Chocolate Swirl Brioche Buns

So many layers of buttery brioche and chocolate!

I couldn’t have asked for these rolls to turn out any better.  The recipe for this chocolatey enriched bread comes from my Secret Recipe Club assigned blog, C Mom Cook.  Shelley’s blog is full of so many wonderful recipes and I aspire to create a sourdough starter and create so many of the wonderful looking recipes she has that use a sourdough starter….sourdough chocolate chip cookies?!?

What caught my eye right away though were the gorgeous swirly chocolatey brioche buns!

I wouldn’t say that these were difficult to make but they definitely had a good number of steps and take some time and patience.

First step is making a sponge,

next you mix the dough with the sponge and it gets quite tough, then you work the butter in, I found that this was much easier to knead by hand than in my kitchen aid, the machine sounded like it was really working hard so I finished kneading by hand.

The dough then needs to chill, you have to make the chocolate layer/filling and let that chill over night as well.

Next there is some folding and rolling of dough (I hadn’t cooked my chocolate filling enough so it was pretty gooey when I assembled the buns but aside from the mess they still turned out pretty good.)

After this, you slice, rise the buns and then bake!

The finished product is not too sweet, and if they last longer than a day in your house they slice and toast up beautifully!

Chocolate Swirl Brioche Buns recipe from C Mom Cook (from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice)

for the sponge:

1/2 cup bread flour (i used all purpose)

2 teaspoons yeast

1/2 cup milk, lukewarm

for the dough:

all of the prepared sponge (above)

5 large eggs, slightly beaten

3 cups bread flour (I used all purpose flour)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature cut into small cubes.

Chocolate Filling

2/3 cup milk

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons butter

To make the Sponge, whisk together the flour, yeast and milk and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside for 45 minutes.

To the sponge, mix in the eggs, sugar, salt and flour.  The dough will be quite tough to mix once everything is combined.  Knead this for 2 minutes and let the dough rest for 5 minutes to develop the gluten.

Once rested, gradually work the cubed butter in by kneading about 1/4 cup at a time.   Once the butter is incorporated into the dough, add the next bit until eventually all of the butter has been kneaded in to the dough.    Continue to knead the dough until it is quite soft and smooth, this may take some time (6-10 minutes)

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and stretch and roll the dough into a large rectangle.   Give the dough a spritz of oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Chill for 4 hours or overnight.

While the dough is chilling you can also prepare the chocolate filling.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a boil.  In a bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg whites.  To the sugar/egg white mixture, mix in the flour and cocoa.  The mixture will be quite thick.

Once the milk is boiling, slowly whisk small amounts of milk into the bowl  of chocolate mixture to temper the eggs.

Once the milk has been combined to the chocolate mixture, transfer everything back to the pot and whisk over medium heat until the mixture becomes very thick (think chocolate pudding)  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.

Line a small pan (half the size of the dough chilling on the sheet pan) with plastic wrap.   Spread the chocolate mixture over the plastic wrap and chill until set.

To Assemble: (Shelley’s blog has great photos of this  if you’re more of a visual learner, *I also copied some of her direction word for word for folding the dough…it’s a bit difficult to describe any other way!)

Remove the dough and the chocolate from the fridge.

Place the chocolate on top of the dough and fold the dough over the chocolate, pinching to seal the seams. ( If your chocolate is runny, spread it on the dough and try to make sure you have no air bubbles when you fold it over….it will get messy!)

Roll this into a larger rectangle

*Roll the filled-dough into a long rectangle, then each edge into the middle, then fold the dough in half, so you will see four edges on the folded side. This is called a tour double.

*Repeat this procedure again, rolling the folded dough into a long rectangle once again, then folding another tour double.

Roll the re-folded dough once again into a long rectangle (about 12″ x 8″).

Starting from a long side, roll the dough up onto itself to form a log.

Using a sharp knife, or dental floss, cut the log into 12 rolls.

Place rolls cut side up in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cover with plastic wrap or a lint free towel and set aside to rise until doubled in bulk 45-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake rolls 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Click the link to view the other great submissions from Secret Recipe Club Group B members!

Enjoy!