Brioche au Chocolat

Food blogging has definitely gotten me a lot more interested in baking. I considered baking a lost cause before, but for no real reason. It's now something that I've been doing every week, nearly daily. What got me wanting to make a Viennoiserie was the fact that I don't eat breakfast. I've been complaining to Olivia that all this campus needs is a bakery, and a deli, and I would never leave. I'd be completely fine with this god forsaken city if I could just get a nice pastry or bread, without having to drive in a car (which I don't have). Thankfully I now have a full service bakery in my apartment thanks to these babies (aka my hands).

I decided to create a breakfast pastry bread called a Brioche. While it's not exactly a breakfast bread, it is eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, but it's not a kind of bread you eat with a meal. A couple slices of brioche and coffee in the morning and you might as well puke because you're already going to have a great day. I chose a chocolate brioche because A. I love chocolate and B. Chocolate and bread is the greatest. Pain au chocolat is a popular French bread and this is basically pain au chocolat because pain means bread in French, although that particular bread is a bit more flaky. A brioche is characterized by its eggs, milk, and lots of butter. Three things that guarantee deliciousness in a bread. If you can't think of something that would taste like this, imagine a sweeter Challah with a softer texture, and a swirl of chocolate throughout. Oh and I made sure to add instructions for all of y'all out there who miss them :)!

Here is the ingredients list:

• 2 cups of flour (more for dusting)
• 7 tablespoons of softened  unsalted butter (if you do use salted butter, omit the salt)
• 2 eggs, 1 egg for egg wash
• 1 tbsp of instant yeast
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup warm milk (I had to use water because I am poor and don't have any milk, it still tasted fine)
• 1 tsp of salt
• Large handful of chocolate chips

1. Mix the flour and yeast in a large bowl.

2. Pour in the warm milk and combine slowly until everything is dissolved.

3. Add the sugar and the salt next and combine.

4. Start adding the butter a bit at a time while mixing the whole time.

5. Next add the two eggs one at a time. Again, make sure you're mixing the whole time.

If your mixture is too runny, keep adding flour a bit at a time until it looks like this. By the way, if you're adding more flour, make sure that you actually let it be combined each time. This is what it should look like.

Let this dough rise in a warm place for about two hours. It should look like this.

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes and here comes the special part. The adding of the chocolate. Yum.

What you're going to want to do here is roll out the dough so it's a long flat rectangle. Place your chocolate chips on the dough and then roll it up so it will fit in a bread pan.

Sick.

This is what your bread should look like in a bread pan. Let it sit in this pan and proof (rise again) for about 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350. 

Once your bread is done proofing score it three times. Crack that last egg into a cup and mix it up. This is your egg wash. Get a brush and brush the egg wash on top of the bread and stick it in the oven. It should cook for about 20-30 minutes. There you go! Brioche really is delicious and guess what, I have a secret....(I'm making some more right now)