Sweet Braided Sourdough Loaf

A loaf of sweet braided sourdough bread that has been sliced up and displayed in a basket next to a small dish of butter.

Sweet Braided Sourdough Loaf

This sweet braided sourdough bread is made with a buttery brioche dough and beautifully braided to create an elegant centrepiece worthy of any celebration table! Use your sourdough starter and stand mixer to create this special loaf.

Course Bread

Cuisine American, French

Keyword Sourdough Bread, Thermomix Sourdough

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 15

Fermentation Time 12

Total Time 13 15

Servings Loaf

Calories 3261kcal

Equipment

Stand Mixer
Baking Sheet (one with no lip is best)

Ingredients

100 g Sourdough Starter (fed and bubbly)
540 g Bread Flour
2 Eggs
120 g Salted Butter (soft)
200 g Milk (whole milk)
80 g Sugar
10 g Salt

Toppings

1 Egg (plus 1 tablespoon water to use as egg wash)
Hail Sugar (pearl sugar - see notes)

Instructions

Warm milk to around 37C (you don't want it to be cold, but not too warm either). Add the milk and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until the sugar is dissolved.
Now add the sourdough starter, flour and eggs to the bowl. Mix into a rough dough and let it sit for around 30 minutes.
Once the dough has sat for a little while, add the butter and salt and use the stand mixer to knead it really well. You want the butter to mix all the way through and the dough to become very soft and elastic.
Depending on the type of mixer you use, this could take 3 minutes, it could take 20 minutes (see notes in the article above).
Once the dough is silky and elastic (it can be slightly sticky) it should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough into a large bowl for bulk fermentation. Cover with plastic and set aside.
Once the dough has risen a bit (it doesn't have to double, 50% rise is ok in this instance) you'll need to shape the brioche dough.
Turn the dough onto the counter and divide into 3 equal pieces. You can braid 4 pieces if you are confident to do so, but I find 3 is perfect if you've never done this before.
Roll each of the pieces into a long log shape and then join the three pieces together at the top (I've included illustrations in the post above so you can see what I mean). Then braid the 3 pieces together folding one over the other until they are all joined. Seal the ends together.
Use a dough scraper to move your braid onto a parchment paper lined baking tray. You could also place it into a baking dish if you prefer.
Cover the dough with a dish towel and allow it to proof and get nice and puffy. This can take quite a while due to the butter, milk and eggs.
A note here - depending on the temperature I'm proofing in, I will sometimes wet my dish towel with warm water to cover the dough, but it's not always necessary.
Once the dough is puffy, it's time to bake!
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
While the oven is preheating, mix an egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the dough generously with this egg wash. Then sprinkle over your hail sugar (you can use as much or as little of this as you like).
Bake the sourdough brioche at 180C/350F for around 30 minutes. This loaf will burn easily so keep an eye on it.
If the top of the loaf starts to get to dark, cover the loaf with foil and turn the oven down to 160C to allow it to cook through without burning.
Once the dough is out of the oven, you can brush with butter if you want to, but it's not essential. This will give you a softer crust.

Notes

Pearl Sugar - also called hail sugar is a type of sugar made into small, irregular shaped clumps that don't melt during baking, so they hold their shape. They're often used to finish French pastries and brioche dough. You can find pearl or hail sugar at specialty grocery stores or cake decorating stores.

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