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Chocolate Brioche with a salted top and chocolate swirls inside the dough!Chocolate Swirl Brioche

Brioche is one of those breads that’ll make me go to at least three stores to find it. But it’s the best for recipes like bread pudding, french toast and grilled cheese sandwiches (I swear) so the search is usually worth it. But let’s think about how salted chocolate brioche might taste, like yums!

This time I decided to make my own. Making bread is always satisfying with time being the hardest ingredient to find. After all, bread is usually just flour, water, yeast and salt all of which you probably have in the cupboard. But the time it takes to rise and develop into a dough worthy of being ripped apart and drenched in butter is a little more of an antsy period for me. Luckily for times like this I’ll use Quick Rising yeast from Red Star which speeds things up nicely. I adapted this base recipe from Food Wanderings which is now my new go-to recipe for brioche.

chopped chocolate for my Salted Chocolate Swirl Brioche

I planned to make regular brioche, if there even is such a thing when talking about a dough rich with eggs and sugar. But I had some leftover chocolate from making these Valentine’s Day chocolate dipped strawberries so into the dough it went. I waited until after the first rise and rolled the dough out like you would when making cinnamon buns. The chocolate was chopped into slivers and spread all over the sheet of brioche. I rolled the dough back up into a loaf shape and let it rise for a second time, but this time in the baking pan. The final  result was a sweet and salty chocolate bread that made some really good Sunday morning french toast!

Salted Chocolate Swirl Brioche dough ready for the oven

Hand slicing some Chocolate Swirl Brioche

Salted Chocolate Swirl Brioche

 

 

Salted Chocolate Swirl Brioche

Salted Chocolate Swirl Brioche

Prep Time: 3 hours
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 12
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Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 1, 7 gram envelope of Red Star Quick Rising dried yeast
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 oz bar of good dark chocolate 3.5 , chopped
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Instructions

  • In a large bowl mix 2 cups of the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together.
  • Heat the water and butter together in a small pot until warm but not boiling or simmering.
  • Add the water and melted butter mixture to the flour and stir gently, I like to use my hands for this.
  • Add the 4 eggs and stir again. Mix in the remaining flour and stir until the dough all comes together in a ball shape.It'll be soft so you should have some flour for dusting to prevent the dough sticking to the table.
  • Place the brioche dough ball into another bowl which has been lightly greased with some olive oil.
  • Seal and cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof in a fairly warm place if you can.
  • After 2 1/2-3 hours later the dough should be doubled in size. Lift it out onto the table dusted with flour and roll it out into a rectangle about 14 inches long and 8 inches wide.
  • Spread the chopped chocolate onto the dough and start to roll the dough towards you to form a tube shape which will equal the length of your baking tin, a 9 1/2 x 5 inch pan.
  • Grease the pan lightly and set aside.
  • Once it's rolled up, it should fit snugly into the baking pan.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for about 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Once the dough has risen and is about level with the height of the pan, gently glaze the top of the loaf with the egg yolk and sprinkle with the sea salt.
  • Place in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes and the top is a deep golden brown.

Notes

From Food Wanderings, http://www.foodwanderings.com/2012/09/brioche.html#.Uunx2BBdWSo