Step 1

Place the wet ingredients (except butter) into the pan, and then making an island on top with the flour. Make a well in the flour for each of the other dry ingredients, including sugar, salt and yeast.

Step 2

Set the bread machine to "basic white" and turn it on for a loaf of bread (or select the dough cycle if you intend to shape and bake the brioche in the oven).

Step 3

Wait until 10 minutes into the knead cycle so that the dough is mixed and fully formed. Often bread machines will have a mix in timer that goes off after 10 minutes of kneading, but if not, set a timer. Some bread machines start kneading immediately, and some go through a pre-heat cycle. Either way, most knead cycles are about 20 minutes long, so wait until it's been kneading for 10 minutes.

Step 4

Open the lid and add in the pats of butter while the machine kneads, keeping your hands and impliemnts away from the paddles, just gently drop the butter in.  Add them one at a time, allowing the bread maker to completely incorporate the previous one before adding another. This should take 1 to 2 minutes total, be patient.  Do not add all the butter at once, it wont mix in properly.

Step 5

Once the butter is fully incorporated, close the lid and allow the bread machine to keep kneading.  It'll finish, and then go on to the rise cycle.

Step 6

Allow the bread machine to finish its cycle, either for a fully baked loaf of brioche or for the dough. If baking in the bread machine, open the lid when baking is finished and allow the bread to cool slightly for 5-10 minutes before removing it from the pan to cool completely on a rack on the counter.