, it is easy to work with.

Why enriched doughs rise so slowly

A sourdough culture is a community of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. In a lean dough they have easy access to water and the sugars released from flour, so they work quickly. Every enrichment changes that:

• Sugar pulls water away from the yeast. Above roughly 10% sugar (of the flour weight) the culture slows noticeably; at the 15–20% of a sweet bun dough it can take twice as long to rise.
• Butter and other fats coat the flour and the gluten strands. The dough feels silky, but gluten develops more slowly and the fermentation has less structure to push against.
• Eggs and milk add richness and colour, and also make the dough cooler and heavier to begin with, which slows everything down.
• Cold butter and fridge-cold eggs drag the dough temperature down. A dough that finishes mixing at 20°C rather than 26°C can easily add three or four hours to the bulk ferment.

None of this means enriched sourdough is difficult. It means the timings you know from a plain loaf do not apply, and a few simple adjustments make up the difference.

The five changes that make enriched sourdough work

1. Build a sweet, stiff levain

Rather than adding your starter straight to the dough, build a small levain the evening before with a little sugar in it, at around 50% hydration (twice as much flour as water). The sugar gets the culture used to a sweet environment before it meets the dough, and the stiffness keeps it from turning too sour overnight. A typical build is 25 g active starter, 50 g strong white flour, 25 g water and 10 g sugar, left at room temperature for 8–10 hours until it has roughly tripled and smells sweet and yeasty rather than sharp.

2. Use more of it

A lean loaf might use 10–20% starter to flour. Enriched doughs do better with 25–35%. More culture at the start means a stronger, faster rise and less time for acidity to build, which keeps the flavour mild and the crumb soft.

3. Keep the dough warm

This is the single biggest lever. Aim for a dough temperature of 25–27°C at the end of mixing, and keep it somewhere at 26–28°C while it rises: an oven with just the light on (check it with a thermometer, as some run hot), a proving drawer, or a bowl set inside a larger bowl of warm water. Take the eggs and milk out of the fridge an hour before you start.

4. Add the butter late

Mix the flour, levain, eggs, milk, sugar and salt first and knead until the dough is smooth and starting to stretch, then add soft butter a little at a time. Building the gluten before the fat arrives gives you a far stronger dough. Keep kneading after the last of the butter until a small piece stretches thin enough to see light through without tearing. By hand this takes 15–20 minutes of slapping and folding; a stand mixer does it in about 10–12 minutes on medium.

5. Chill it, then shape it cold

Butter-rich doughs are soft and sticky at room temperature and firm and easy to handle when cold. After the bulk rise, cover the dough and refrigerate it overnight. The cold firms the butter, makes shaping clean and simple, and lets the flavour develop slowly. Shape straight from the fridge, then give the final prove in a warm place.

Reading the dough: timings you can trust

Watch the dough, not the clock. As a guide, at 26°C:

• Bulk ferment: 4–6 hours, until the dough has grown by about half and looks puffy and domed. It will not double the way a lean dough can.
• Overnight chill: 10–16 hours in the fridge.
• Final prove: 3–6 hours after shaping, longer if the dough went in cold. A brioche loaf is ready when it has risen about 1 cm above the rim of the tin and a fingertip pressed gently into the side leaves a dent that springs back slowly.

If the final prove is dragging, it is almost always temperature. Move it somewhere warmer before you consider anything else.

Baking enriched doughs

Sugar, milk and egg all brown quickly, so enriched breads bake lower and more gently than a crusty sourdough loaf: 170–190°C (150–170°C fan) rather than 230–250°C, and without a lidded pot or steam. Brush with beaten egg (a pinch of salt in it gives a deeper shine) just before baking. If the top is colouring too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it for the last 10–15 minutes. The surest test is an internal temperature of about 90°C for a brioche loaf or 88–90°C for rolls and buns.

Which enriched sourdough to bake first

If you have only baked lean loaves so far, work up through the enrichment levels:

• Lightly enriched: a little milk, butter and sugar. Soft and forgiving, and a good first step. Try our soft sourdough milk bread or sourdough dinner rolls.
• Medium enriched: more butter and sugar, often a filling. Sourdough cinnamon rolls are the classic, and very hard to get wrong once the dough is warm enough.
• Heavily enriched: brioche, at 30–50% butter and plenty of egg. The recipe below is a good place to start.

You will find all of these, and more, in our enriched and sweet sourdough recipes.

Sourdough brioche loaf

Makes one 900 g (2 lb) loaf tin. About 30 hours from start to finish, roughly 45 minutes of it hands-on.

Ingredients

Sweet levain (the night before)

• 25 g active sourdough starter
• 50 g strong white bread flour
• 25 g water
• 10 g caster sugar

Dough

• All of the levain (about 110 g)
• 350 g strong white bread flour
• 3 medium eggs (about 150 g), at room temperature
• 40 g whole milk, at room temperature
• 40 g caster sugar
• 7 g fine sea salt
• 125 g unsalted butter, soft but not melted, cut into cubes
• 1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt, to glaze

Contains: wheat (gluten), eggs, milk.

Method

1. Build the levain. The evening before, mix the starter, flour, water and sugar into a stiff dough. Cover and leave at room temperature for 8–10 hours, until roughly tripled.
2. Mix. Combine the levain, flour, eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and beginning to stretch.
3. Add the butter. Work in the butter a quarter at a time, letting each addition disappear before the next. Keep kneading until the dough is glossy and passes the windowpane test, about 15–20 minutes by hand or 10–12 minutes in a stand mixer. Aim for a dough temperature of 25–27°C.
4. Bulk ferment. Cover and leave somewhere at 26–28°C for 4–6 hours, until risen by about half.
5. Chill. Press the dough down gently, cover and refrigerate for 10–16 hours.
6. Shape. Butter the tin. Divide the cold dough into 6 equal pieces, shape each into a tight ball and arrange them in two rows of three in the tin.
7. Final prove. Cover and leave at 26–28°C for 3–6 hours, until the dough has risen about 1 cm above the rim of the tin.
8. Bake. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Brush the loaf with egg glaze and bake for 35–40 minutes, covering loosely with foil after 20 minutes if it is browning fast, until deep golden and 90°C in the centre.
9. Cool. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Let it cool for at least an hour before slicing, so the crumb sets.

FAQ

Can I use my sourdough starter straight from the fridge for enriched dough?

It is better not to. Feed it once or twice at room temperature first so it is lively and at its peak, then build the sweet levain from it. A sluggish starter combined with a slow enriched dough is the most common reason a brioche never rises.

Why is my enriched sourdough so dense?

Usually it was under-proved, because the dough was too cool. Enriched doughs need warmth, 26–28°C, and patience. Under-kneading is the other cause: the dough should stretch thin without tearing before it goes in to rise.

Will enriched sourdough taste sour?

Very mildly. A sweet, stiff levain, a generous amount of starter and a warm rise all keep the acidity low, so the result tastes rich and buttery with just a gentle tang in the background.

Can I add the butter all at once?

You can, but the dough will take much longer to come together and will usually end up weaker. Adding soft butter a little at a time, after the gluten has started to form, gives a lighter, more even crumb.

How long does sourdough brioche keep?

Two to three days wrapped at room temperature, and it makes outstanding toast and French toast once it starts to firm up. It also freezes well, sliced, for up to three months.

Get started

Enriched sourdough asks for a lively, reliable culture. Our San Francisco sourdough starter is a live culture held dormant rather than dehydrated, so it is ready to bake with in about two hours, not a week. Wake it up, build your sweet levain, and you could be pulling a brioche out of the oven by the weekend.