Orange Raisin Brioche Recipe for the Bread Machine
Last Updated on February 14, 2023 – Originally posted January 10, 2015
Brioche, as you may know, is a type of yeast bread that originated in France. The eggs and butter in the bread make it rich and tender. In other words, this is some seriously delicious bread!
Orange Raisin Brioche Recipe for the Bread Machine
- 3 cups bread machine flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup butter (I used salted)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3/4 cup raisins
This makes a two-pound loaf. Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the bread machine first. With my machine (a Zojirushi Virtuoso Breadmaker
), I add the liquid first.
Use the basic or white setting with medium crust.
Check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. Just pop the top of the bread machine and see how the dough is doing. It should be a smooth, round ball. If it’s too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks OK. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks OK. Most of the time though, the above amounts should be just right.
On a side note, you’ll notice that the photo shows a picture of the hole in the bread left by the paddle. For folks with vertical bread machines, the hole or indentation can be a serious problem. One of my friends with a single-paddle, vertical machine tells me that she just throws away that part of the loaf. With a two-paddle, horizontal machine the bread paddle holes aren’t that big of a deal.
Can i make the Brioche bread by using the dough cycle?
I haven’t done that, but it should work fine.
For those looking for a bit more of a rise with more of an airy texture, get your hands on some vital wheat gluten. Add a tablespoon for every two cups of flour.
I never have milk in my house, but I do have Fat Free Half and Half. Can I substitute 1/2 cup of the FF H&H for the milk and water?
Btw, I run into this problem all the time, but the only “milk” I have is FF Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. It might work in sweet foods, but not savory, lol! Plus it’s pretty thin since it’s Fat Free.
I’ve never tried this, but I think it might work.
I only use unsalted butter. Do I need to increase the amount of salt to the recipe?
I haven’t made this recipe with unsalted butter. However, the salt difference between the two types is so small that I don’t think you’d need to adjust the recipe.
I don’t know if it’s only my view from mobile, but I can’t seem to find the cycle you used to make this bread. That said, what cycle should we use for this recipe? Just white?
Thanks so much for the great question. I forgot to add the setting! Thank you for saying something. Yes, use the basic or white setting. I’ve got that included in the recipe now.
I would like to try this Brioche recipe, but would prefer to make it without raisins? Can I just skip them or do you think any adjustments to the recipe will be needed?
I think it would be fine to just leave the raisins out.
Throw away part of a loaf??!!! I just eat it, hole and all!
You and me both! 🙂
Wow, just found your website and i’m having a blast! Just tried this recipe since we have a bunch of oranges left over from Christmas. The butter had me a bit puzzled too, in part because 1/2 cup of liquid to 3 cups of flour just didn’t seem right. So i melted the butter and combined it with the milk and water, which gave me my typical 1 cup of liquid. The trick i finally found that ensures the bread rises properly for ALL my bread machine recipes (maybe it’s my machine, maybe it’s the 6,000-foot altitude in a somewhat cold cabin) is to make sure my liquid measures between 125 to 130 degrees F, and add it last. For this recipe, i also soaked the raisins in red wine, drained, then coated them slightly with cinnamon just before adding them at the beep. This recipe is a keeper! I’m excited to try more. I think maybe the cheese bread next :-).
Thanks so much for writing! I’m glad you liked the recipe.
In order to avoid the paddle holes in any of my bread machine baked breads, I remove the paddle from the machine just before the last knead. It’s very easy…just pull out the dough ball, remove the paddle & stick the dough back in the baking container (I usually give it a bit of a squeeze to remove some air before sticking it back in & shaping it to the container). Just leaves a small hole where the pin that holds the paddle is.
That is great advice!
I have the one pound Zo as just 2 of us. I am wondering if this would work better on the French setting?
Do you mean the custom setting for French bread? You can give it a try. Let me know how it goes.
Which setting did you use on your Zo bread machine? Thanks.
Hi Dawn, I used the basic setting.
Is the butter softened and cut into small chunks? I imagine not melted, correct?
I just cut it into four chunks and put one at each corner of the pan. I have a Zo and the preheat cycle takes care of softening the butter.
Brioche in a Zoji! You have my attention!
Question though: in all your recipes, you never mention sifting. My Zoji says not to, but when I fail to do so, even with a gentle insertion of flour, it becomes a brick. The sift works better but not perfect. Any ideas? I am going to get some fresh raisens and flour today to try this for the weekend. My nose is already smelling it! 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Kim, Let me know how this turns out. I really liked it, but another reader had a horrible time with it. So I’m eager to hear about how it does for you.
Regarding the sifting, great question! I do not sift my flour and it hasn’t been a problem. Here’s a post I did about the bread brick. (I even called it that in the post!) And in any recipe that uses more than a half cup of water, I’m now using bottled, drinking water. We moved to this house a year and a half ago and the well water here just is not good for making bread. I’m not sure if it’s the minerals in the water or what. But the dough is really sticky and miserable to work with if I use tap water.
In being taught in a bakery, sifting isn’t needed vs the old days
I made this just on Saturday. I followed directions, checked to see if the dough “looked ok”, I felt it did. Let it rise, bake in machine. When it was done, it hadn’t raised what I thought was a good raise, (yes the yeast was good!) it was just too dense. Didn’t care for it as I tried to cut, toast it and it wasn’t very good. I’ve tried a couple of your other ones and (yes with the same yeast ect.) they turned out pretty good.
Hi Paula, Thanks for writing. I’m sorry this didn’t turn out. Did you make any substitutions? I’m particularly interested to know if you used real butter in the recipe.
Yes Marsha, I followed the recipe exactly and I used real butter. I didn’t do any substitutions.
Darn it. Mine turned out fine. If anyone else tries this recipe be sure to post and let us know how it turns out.