One of the more involved recipes, but so worth it, this Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee is absolutely heavenly! Think a mix of Brioche, croissant, and cinnamon roll, with layers of flaky, rich dough. The sourdough adds a pleasant tang and easier digestibility. I have given 2 filling options below: Cinnamon and Chocolate, which are equally good. A sprinkling of brown sugar on top gives a lovely crunchy crust. Perfect for the holidays as breakfast!
Why You Want to Make This
I won’t lie, there is a bit of labour of love in this Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee. So why would you want to put in the work when you could just buy Brioche?
Flavour
While I have seen Brioche Feuilletee on its own and am sure they are sold in patisseries in France, I have never seen a sourdough version of it. “Feuilltee” means “folded” and describes the process of a brioche dough being folded multiple times around a block of butter and rolled out, to create flaky layers. Very similar to croissants.
Sourdough however, apart from acting as a raising agent, helps with digestibility, adds nutrients and layers of amazing flavour you would never get without. If you ever thought Brioche is…nice, but maybe a little boring, this is for you. Or if you love Brioche, but want to up your game a little.
This recipe was adapted into a Brioche Feuilletee with different fillings from the fantastic Sourdough Brioche recipe by “Bread by Elise”. If you’d like to make a classic and really good brioche that uses sourdough, this is the best recipe I have found so far.
Special Holiday Treat
If you are looking for a seriously impressive holiday breakfast for your loved ones, this is certainly it. You’ll be sure to get lots of impressed comments of “You made this!?” and then very satisfying purring noises while they are enjoying it.
Can be prepared ahead of time
While it does take some hands on time to roll out the dough a few times, to laminate the butter in, creating those flaky layers, you can do most of the preparation the day or even 2 days before. On the day, you simply put your loaf pans in the oven and enjoy breakfast with your friends and family.
Makes incredible leftovers
While I loved this re-heated on its own, you could make a seriously amazing bread and butter pudding from the leftovers. If there are any. Which is doubtful. Maybe make double, so you can try it?
Not hard to make
I know this sounds counterintuitive, after saying this takes a little work. But if you can fold a towel and roll out dough, you will have a very easy time making this Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee.
The Ingredients
Sourdough Starter
Since we want a good rise, I’m using active, fed starter here. If you don’t have one yet, here is how to make it. Sourdough starter can be used in a million recipes, not just bread. It makes sweet baked goods more flavourful and better for you, helps even with gluten intolerance, as the little bacteria basically pre-digest the gluten for you. (Apologies for the picture in your mind now. But yoghurt and other fermented foods work the same way.)
Tangzhong
Bless you! What?
That was my reaction when I first heard about Tangzhong. The Tangzhong method basically pre-cooks a portion of the dough using hot liquid, which causes the starch to gelatinize and make the bread softer. And with Brioche, I’m all about soft bread!
Though this method says there will be no crust, I do love a crunchy crust, so I brushed the bread with butter and sprinkled some brown sugar over it just before baking.
Yeast
Although you could make this with just sourdough, I opted for adding a tiny bit of yeast, since I’m adding quite a lot of butter to the dough with the lamination, so it’s a fairly heavy mix that can use a little help on the rising front. If you don’t want to use yeast or can’t eat it, leave it out.
Ascorbic Acid – Vitamin C powder
Same as with the yeast, this is to help with the rise and crust, as it will strengthen the gluten in the dough. I found the trick of adding it when researching the best Banh Mi buns and have used it in various bread recipes since, loving the results. It’s not a huge change, but noticeable.
This is pure vitamin C powder that I got fairly cheap from “Bulk”.
It will last me for ages and can be used not just in baking, but also simply add to water, for a refreshing drink and boosting your vitamin C intake. Win/win really.
Same as with the yeast: If you don’t have any, leave it out.
Flour
Traditionally Brioche, even more so Brioche Feuilletee is made with plain or bread flour. But as usual I wanted to see if whole wheat flour works too, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. I’m replacing about 1/3 of the white flour with whole wheat, for a slightly nutty flavour and better nutrition profile. The results were lovely: Still soft and fluffy, but with a satisfying bite and flavour to it. This feels less like the cloud-like Brioche texture and more like a really satisfying sweet, soft, crunchy, and flaky bread. Very hard to describe, but utterly addictive.
Eggs and Butter
Brioche is an enriched dough with lots of butter and eggs. Most certainly not for your diet days, but oh so satisfying! And I firmly believe, if we eat most of the time healthy, a proper treat now and then is entirely ok and needed. This is a really good one for those days.
Use good European butter for this. Living in Ireland, I used Irish of course, which may be the best butter you can get. As it adds flavour to the dough, you want it to be delicious.
Milk
Being lactose intolerant, I only have plant milk at home. With all the butter and eggs, this Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee is not the place to save on fats, so I’m using full fat Oat Milk here. My favourite is Oatly Barista, which I always have around for my coffee. You can use any full fat milk of your choice.
Sugar
Only a little sugar is used in this Brioche dough, which might feel surprising, as this is essentially a sweet bread. But trust me, it’s enough to give a slightly sweet flavour and support the fillings.
Filling Options
As usual, I couldn’t decide if I wanted chocolate or cinnamon filling, so I simply made both. To me, even though I’m a complete chocoholic, the cinnamon-sugar won. But I’d love to hear in the comments which one you chose to make or preferred.
The Process
Start ideally 2 days before you want to eat the Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee.
2 days before baking:
Sweet Sourdough Starter
Mix 40ml (about 2.5 tbsp) with 40g flour, 10g sugar and 30g active sourdough starter. Cover and leave in a warm spot over night or until doubled in size.
Tangzhong
Make the Tangzhong by adding 140ml milk to a small pot and whisk in 35g flour. Gently warm on medium heat while whisking. After a while, your mixture will start to thicken quite quickly. Once it has thickened and reached about 150°F/65°C it is ready.
Transfer into a small bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm touching the whole surface of your Tangzhong, to prevent a skin from forming. Leave to cool to room temperature.
1 day before baking
Mix your dough
In a stand mixer, as the dough gets fairly soft and sticky, or a large bowl, if you are kneading by hand, add all your ingredients except the butter and salt. Mix to combine, then let it stand for 30minutes for the autolyse.
Knead
Adding the salt, knead for 5-10 minutes, until the dough comes apart from the sides and starts to look really smooth.
Slowly add half of the butter at room temperature, cut into cubes, bit by bit, slowly incorporating it into the dough.
Keep kneading for 15-25 minutes, until the gluten has fully developed, and your dough passes the windowpane test.
Your dough will still be pretty sticky, but that should improve during the resting time.
Rest
Lightly grease a bowl. Use your hands to form a ball from your dough and let it rest, covered on your counter, in the prepared bowl for about 3h. By then it will have about doubled in size.
Now you can go ahead to either start the lamination process or rest your dough in the fridge overnight, to continue the next day.
Laminating the Dough
Or: Putting the Feuilletee into the Brioche
The lamination process will take about 2.5h including 3 rests in the fridge for 20-30min each.
For this step you need a stick (about 100g) of cold butter. Place the butter between 2 layers of baking parchment and smash it a little flatter first, using your rolling pin or the bottom of a cooking pot until you have a roughly 8 x 8 square.
Lightly flour a surface for rolling out your dough. Take your dough from the bowl and roll it out into a rectangle that is about 16″ x 24″.
Remove the top layer of baking parchment from your flattened butter block, turn it around, so the butter lands in the middle of the dough rectangle. Then fold your dough like an envelope over it, covering it firmly. Pinch the sides of the dough close, so the butter doesn’t escape.
Roll your dough out again, to seal in the butter.
Turn your dough by 90 degrees and repeat the folding and rolling out.
Wrap into plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
After that time, take out your dough and repeat the folding and rolling out twice. Put back into the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Preparing the filling
Decide if you’d like to make both fillings or just one. If using only one, double the quantities given below for the chosen filling.
Melt 2 tbsp butter for brushing onto the rolled out dough.
For the dark chocolate filling:
Chop your dark chocolate roughly. You want some nice chunks and some finer bits that melt into the dough.
For the Cinnamon Sugar:
Mix 3 tbsp sugar (white or brown will both work) with 1 tsp cinnamon.
Last rolling out and filling
Roll your dough out one last time. Aim for a rectangle of about 1/16th thickness.
Slice in half through the middle, if making both fillings. Brush the rectangles with the melted butter.
Sprinkle one with dark chocolate, the other one with cinnamon sugar evenly, leaving about 2” room on one end of the short side.
Start rolling up the dough from the short side, where the filling is spread all the way to the end. Roll all the way until you reach the end and gently pinch to close. It probably won’t close perfectly, which is fine.
I only had one long and one shorter bread pan, so I chose to keep the chocolate roll longer and the cinnamon roll shorter.
Cover both rolls tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes or overnight.
On the Day of baking:
Cut and add to Loaf tins
Grease 2 loaf tins or line with baking parchment.
Cut your dough rolls into 3 equal pieces each and add them to your loaf tins, so the side showing the spiral with the filling is pointing up.
Brush with more melted butter and sprinkle with some brown sugar with cinnamon. I only sprinkled the cinnamon version here and regretted it later. Don’t be like me.
Cover and let them rise outside of the fridge for another hour.
Now you can either bake them or cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge until ready to bake.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375°F/190°C.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. The cover with aluminium foil and bake 10-15 minutes longer. Depending on your oven.
Take out and leave on a rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar if you like.
Enjoy just as they are, with jam, or more butter.
Meal Prep
Make Ahead
The resting time of the dough makes this recipe predestined for meal prep, as you can do all the steps in the days before you want to bake it. Pretty perfect for the holidays, to have a really impressive breakfast treat, while relaxing with your loved ones.
Freeze
While this Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee lasts a few days in a bread tin, I tend to freeze leftovers and just reheat them in air fryer or oven for a bit, to get the crunchy crust and warm, buttery insides, that makes it so utterly delicious. Freeze the separate thirds in small bags or lidded containers, for an indulgent breakfast treat any time you crave it.
Still looking for a main course?
Have a look at this super delicious Vegetarian Mezze Feast.
Or maybe an impressive dessert, that takes very little work?
Protein Creme Brulee Two ways is a great option.
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee
Ingredients
Sweet sourdough starter:
- 2 tbsp fed white sourdough starter
- ¼ cup plain white flour
- 3 tbsp oat milk substitute whole milk
Tangzhong
- ½ cup + 1tbsp oat milk substitute whole milk
- 3 tbsp plain white flour
Main Dough
- 3 cups strong white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat bread flour
- 2 tsp active dry yeast optional
- 1 tsp ascorbic acid Pure Vitamin C powder. Optional
- 5 eggs
- 2 tbsp oat milk substitute whole milk
- All the tangzhong
- All the sweet sourdough starter
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 tsp kosher salt
- 2 sticks butter. 1 cubed at room temperature. One whole, cold from the fridge.
Filling and topping
- If you want to make both fillings:
- 4 tbsp butter melted
- ½ cup dark chocolate chopped (don’t use chips here, as we want the irregular and rather fine pieces.)
- 5 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
If you only make one of the fillings:
- 4 tbsp butter melted
- 1 cup dark chocolate chopped (don’t use chips here, as we want the irregular and rather fine pieces.)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
or
- 8 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- Part of the brown sugar/cinnamon mix will be used for sprinkling so you’ll need some of it.
Instructions
2 Days Before Baking:
Sweet Sourdough Starter:
- Mix 40ml of oat milk with 40g flour, 10g sugar, and 30g active sourdough starter.
- Cover and leave in a warm spot overnight or until doubled in size.
Tangzhong:
- In a small pot, whisk 140ml oat milk with 35g flour.
- Warm on medium heat, whisking until thickened and reaching about 150°F/65°C.
- Transfer to a bowl, cover with clingfilm, touching the Tangzhong to prevent a skin from forming, and let it cool to room temperature.
1 Day Before Baking:
Main Dough:
- Combine all ingredients except butter and salt. Allow a 30-minute autolyse.
- Add salt, knead for 5-10 minutes, then slowly add half the room temperature butter.
- Knead for 15-25 minutes until gluten develops and the dough passes the windowpane test.
- Let the dough rest covered for about 3 hours until doubled in size.
- Store the dough in the fridge overnight.
Laminating the Dough:
- Flatten a cold butter stick between parchment paper to an 8x8 square.
- Roll out the dough to a 16" x 24" rectangle.
- Place the butter in the middle or your rolled out dough, fold like an envelope, and roll out to seal in the butter.
- Turn by 90 degrees, repeat the folding and rolling out.
- Wrap into plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
- Repeat the folding and rolling process twice, resting in the fridge between each cycle.
Preparing the Filling:
- Melt 2 tbsp butter for brushing onto the rolled-out dough.
- For dark chocolate filling: Roughly chop dark chocolate.
- For cinnamon sugar filling: Mix 3 tbsp sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon.
Last Rolling Out and Filling:
- Roll out the dough thinly to about 1/16” into a rectangle.
- Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with the chosen filling.
- Roll up the dough, cover, and chill for at least 20 minutes or overnight.
On the day of baking:
Cut and Add to Loaf Tins:
- Grease 2 loaf tins or line with parchment.
- Cut dough rolls into 3 equal pieces each and add to tins, cut side facing up, so you see the pretty spirals.
- Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Let rise covered outside of the fridge for an hour.
Baking:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake 10-15 minutes longer.
- Cool on a rack. Dust with icing sugar if desired.
- Enjoy your Sourdough Brioche Feuilletee with jam or butter!
Notes
Total Protein per Portion: Approximately 5.7 grams
Total Carbohydrates per Portion: Approximately 33.1 grams
Total Fat per Portion: Approximately 15 grams
Total Sodium per Portion: Approximately 347 milligrams
This sourdough brioche dessert is simply divine! Thanks for the detailed instructions! The whole family devoured them!
Wow never thought you could use sourdough for brioche. This was fantastic!
The dark chocolate version was delicious! It was well worth the wait. 🙂
They were a flaky and buttery dream! And my patience for the laminating was rewarded. I had made croissants before, and this was next level. Thank you!
The layers of dough were truly fantastic. Definitely worth the steps and time. Delicious!
So delightfully sweet and delicious!