Homemade poppy seed brioche is a must at every Easter brunch. This sourdough brioche with a sweet poppy seed filling is made without yeast or eggs. If you replace the milk in the dough with a plant-based alternative, the Easter brioche will be vegan.
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Poppy seed filling with vanilla custard
For this recipe, I opted for a poppy seed filling with vanilla custard. It is quick and easy to prepare and if you replace the milk with a plant-based alternative, this filling is vegan. Bring the milk to the boil and cook with vanilla custard mix and ground poppy seeds to make a firm custard. You can also prepare a poppy seed filling with whisked egg whites or use a store-bought poppy seed filling.
Instructions: Braiding the brioche
The braided sweet bread is not braided in the classic way, but twisted. Instead of one large roll of dough, you can also fill several small rolls of dough with poppy seeds and braid them into a classic three- or six-strand braid.
How to store the brioche with poppy seed filling
Thanks to the sweet filling and the sourdough, this poppy seed plait stays fresh for four to five days. The braided bread is best stored at room temperature, as it dries out more quickly in the fridge. You can cover the loaf with a cotton cloth to protect it. If you want to store the braided bread with sourdough for longer than a week, you should freeze it.
Can you freeze brioche with poppy seed filling?
Brioche can be frozen either in one piece or in individual slices. You can even bake the individual slices in the toaster. If you want to defrost the whole loaf again, you can leave it to defrost overnight at room temperature. The next morning, it is then baked briefly in the oven.
Ingredients: What you need for the recipe
- Wheat flour: Bread flour is best for your challah. If you want to replace some of the flour with wholemeal flour, you may need to increase the proportion of water.
- Milk or a plant-based alternative, such as oat milk or soy milk.
- Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
- Sugar for sweetness.
- Butter or a plant-based alternative.
- Vanilla extract and salt for the taste.
- Poppy seeds (ground) or a ready-made poppy seed filling.
- Pudding mix (vanilla).
- Cranberries, dried (optional).
In three steps: How to make homemade sourdough brioche with poppy seed filling
- Prepare the tangzhong, mix all the ingredients into a dough and leave to rest at room temperature. Place the dough in the fridge overnight. Prepare the poppy seed custard filling and also place in the fridge.
- Roll out the dough, spread with poppy seed filling and twist into a braid. Leave the brioche to rest for one to two hours.
- Preheat the oven and bake the loaf until golden brown.
Helpful tools – My recommendations
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- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- A stainless steel loaf tin*.
- A wooden rolling pin*.
- A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A sharp bread knife*.
- A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.
You can find more product recommendations here.
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Recipe: Homemade Sourdough Brioche with Poppy Seed Filling
Ingredients
tangzhong
- 100 g water
- 20 g cake flour
Dough
- tangzhong
- 500 g cake flour
- 220 g milk or a plant-based alternative
- 50 g sourdough starter
- 30 g sugar
- 60 g butter or a plant-based alternative
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Poppy seed filling with vanilla custard
- 150 g poppy seeds ground
- 375 g milk or a plant-based alternative
- 1 tablespoon vanilla custard mix
- 30 g sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- cranberries dried (optional)
Sugar syrup
- 50 g water boiling
- 50 g sugar
Instructions
Day 1
- For the tangzhong, mix water with wheat flour and boil until a thick paste is formed. Leave the tangzhong to cool completely.
- For the dough, mix all the ingredients together, cover and leave to rest at room temperature for about six hours. Stretch and fold once after 30 minutes.
- Place the dough in the fridge overnight.
- For the poppy seed filling, remove six tablespoons of the milk and mix it with the custard powder, salt and sugar. Bring the rest of the milk to a boil, remove from the heat and gradually stir in the ground poppy seeds and the custard mixture. Bring the poppy seed mixture to the boil again briefly, then remove from the heat, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Day 2
- Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide into two parts. Roll out the first half into a rectangle using a rolling pin*. The dough should not be too thin, otherwise it will tear when rolled up.
- Spread half of the pudding and poppy seed filling on the rectangle, sprinkle with optional dried cranberries and form a roll.
- Cut the roll in half lengthwise and twist the halves together.
- Either place the braided brioche on a baking tray or in a greased loaf tin*. Repeat the process with the second half of the dough. Cover the poppy seed braids and leave to proof for one to two hours.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees using a steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven dish* and lava stones*.
- Bake the brioche for 15 minutes with steam and 25 minutes without steam until golden brown.
- For the sugar syrup, mix boiling water with the same amount of sugar. Spread the hot syrup on the still hot loaf.
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