Lenten Brioche with Raisins and Dates

Milk and eggs go in together. Stand mixer does the heavy lifting—about 7 minutes of kneading until the dough turns glossy and actually wants to hold itself together. Then you fold in the raisins and dates by hand. Thirty-five minutes prep. The rise takes the real time.

Why You’ll Love This Lenten Brioche

Homemade brioche buns that don’t taste like grocery store bread. The cardamom goes quiet—you taste it more than you notice it. Golden raisins and dates stay soft inside. Not some complicated Easter bread thing. Just brioche dough that rises at room temp while you do other stuff. Ten pieces. One pan. Looks fancy when you glaze them with the little crosses. Tastes better the next day, honestly. Make it once and you stop buying bread for two weeks.

What You Need for Brioche Bread Recipe

Warm milk. Not hot—warm. Three hundred twenty-five grams flour or three and a quarter cups if you’re eyeballing it. All-purpose works fine. Four eggs. Room temp is better but honestly doesn’t matter that much. Instant yeast. The kind that doesn’t need blooming. Sugar. Salt. Cardamom—ground, not pods. You could skip it. The bread still works. But it adds something. One-eighty grams of soft butter. Cube it first, let it sit out for ten minutes. It folds in easier that way. Golden raisins and chopped dates. Seventy-five grams raisins. A hundred twenty grams dates. Roughly. The ratio’s not exact. More dates if you want. Less raisins if you don’t have them—apricots work, or just leave them out.

For the glaze. Powdered sugar. Milk. That’s it.

How to Make Brioche Buns with Cardamom

Butter a rectangular pan. Thirty by twenty-two centimeters. Twelve by eight and a half inches. Line it with parchment so you can pull the whole thing out later. Whisk milk and eggs in a separate bowl until they’re the same temperature and color. In the stand mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and cardamom. Just mix them dry. Don’t overthink it. Pour the milk and egg mixture in all at once. Medium speed. Let it go until it’s shaggy and starting to come together. Maybe a minute. Now add the butter. Cubes. A few at a time. Keep the mixer going on medium. This takes about seven minutes. The dough goes from looking broken to glossy and elastic. You’ll feel the difference. It stops sticking to the bowl.

Tip the dough onto a floured surface. Knead in the raisins and dates by hand. Just two minutes. Fold them in until they’re distributed loosely throughout. Some parts will have more than others. That’s fine. Divide it into ten equal pieces. Roll each one under your palm until it’s a smooth ball. They should feel tense on top. Arrange them in the pan. They’ll be touching by the end but not now. Space them slightly. Cover with plastic wrap. Let them rise at room temp for two to two and a half hours.

How to Get Brioche Buns Golden Brown and Tender

Middle oven rack. Preheat to one hundred ninety Celsius. Three hundred seventy-five Fahrenheit. While it heats, the dough should nearly double. You’ll see it. The balls stay distinct but they’re touching. Lightly brush the tops with water. Not much. Just a thin coat. This helps them brown instead of staying pale. Bake for twenty-eight to thirty minutes. They go deep golden. Like old wood. Darker than you think. Pull them out. The bottoms will sound hollow if you tap them. Cool them in the pan for fifteen minutes before you try to move them. The structure sets as they cool.

The glaze happens after. Whisk powdered sugar and milk together until it’s smooth. No lumps. It should pour slowly. Transfer it to a piping bag with a small plain tip—one-sixteenth of an inch, roughly. Pipe a cross on top of each bun. It’s messy if you’re thinking about it too hard. It’s fine if you just do it. Serve them warm or at room temp. Butter optional. Not really necessary.

Brioche Dough Tips and What Goes Wrong

The butter has to be soft. Not melted. Soft. If it’s cold, the dough gets broken and lumpy and won’t come together. If it’s melted, the whole thing gets greasy. Sit it out. Ten minutes. That’s the sweet spot. Don’t let the rise go too long. Two and a half hours is the max. Any longer and the dough gets a weird taste. Something sulfury. Not wrong exactly but not good either. Check it at two hours. If it’s nearly doubled, go with it.

The dates add moisture that raisins don’t. They make the interior denser. Softer. If you want lighter buns, use only raisins. If you want them almost cake-like, use only dates. Both works. The yeast amount matters. Eight milliliters. Too much and it over-proofs and tastes yeasty. Too little and it doesn’t rise. Use what the recipe says. The cardamom is subtle. People will ask what the flavor is and won’t quite figure it out. That’s the point.

Lenten Brioche with Raisins and Dates

By Emma

Prep:

35 min

Cook:

30 min

Total:

65 min

Servings:

10 servings

Ingredients

• Brioche
• 150 ml (2/3 cup) warm milk
• 4 large eggs
• 430 g (3 1/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 75 g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 8 ml (1 2/3 tsp) instant yeast
• 5 ml (1 tsp) salt
• 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) ground cardamom
• 180 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cubed and softened for 10 minutes
• 130 g (3/4 cup) golden raisins
• 120 g (2/3 cup) chopped dried dates
• Glaze
• 100 g (3/4 cup) powdered sugar
• 20 ml (4 tsp) whole milk

Method

1. Brioche
2. 1 Prepare a 30 x 22 cm (12 x 8 1/2 in) rectangular pan. Butter it and line with parchment, letting edges hang over sides for easy removal. Set aside.
3. 2 In a bowl, whisk together milk and eggs. Set aside.
4. 3 In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and cardamom. Mix briefly.
5. 4 Add liquid mixture all at once. Mix on medium speed until dough starts forming. Gradually add softened butter cubes, continuing to knead about 7 minutes until elastic and shiny.
6. 5 Turn dough onto floured surface. Gently knead in raisins and chopped dates about 2 minutes until evenly distributed.
7. 6 Divide dough into 10 equal pieces. Shape each into smooth balls by rolling under palm on lightly floured surface.
8. 7 Arrange balls in prepared pan, spacing slightly. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temp 2 to 2.5 hours until nearly doubled, dough pieces touching.
9. 8 Set oven rack in middle. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
10. 9 Lightly brush tops with water to help crust color.
11. 10 Bake for 28 to 30 minutes until deep golden brown. Cool in pan 15 minutes.
12. Glaze
13. 11 Whisk powdered sugar and milk until smooth consistency.
14. 12 Transfer glaze to a piping bag with small plain tip. Pipe a cross shape atop each bun.
15. 13 Serve warm or at room temp, optionally with butter.

Nutritional information

Calories

350

Protein

7g

Carbs

52g

Fat

12g

Print Recipe Save to Pinterest

Frequently Asked Questions About Brioche Bread Recipe

Can I make the dough the night before? Yeah. Refrigerate it after shaping. It rises slower in the cold. Let it sit on the counter about forty-five minutes before baking to take the chill off. Texture comes out a bit tighter but honestly tastes better the next day anyway.

What if my butter is still cold when I add it? The dough gets lumpy and won’t smooth out. Start over or just let the mixer run longer—like fifteen minutes instead of seven. Not ideal. Soften the butter next time.

Can I use a different dried fruit instead of dates and raisins? Apricots work. Cranberries work but they’re tart so go easier. Chopped prunes if you want something darker. Golden raisins specifically—regular raisins are tougher. The ratio is rough. Use what you have.

How long do they keep? Three days on the counter in a bag. They dry out after that. Freeze them after day two if you want them longer. Toast them when you thaw them out.

What’s the cardamom for if I can barely taste it? It sits in the background. Makes the bread feel more complex without being obvious. If you don’t like it, leave it out. The brioche works fine without it. Just tastes more standard.

Can I make these in a regular loaf pan instead? Not really. It changes the shape and how they cook. The rectangular pan lets them bake through evenly. You could bake them on a sheet pan but they’d spread sideways and lose definition. Stay with the pan the recipe calls for.

Why pipe a cross on top instead of just drizzling the glaze? It’s cleaner. Looks intentional. Drizzling is faster but messier and it runs into the crevices. A cross stays on top where you can see it. Honestly either works.