When I was home a month or so ago, I tried this recipe. It was a disaster! I didn’t thicken the filling enough, so I was basically trying to roll a dough filled with pudding, and then when I’d nearly muddled through, I went outside to meet a repair man and my dad’s dogs stole and ate the entire thing, leaving a surprisingly clean floor and counter.

Who, me?! *Burp*

This time I gave the filling time to actually work, and my mom’s dog is too scared of the kitchen to come steal anything, so it turned out great! The best thing was finishing it watching Paris-Roubaix (a bike race), and seeing my favorite ridiculous bike-stuff ad about a million times. Thanks, Eurosport!

Ingredients:

Sponge:

• 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon or 1 packet yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk

Dough:

• 5 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Chocolate Filling:

• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons butter

Chocolate Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 tablespoons milk

Now, I know that’s a whole lot of ingredient sections, but with the possible exception of bread flour, you probably already have it all, so…why not go for it?!

Start off by preparing the sponge. Combine all the sponge ingredients in the bowl of a mixer, or another large bowl, and stir until the flour is all moistened. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 30-45 minutes.

While you wait you can make the chocolate filling. You don’t have to, as both parts get refrigerated overnight before use anyway, but you might as well be productive!

Mix the egg whites and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour and cocoa powder until evenly mixed.

Heat the milk to a boil on the stove. You can start this while you combine the egg/sugar/flour/cocoa mess, just be sure not to start so early that the milk starts to burn. When the milk has reached a boil, drizzle it over the cocoa mixture, whisking as you do so that the eggs in it don’t cook. Because the cocoa mixture is so thick, I had to add a bit of milk at a time, whisking after each addition, until the mixture was thinned enough to not just clump up in the whisk immediately. Keep whisking until it’s a smooth liquidy mixture.

Pour the chocolate mixture back into the pot you heated the milk in and cook over medium heat, constantly stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot, until it thickens. You don’t just want a slightly thicker liquid, you actually want it to come together a bit in clumps. Don’t turn the heat up above medium, or you might still cook the eggs, just give it a few minutes, and keep stirring, and it will start to do what you want. Once it’s started thickening, add the butter. Keep stirring until the butter has melted and is evenly mixed in the thickened chocolate mixture.

Take the thickened mixture off the stove. Line a baking dish (I used a 1 quart bread pan) with saran wrap and spread the chocolate into the dish. Cover with more plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, ideally overnight.

It should look this thick when you take it off the stove, don't expect a liquid to set significantly in the fridge.

Once the chocolate mixture is out of the way, return to your dough sponge, which should by now look something like this:

Add the eggs to the sponge and beat together on medium speed to combine.

In another bowl, combine the bread flour, sugar, and salt. Add the dried goods to the egg mixture and beat until evenly combined, about 2 minutes. If you don’t have a dough hook, you’re going to have to stop your mixer several times to help it out and scrape down the sides. If you don’t have a mixer at all…get kneading! Add the butter, several tablespoons at a time, beating until one chunk is fully incorporated before adding another. After the last chunk of butter, beat/knead several more minutes until the dough is well mixed, smooth, and soft.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray the parchment with baking spray. Seriously, don’t assume your parchment is non-stick enough. Spread the dough out on the greased parchment in a thick rectangle, roughly 6X8″. Spray the top of the dough with more baking spray, cover it with saran wrap, and put it in the fridge at least 4 hours, or just over night.

In the morning, take the dough out and press it down to degas it. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to be roughly twice as big as your chocolate brick. Put the chocolate in the middle of the dough…

and wrap the dough around the chocolate, sealing up the seams.

Roll the dough out in the direction it’s already longer, making it longer still.

Fold the ends in to meet in the middle.

Fold that in half, making a sort of book shaped thing. This fold process is apparently called a tour double.

Roll it out again, using the newly longer direction as your long side and rolling it out longer.

Fold again, doing another tour double. Roll out a third time, making a roughly 14X8″ rectangle. (That’s a very rough guess! Any rectangle at least 12″ long should be ok.) You can really see the chocolate well through the thin layer of dough.

Roll the dough up lengthwise, to make a long roll.

Cut into 12 even pieces.

Put the pieces into a well greased muffin tin, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise 30-45 minutes.

While the dough rises, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover, and bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove to a wire rack to cool. I was able to pull these out of the baking pan by hand immediately without them falling apart or burning me. You can eat them now, and indeed, the recipe I was following ends there.

They do look nice!

I wanted a bit more chocolate flavor, though, so made a glaze. Once the cooked buns are well cooled, whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the buns for extra chocolateyness!

I mean...why wouldn't you??

I’ll be submitting this to yeastspotting, which continues to be a grand place to find bread recipes!

Chocolate Swirl Brioche Buns

Adapted from C Mom Cook.

Sponge:

• 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon or 1 packet yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk

Dough:

• 5 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Chocolate Filling:

• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons butter

Chocolate Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 tablespoons milk

Prepare the sponge by combining all the sponge ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and stirring until the flour is all moistened. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 30-45 minutes.While you wait, make the chocolate filling.

Mix the egg whites and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour and cocoa powder until evenly mixed. Heat the milk to a boil on the stove and then drizzle heated milk over egg mixture, whisking constantly to keep the eggs from cooking. Whisk until a smooth liquid, then pour into milk pot and put back on the stove over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens, then add butter. Continue stirring until butter has melted and been evenly mixed in, then remove from heat. Transfer to a saran-lined baking dish, cover with more plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, preferably overnight.

Pick your sponge back up and beat the eggs in on medium speed.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a separate bowl and then add to the egg/sponge mixture. Beat until evenly combined, about 2 minutes. Add the butter 1/4 cup at a time, beating until well combined after each addition. Beat several minutes further after the last addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl several times, until well mixed, smooth, and soft.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray the parchment with baking spray. Spread the dough out on the greased parchment in a thick rectangle, roughly 6X8″. Spray the top of the dough with more baking spray, cover it with saran wrap, and put it in the fridge at least 4 hours, or over night.

In the morning, take the dough out and press it down to degas it. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to be roughly twice as big as your chocolate brick. Put the chocolate in the middle of the dough and wrap the dough around the chocolate, pressing to seal up the seams.

Roll the dough out in the direction it’s already longer, making it longer still. Fold the ends in to meet in the middle, then fold in half so the two new doubled ends meet. Roll out again in the new longer direction, and again fold the ends into the middle, then fold in half.

Roll out a third time, making a roughly 14X8″ rectangle. Roll the dough up lengthwise, to make a long roll. Cut into 12 even pieces. Put the pieces into a well greased muffin tin, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise 30-45 minutes.

While the dough rises, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover, and bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the buns if desired.