Brioche dough calculator
Hamelman's reference brioche: 50% butter, 50% eggs, an overnight cold rest — the real thing.
1 × 500 g · 56% hydration
Type how much flour you have — the portion weight recalculates.
Brioche at the reference standard — Hamelman’s formula: eggs and butter each at 50% of the flour weight. This is the real patisserie article, and it is built around one non-negotiable: an overnight rest in the fridge.
How it works
The formula, unapologetically
Eggs 50%, butter 50%, sugar 12%, water just 9.6% (eggs are the liquid), salt 2.2% — and only 0.7% instant yeast, because the schedule is long. Lesser “brioche” recipes run 25% butter; the 40–70% band is where the true style lives, and 50/50 is its center.
Butter after gluten
Develop the dough fully before the butter goes in, then beat in the soft (not melted) butter gradually until silk-smooth. Then the crucial hour at room temperature, and into the fridge overnight — cold firms the butter so the dough can be shaped at all, and the slow ferment builds the aroma.
Shaping and baking
Work the cold dough quickly into loaves (~500 g for a 20 × 10 cm pan) or classic têtes, egg-wash, and proof about three hours at a gentle ~24 °C. Bake with a hot start around 190 °C, finishing lower — deep brown is correct for brioche; blond brioche is undercooked.
FAQ
Can I make brioche same-day?
King Arthur’s same-day buns exist — at four times the yeast (2.8%). It works, but you trade the perfume of the overnight ferment and fight soft butter at shaping. The dose in this calculator belongs to the overnight schedule.
My butter leaked out during kneading?
It went in too warm or too fast. Butter should be plastic-soft, added in stages to an already-developed dough, in a cool bowl. If the dough turns greasy, chill it twenty minutes and resume.
What do I do with brioche besides slicing it?
Burger buns for rich sandwiches, têtes for breakfast, and stale brioche is the canonical base for pain perdu — arguably worth baking a loaf just to let it go stale.