No-Knead Pumpkin Brioche Bread

A soft and pumpkin-colored brioche, with a buttery taste and no need to knead! Follow this recipe and get the best pumpkin brioche bread with almost zero effort.

I have a delicious no-knead onion focaccia that's just perfect for fall!

Let me start by saying you should probably double your recipe: one loaf is too little bread. This pumpkin bread is so delicious it won’t last a day in your counter. If yours do, please teach me how.

This is the easiest ever brioche recipe made with melted butter and no need to knead, but because of that, it takes some time. After mixing the ingredients, the dough will need to rest for 24 hours so it can have a good gluten development even without the kneading part.

But this pumpkin brioche is worth every waiting minute. It’s a magical pumpkin bread and the perfect addition to your fall recipe collection, trust me.

Why Bake It

• There’s no need to knead the dough - like my lazy sandwich bread;
• This is the best pumpkin bread you’ll ever bake;
• IT IS SO FLUFFY;
• It goes great with butter, jam, soup, sandwiches, practically everything;
• Works great as a gift - and your friends are totally gonna ask for the recipe!

Can You Taste Pumpkin In This Brioche?

Being honest, you can’t really feel the pumpkin when eating this brioche. Yes, if you’re mindfully eating, you can say is there, but it’s a very subtle flavor.

The color this vegetable gives to this bread is incredible, though. The crumb has a festive, magnificent bright orange that matches perfectly with fall season. Plus, the vegetable is great for justifying the extra slices you’ll want to eat.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Bread Flour. Prefer bread flour to all-purpose flour: it gives your brioche more structure. That said, this pumpkin brioche also works with all-purpose flour only. If you want to add more fiber to your diet, you can replace ⅓ of the amount of white flour for whole wheat flour. Don’t use whole wheat only or you might end up with a too dense brioche.

Butter. Use melted butter. For a dairy-free brioche, you can substitute for margarine.

Eggs. Organic eggs give an even brighter orange color to the dough.

Yeast. Use instant yeast.

Salt. Fine sea salt works for this recipe. Don’t add it on top of yeast when mixing the ingredients.

Sugar. White granulated, caster sugar, or any brown sugar, works for this recipe.

Pumpkin Puree. Measure it carefully. It’s better to use a scale, but if you don’t have one, don’t overfill the cup. Level it before adding. Adding more than the amount the recipe asks for will make your dough too sticky to work with.

How To Make It

Who doesn’t love brioche? To me it’s one of the best breads out there: soft, buttery, perfect enough to eat by itself. No needing to knead the dough only makes it better!

Now you could be thinking: brioche is so hard to make and sooo time consuming, this is not easy at all! That’s not the case here. I’ve baked this loaf many times, and I can assure you: if you follow all the steps, this bread can’t go wrong.

1. Making the dough. In one large bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Using a medium bowl, do the same with wet ingredients. Combine both and mix until the dough is formed and no dry spots remain. Leave dough fermenting covered at room temperature for 1 hour and 30 minutes. If opting to fold, do it 3 times, with 30 minutes intervals between each folding.

2. First rise. Cover your dough well and store it in a fridge for 16 to 24 hours. Cold fermentation will let the flavors develop more, as well as the gluten. I usually let mine rising inside the fridge for 24 hours. Don’t forget to cover it so dough won’t develop a skin.

3. Shaping. Next day, deflate the dough and divide it into 3 equal parts. If the dough is too sticky, wet your hands to work with it. Shape each piece into a tight ball and place it in a lined loaf pan.

4. Second rise and baking. Let it rise for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until dough doubles and looks fluffy. Preheat oven 20 minutes before baking, 350° F. Bake brioche for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden on top. Your kitchen will have a wonderful brioche smell when ready.

About 20 minutes after you put the dough in the oven, this brioche will fill your house with the most amazing buttery pumpkin aroma. I have to say, it’ll be hard not to eat a slice straight out of the oven, but try to let it rest for at least an hour before attacking.

Tips For Getting The Best Pumpkin Brioche

• Don’t forget to preheat your oven before starting! It needs to be in the right temperature for this recipe to work.

• If after mixing your dough is too sticky to fold, add ¼ cup more of bread/all-purpose flour. You can see more clearly the consistency the dough should have in the recipe’s video.

• Wet your hands if you find too hard to work with the dough.

• If using cups to measure ingredients, scoop correctly flour. Add flour to the cup with a spoon, instead of scooping it directly, and don’t forget to level it. Also, be careful with pumpkin puree: adding more than this recipe asks for might give you a too wet dough.

• Wait for it to cool before slicing. Your bread is still cooking when out of the oven, so wait for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Why Fold The Dough

Folding during the first rise is optional, but if you have the time to do it, do it. Folding gives more structure to this bread, as does dividing the loaf in 3 equal parts before baking and using bread flour instead of all-purpose.

But why folding the dough help?

When we knead the dough, we help it develop gluten, which is what gives structure and strength to our bread. This brioche dough needs its gluten well-developed to rise properly and have the perfect texture.

So, when we don’t use a kneading method, our bread needs all the help it can get. Time is one thing that helps (yeah, when the dough is resting and you’re doing absolutely nothing, gluten is still developing).

But one other thing that gives the dough a big help is folding it. When you fold the dough, the gluten strands align and stretch, strengthening even more. Consider doing it if you want to end up with a fluffier and well-risen bread.

If opting to do so, you’ll need to fold the dough only 3 times during the first rise, before starting the cold fermentation. Do it with 30-minute intervals between each folding. After the last folding, cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 24 hours in your fridge.

Storing and Freezing

After it cools completely (about 3 to 4 hours), store it in a bread keeper, or in an airtight recipient, to keep your loaf from drying out. It keeps for about 5 days if stored correctly.

To freeze, slice your pumpkin brioche and put inside a freezer-safe bag, pushing out as much air as possible. Seal it and store in your freezer. Brioche bread keeps well in the freezer for up to 2 months.

To reheat, put in a toaster, or let it thaw and use an oven on 300° F for about 5 minutes.

Ready to bake a gorgeous orange pumpkin brioche loaf?

More Pumpkin Baking Recipes

📖 Recipe

Pumpkin Brioche Bread

Tatiana Kamakura

A soft and pumpkin-colored brioche, with a buttery taste and no need to knead! Follow this recipe and get the best pumpkin brioche bread with almost zero effort. The easiest no knead brioche recipe you'll ever find.

4.97 from 32 votes

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Additional Time 16 hours hrs

Total Time 19 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Course Bread

Cuisine French

Servings 1 loaf

Calories 218 kcal

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 8 tablespoon butter melted (1 stick, 110g)
• ▢ 2 ½ cup bread flour 330g
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon instant dry yeast 7g
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon salt 7g
• ▢ 3 tablespoon sugar 36g
• ▢ 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 240g
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 1 egg yolk to glaze optional

Instructions

 

• Melt the butter. For 8 tablespoons, 40 to 45 seconds in the microwave should be enough.
• In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
• In a medium bowl, mix wet ingredients: melted butter, pumpkin puree and eggs.
• Combine both and mix until the dough is formed and no dry spots remain. Cover dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap and leave it fermenting at room temperature for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Fold it 3 times, with 30-minute intervals between each folding.
• Store the dough inside a refrigerator for 16 to 24 hours. Don’t forget to cover it well so it won’t develop a hard skin.
• The next day, deflate the dough and divide it into 3 equal parts. If the dough is too sticky, wet your hands to work with it. Shape each piece into a tight ball by folding the edges towards the center until you can form a ball with each piece of dough.
• Place dough balls side by side in a greased and lined loaf pan.
• Let dough rise for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until it doubles and looks fluffy and feels lighter. Preheat oven for 20 minutes, 350° F, before baking.
• Brush an egg yolk on top of dough before baking (optional) to give a deeper golden brown color to the brioche.
• Bake pumpkin brioche for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden on top.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes before removing bread from loaf pan. Let it cool on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Video

Notes

Don’t forget to preheat your oven before starting.

If after mixing your dough is too sticky to fold, add ¼ cup more of bread/all-purpose flour. You can see more clearly the consistency the dough should have in the recipe’s video.

Wet your hands if you find too hard to work with the dough.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 218kcalCarbohydrates: 28gProtein: 5gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 366mgFiber: 1gSugar: 6g

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!