My parent’s home was always filled with the wonderful and delicious aromas of baked goods. My Mom always made bread and these were the days before bread machines! She would start the process shortly after dinner, making the bread for the following days. Mostly she would bake it when we kids had already gone to bed teasing our senses as we drifted off to sleep, but on occasion it would be in the oven while we were still up, the gorgeous aroma of home made-bread wafting throughout the house. Sometimes we could have a warm slice slathered with butter, but most often not. During the holidays my Mom made the most special bread, chocolate brioche! I can’t even begin to describe the incredible aroma that it made throughout the house. Now that bread was always cut into the night it was baked! I’ve not had this type of bread outside our home before but years ago at a Club Med in Mexico — I think the chef must have been French. It was such a delicious surprise when they served the chocolate brioche for breakfast most days.
I baked these brioche braids for New Year’s Day breakfast, it was to be a feast of delicacies, but plans changed and we had it toasted with butter. And now I have a loaf in the freezer taunting me. Against better judgement, it will likely be defrosted and eaten toasted or lightly warmed with sweet butter dripping from its crispy edges…slice after slice until there is no more. But the memory will remain.
Please excuse the winter evening photos, no matter what I do in Photoshop, they just cannot be helped.
Chocolate Brioche
Makes 3 relatively good sized braids. Original recipe was modified from Baking with Julia.
Ingredients for the dough:
- 1 1/2 tbsp dry yeast
- 1/2 cup tepid water (80°F to 90°F)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar + a pinch, divided
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 6 – 6 1/2 cups all purpose, unbleached flour
- 2 tbsp skim milk powder
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- non-stick cooking spray or 2 tbsp melted butter
Ingredients for the glaze:
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp cold water or heavy cream
Directions:
- Spray two large mixing bowls with non-stick cooking spray, or rub with butter and set aside.
- Whisk the yeast into the water with a pinch of sugar in a measuring cup and allow to bubble up, about 5 minutes.
- Heat the milk with 1/3 cup granulated sugar and the cubed butter until warm to touch and the butter has entirely melted. Stir in the salt until melted. Allow this mixture to cool to 110°F.
- Pour the milk mixture into the large stand mixer bowl attached with a whisk and add the eggs one at a time, add the milk powder, mixing well to combine. You should have about 4 cups of liquid. Divide into two portions of about 2 cups each and set one portion aside.
- Add 2 1/2 cups of flour to the portion at hand and beat on low with your cookie dough paddle for about 3 minutes or until it comes together. Now switch to the bread dough paddle and add as much flour as needed (I was able to add another cup), kneading on medium low speed to make a soft dough that is clean off the sides of the bowl. Now knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to one of the bowls that has been spray with non-stick cooking spray or rubbed with melted butter. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm dark place to double in size (1 or 1 1/2 hours).
- Sift 2 cups of flour with the unsweetened cocoa and icing sugar. Retrieve the second portion of the liquid and add the sifted flour, cocoa and icing sugar and beat on low for about 3 minutes or until it comes together. Add as much flour as needed (I was able to add another cup), kneading on medium low speed to make a soft dough that is clean off the sides of the bowl. Now knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to the other bowl that has been spray with non-stick cooking spray or rubbed with melted butter. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm dark place to double in size (1 or 1 1/2 hours).
- When dough has doubled in size (both the chocolate and the plain versions) punch down and deflate them. Cover again and allow to rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Divide the plain, white dough in 4 equal portions (I find a scale very helpful) and roll into approximately 16″ lengths. Divide the chocolate dough into 5 equal portions. For 2 of the 3 loaves, take two chocolate portions and one plain portion, for one of the braids take 2 plain portions and one chocolate portion. Braid from the centre to each end, fixing each end well beneath the braid to make a nice neat end. Place on lined baking sheet and allow to rest for 40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Combine the egg and cold water or heavy cream and mix well. Brush each braid with the glaze and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the expansion joints of the braid and return to bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. If they brown too quickly, cover browning parts with a little piece of foil.
- Cool before slicing. This can be frozen in an air tight plastic bag for about 1 month. Stale slices of this bread makes excellent French toast or Bread Pudding!
[…] baked this old favourite. Plus the aroma is intoxicating. It is an old recipe that I posted in 2012 here but I remade it with a small addition and reduced it to one loaf so I thought I’d post the […]
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[…] and we would continue to play with our new things while Mom made a beautiful breakfast with kuglof and home made jam. Christmas Day was usually quiet at our house, we hung around in our jammies, […]
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I love the design of the braid as well.. but you had me at “chocolate”!! I couldn’t walk past a freezer with one of these brioche in there calling to me:D I would be snacking and munching breakfast, noon and at bedtime! It sounds like your mom was also quite the chef and baker.. isn’t it wonderful how they inspire us? xx
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Hi Barbara, yes it is indeed very wonderful; I wish my dear Mom would have been able to see the blog, she would have loved it.
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Love that shine on your brioche bread. Chocolate and plain, twisted, what a great idea.
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Hi Bam, thank you so much.
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That does look very good Eva – but damn, don’t show me any more baked goodies… I still have your pretzel bread (is that what it was?) pinned and hopefully will give it a try on the weekend – really looking forward to that! Perhaps this one afterwards?
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Hi Charles, yes it was the pretzel bread. I’m wondering if you made it? I’d love your comments.
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No, not yet – things got away from me recently and so now I’m playing catch-up but soon, soon! I’ll let you know, for sure!
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How wonderful it would have been to wake up to this delicious treat Eva! Thank you for sharing the recipe with us 😀
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Hi Lorraine, it is surely a heavenly aroma in the house whilst baking. Thank you for your kind words.
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oh my these look divine bet you were popular
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Thank you so much Rebecca, and welcome to my blog.
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Oh, those braids look absolutely delicious! I bet they do make the house smell lovely! It’s my kind of potpourri !
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Thanks Mimi, very nice of you to say.
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I love, love braided bread…and your two toned version looks amazing! And brioche is one of my favorites…why have I never made a chocolate version???
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Hi Liz, thank you for your lovely comment. It’s really such a tasty bread, I would definitely recommend it.
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These look delicious!!
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Thank you so much Ali, welcome to my blog.
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Oh my goodness, I definitely have to experience this bread. The aroma alone would be worth it — next holiday perhaps — it definitely has a wow appeal. So nice that your mom filled your home and your spirit with such loving memories. That is part of the pleasure and beauty of cooking for me, being able to relive precious moments and memories, thinking of those we love. Beautiful braided brioche Eva.
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Thank you so much Kelly. You’ve definitely hit the emotional button for me that is all about cooking and baking — those wonderful childhood memories it brings back. Your boys are very fortunate that you continue this lovely tradition for their memories.
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I can only imagine what life must have been like with that aroma wafting through the house and not being able to have a piece of that bread. I’m glad she let you cut into the chocolate bread right away. I want to make some right now.
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Thank you so much Maureen, it’s such a nice aroma to wake up to and come home to!
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I would love to wake up to your beautifully braided bread, could eat quite a few slices (no wonder I have a weight issue).
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Hi Norma, I hear you loud and clear and certainly can understand where you’re coming from, I have similar issues!
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Eva, your braids look beautiful even before they’re baked and the combination of plain and chocolate doughs make for a stunning presentation. Like an earlier poster, I have attempted making challah bread and though good, it was just never AS good/soft as what I could buy at my local bakery so, in the interest of using my cooking time most productively, I stopped trying. 🙂 Perhaps one day, I’ll give this brioche a try.
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Hi Maria, the machine kneading is what I think makes this bread, I don’t think I’ve ever achieved this texture by hand kneading. It sounds like you have a very good bakery near by, I haven’t seen anything quite like this in our bakeries, but I’d surely try it if I did.Thank you for your very generous compliment.
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I am lucky to live close to some pretty good bakeries.
I was only able to make good ciabatta with my bread machine as well. When I tried it by hand, it was a big disappointment. My stand mixer isn’t strong enough to knead bread as I learned when I tried to make the strudel dough in it. Of course, my mom could make strudel dough by hand so it’s probably just technique. Still, I’ll just buy the occasional strudel/borek when I get a craving, I guess.
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Probably a good way to control how much you have of it too, only buying when you have a craving! The stand mixer sure does come in handy. Next to my stick blender, it’s probably the second most used small appliance in the kitchen.
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Eva, I can just imagine the delicious aromas wafting through the house! Yummy!
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Thanks so much Liz, it’s a lovely way to wake up in the morning.
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Absolutely amazing. Doesn’t heed photoshop it’s so good. They make want to go and get my pans out now.
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Thank you so much David, that is very nice of you to comment. They are indeed a tasty treat, we’ve been relatively good and there is still one more in the freezer, waiting for an overnight guest to thaw it out.
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Stunning is a word that comes to mind. 🙂 Would love to have a slice with my tea right now.
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Hi Betsy, thank you so very much for your flattering words. This bread would indeed be very lovely toasted with sweet butter and tea! Hope you are having a wonderful week.
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Eva, I have tried baking hallah several times. Always a failure… and my braids were always so clumsy… Your brioches look so exquisite! So neat and perfectly raised ! (I wonder what is the difference between your brioche and hallah because in France brioche is rarely braided – then it’s called “brioche tressée” at least from my experience – and the main difference is that it’s fattier and sweeter than hallah I had in Hungary and that we have in Poland, which is better with butter jam etc. The texture of French brioche is also a bit different from the Polish/Hungarian braided thing which is softer and looks more like your beauties).
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Hi Sissi, indeed the Hungarian sweet dough is a lot softer and less dense than the French versions, I just didn’t know what to call it, I can’t recall what my dear Mom used to call her bread so long ago.
I have always had reasonably good luck with my yeast breads, not that I haven’t had some odd looking ones and some distinct failures! My dear Mom used to braid her chocolate bread so that is why I braided this one too. Thank you, as always for your lovely words they are much appreciated.
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I’m glad because I prefer the Hungarian/Jewish/Polish version 🙂 I made once the French brioche. My husband loved it, but I found it so greasy, sweet and heavy, I thought it wasn’t worth my effort. (It was easier though!).
The only yeast stuff I have always been lucky with is pizza (rather the homemade ersatz…) and Polish doughnuts (but I have my mum’s precious advice and I use partly her recipe here, so I suppose I just wasn’t lucky with hallah recipes until now… my mum has never made it).
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Yes, they are irresistible…just like you, my sweet Eva.
Have a good day!
Angie
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Thanks Angie! I appreciate your comments!
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