brioche au chocolat from joanne chang's flour bakery

i had half a batch of brioche dough from when i made sticky buns sitting in the freezer.  i needed to the freezer space so i looked in joanne chang's flour: spectacular recipes from boston's flour bakery + cafe to find something suitable to make with the other half of the dough.  i love chocolate so i naturally i choose a recipe entitled "brioche au chocolat"

what is this? to put it simply, its chocolate bread.  it takes some advanced preparation but this pastry can be made in 5 simple steps. continue reading to find steps 1 through 4

step 6: enjoy!

step 1: roll out dough

step 2: add pastry cream

step 3: add chocolate

step 4 & 5: let proof in a warm spot for 2ish hours then bake at 350F.

note to myself for next time, try to cut roll the dough as rectangular as possible.  the end pieces came out smaller and odd shaped while the middle pieces were abnormally large.  this unfortunately ended in inconsistent bread textures.  the smaller pieces where tougher while the bigger pieces were dense but fluffy.

brioche au chocolat.

adapted from joanne chang's flour: spectacular recipes from boston's flour bakery + cafe. 

** yields 10 chocolate breads

what you'll need:

• silpat non-stick silicone baking mat
• baking sheet
• towel or plastic wrap
• small bowl
• whisk

ingredients:

• 1/2 brioche dough
• pastry cream
• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 egg

directions:

1. on a floured surface, roll out the brioche to a rectangle sized 20x10 and 1/4 inch thick.
2. position the dough so that the long side is facing you.  spread the pastry cream evenly over the entire surface of the dough.  sprinkle the chocolate chips over the bottom half of the dough - a 20x5 inch section.
3. fold the dough in half, bringing the top section of dough down over the chocolate chips. smoosh it into place. Use a pizza cutter or bench scraper to slice the dough into 2x5 inch pieces.
4. at this point, you can wrap the pastries tightly in plastic wrap and freeze them.  when ready to bake thaw them in the fridge overnight and then continue to the next step.
5. place the pastries on a parchment lined baking sheet a few inches apart and cover loosely with a towel.
6. place in a warm spot to proof for 2-3 hours or until the dough is pillowy. 
7. brush the tops of the pastries with the beaten egg.
8. preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake the pastries for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  let cool on the baking sheet for 30 minutes and serve.
9. store in an airtight container for up to 1 day and rewarm in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes before serving.

final notes:
my chocolate breads came out flatter than i would have liked.  maybe the oven was too warm when i was proofing it.  or maybe i let it cook to long.  but either way the end result was still extremely tasty.  a winner in my book.

<3 BabyBear