I love brioche and I have written about it on many occasions on this very blog. It took me a really long time to find what I consider to be the best brioche recipe and I truly believe that once you find a good base recipe, you may as well stop looking and just continue to work with that recipe for all of your flavour experiments. Like this chocolate chip and creme patissiere brioche.
I now have a few trusted recipes that I always use, there is Julie Jones‘ sweet shortcrust pastry, a perfect choux pastry recipe by Edd Kimber and this brioche adapted from Justin Gellatly.
One of the things that can be a bit annoying about brioche is how quickly it dries out. The bread really needs to be eaten within 24 hours to be at its best. Obviously you can use the brioche for eggy bread or bread and butter pudding once it gets a bit tired.
This chocolate chip and creme patissiere brioche however stays soft and fluffy for a couple of days if stored in an airtight container. This is because of the creme patissiere filling which enriches it even further when cooking because it bakes into the dough.
You really need to bake this brioche, the tear and share makes it fun to eat and it looks really impressive to feed a crowd.
Chocolate Chip & Creme Patissiere Brioche
Equipment
- 23cm Round Cake Tin
Ingredients
- ***Brioche Dough***
- 500 g Strong White Bread Flour
- 6 g Fine Salt
- 7 g Fast Action Dried Yeast
- 30 g Caster Sugar
- 7 Eggs 1 for egg wash
- 250 g Unsalted Butter Softened
- 100 g Dark Chocolate Chips Guittard
- ***Creme Patissiere***
- 250 ml Whole Milk
- 1 tsp Unsalted Butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 50 g Granulated Sugar
- 20 g Corn flour
- 1 tbsp Plain Flour
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Extract
Instructions
- Place the flour, salt, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a food mixer with the dough hook fitted.
- Crack the eggs into a jug and mix with a fork, then pour this into the flour mixture and beat on a slow speed for 6-8 minutes until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl.
- Take the butter and cut it into cubes and slowly add it to the mixer beating on medium speed until all of the butter has been incorporated. Make sure the butter has been mixed in before adding the next lot.
- Mix on medium-high for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic and pulled away from the sides.
- Place a towel or some cling-film over the bowl and leave it to prove for two hours or until doubled in size.
- Then knock back the dough by knocking the air out of it and giving it a light knead.
- Cover the bowl again with Clingfilm and place in the fridge overnight to rest.
- Next make the creme patissiere, put the milk, vanilla and butter in a saucepan and bring them to a boil.
- In another bowl mix the egg yolks, sugar, corn flour and plain flour together until pale in colour.
- Gently pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir the whole time to combine and make sure the eggs don't cook. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir or whisk until the creme patissiere is thickened. Taste a tiny amount to make sure all of the flour has been cooked off.
- Place in a bowl and cover with cling-film, pressing it on to the surface of the creme patissiere and place it in the fridge to cool.
- Take the brioche from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it measures roughly 45 cm x 30 cm and is about 1-1.5cm thick.
- Whisk the creme patissiere to loosen it and then spread it evenly over the brioche, leave a couple of cm gap along one long edge so that the creme patissiere doesn't spill out when you roll it up.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the dough and then roll the dough up to form a large swiss roll, trim the ends. You can still use these, but not as part of the finished bread. You should be able to cut the dough into 9 strips after it has been trimmed.
- Grease the 23cm tin and place one brioche in the middle and arrange the other 8 around the edge, you may need to squeeze them in a little.
- Cover the brioche lightly with cling-film and allow it to prove until doubled in size, probably about 3 hours as the dough will be cold from the fridge.
- Then preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark and glaze with beaten egg yolk mixed with a few drops of warm water, bake for 35 mins, or until golden and crunchy to the touch.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
S
I don’t understand step 11 – do you mean there shouldn’t be a gap between the mixture and cling film? Thank you in advance ☺️
patisseriemakesperfect
Yes – that’s exactly what I mean, this means a skin cannot form on the creme patissiere. Also if there is still some warmth in it when you place the creme patissiere in the fridge, this stops any air being trapped and turning to condensation. it’s a really useful tip! Anything else, let me know.
Annie Kruntcheva
I just made this for Easter and it turned out amazing!! Handling and kneading the slippery dough was a bit difficult without an electric mixer but it was good exercise to offset all the brioche eating. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
patisseriemakesperfect
Wow I am impressed. I tried to make `brioche once without a stand mixer and it was hard work! well done. So glad you enjoyed this.
Miss Amy-Grace Enzer
Could I leave the dough in the fridge for over 18 hours, say if I wanted to keep half the mixture for another time? If so for how long?
patisseriemakesperfect
the dough is really forgiving, it could probably take that long, but you’d want to cover it well so no moisture couldn’t get in. Also the longer you leave it in the fridge, the longer the proving time to rise. Enjoy!
Miss Amy-Grace Enzer
Hello thank you, in the end I’ve used half the dough to make a cinnamon swirl brioche! Thank you
patisseriemakesperfect
ooh that sounds delicious – enjoy the bread.