Soft french bread is ultra soft, rich and buttery bread recipe! This easy yeast bread is an egg free variation of Brioche bread that rivals Brioche’s soft and fluffy texture. It’s simple, yet so satisfying and full of sweet buttery flavor!
This artisan quality bread recipe is absolute heaven when it comes out fresh and warm from the oven. Stunningly golden and luminous, this soft French bread just glows.
Every bite is refined, unbelievably smooth and delicate! Your family will love this easy bread recipe made without eggs or much effort!
Why you will love this bread
Color – The fat and milk solids in butter contribute to French bread’s golden, beautifully caramelized crust when baked.
Texture – Because fat in the butter tenderizes the dough, the texture and crumb is soft and delicate rather than chewy.
Flavor – Oh buttery flavor! I love the creamy depth butter adds to this delicious french bread!
Ingredients
Butter – This is a rich dough, meaning it has fat to help guarantee softness. Butter is responsible for richness, tenderness and flavor of many French breads. It’s a prominent ingredient in French cuisine, so its use in French bread making is very common. Additionally, it tenderizes bread dough and limits gluten development, yielding a softer, more tender crumb and a richer flavor.
Eggs – Like butter, eggs favor a softer, richer dough.
Salt – Dough is bland without salt and salt also strengthens gluten.
Flour – Flour is the foundation of the bread. You can use either all-purpose flour or bread flour. I use regular flour in all my bread recipes so I know it works well. However, since bread flour has a higher protein content, it will help create the gluten structure necessary for good bread texture. So, it’s your call.
Whole milk – The fat and lactose in milk help with tenderizing the crumb of the bread making it softer and sweeter.
Sweetened condensed milk – this will give our soft bread a caramelized taste. So delicious!
Sugar – just 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
Instant yeast – has smaller granules and activates quickly. That’s why we use quick rising yeast – to make the bread rise. Dough made with instant yeast and shaped into a loaf will rise to its optimal height significantly more quickly than a shaped loaf made with regular yeast.
Salt – Salt adds taste but especially helps bring out the flavors and aromas present in the flour and other ingredients of this french bake. Salt also helps tighten the gluten structure and add strength to our dough.
How to make egg wash for the bread
While there is no egg in the dough, this is something optional you can do to make your bread appear shiny on the outside.
What is an egg wash? Egg wash is simply a mix of beaten whole egg and water (or milk or cream), which is used to brush onto the top of bread before baking. You can vary it by using yolks only, whites only, or by altering the amount of water you add to vary the amount of shine.
You you need is a whisk to beat the egg, and a brush to paint it on the bread. Done!
Buttery French Bread is luminous, unbelievably soft and induglent, yet fool proof and easy to make!
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Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk, warm
- ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, or bread flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup butter, softened
Egg Wash (optional)
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Glaze
- 3 tablespoon butter, softened
- 3 tablespoon condensed milk, sweetened
Instructions
Wet Mixture
- Combine warm milk, condensed milk, egg, sugar and yeast.
Dry Ingredients
- Add flour and salt into into the wet mixture to make a dough.
How to knead the dough
- Add softened butter and mix it in until smooth.
- How to knead the dough. Knead the dough on a floured surfaces (such as a large cutting board) until elastic and stretchy.
- Rise: Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover it up a with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.
- Punch down the dough, divide it in half and roll each piece into a log. Then cut into pieces.
- Place in a greased loaf pan, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Brush risen bread with egg wash and then bake for 20-22 minutes,
Glaze
- Mix the softened butter and condensed milk. Brush on the surface of the warm bread.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Love this bread! We eat it for breakfast and it never fails