Chocolate-filled Brioche

So I just came back from San Diego...and I'm officially a member of the UCSD Alumni and the owner of a Bachelor of Science degree! Woohoo! Of course, the excitement is much tempered by the fact that I still have 4 years of medical school and God knows how many years of internship waiting ahead of me. Sigh...like my friend Moonjung's dad said, "sounds more like slave labor than education". Agreed.


But...anyway...let's not burst my bubble for now. WE'RE DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! YAY!!!!!! That's me on the left in the picture with two very incredibly awesome girls. Seriously...I'm so glad that I got to know so many great and wonderful people at UCSD (and of course my awesome friends and family outside of college who kept me going throughout undergrad as well). I feel truly blessed by God.

Man we are so silly :P I love you guys.





Anyway, back to the recipe. I'm thinking of making a French Toast/Bread Pudding hybrid breakfast for Dad on Father's Day (shhh don't tell!) so I need to practice making my brioche first. I found this recipe in Ursula Ferrigno's The New Bread Book.

Chocolate-filled Brioche

Ingredients:

-9 oz (1 4/5 cup) white bread flour
-Pince of salt
-2 tbsp superfine sugar
-1/4 oz fresh yeast, crumbled (or 1 tsp dried yeast)
-1 tbsp room temperature water
-3 eggs, beaten
-4 tbsp milk, room temperature
-4 oz (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, diced
-6 oz dark or semisweet chocolate chips

-1 large egg
-Extra chocolate for drizzling over

1. Sift the flour in a bowl with the salt and sugar.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the water, then add to the flour mixture.
3. Add in the eggs and milk and stir until the dough comes together.
4. Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes. Incorporate the butter pieces as you knead, one at a time.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour (Mom taught me a little trick: we turned up our microwave oven to about 350F, then turned it off, wrapped the dough in foil, then placed it on top of the oven.
6. Grease 12 small brioche pans (sort of like cupcake tins).
7. Punch down the dough and knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2-3 minutes.
8. Divide into 12 pieces and flatten.
9. Add a pieces of chocolate in each, then bring up the sides of the dough. You may want to be thorough about pinching the tips closed; I wasn't very concerned about it, and when my brioches were done baking, the chocolate had managed to ooze through.
10. Place the brioche seam-side down in the pans. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 20 minutes.
11. Brush the tops with beaten egg and bake for 12-15 minutes at 400F until golden.
12. Drizzle with extra chocolate and serve!

[Edit]

Like I said, I'm planning on making a bread pudding/french toast whatchamacallit for Father's Day. French toast apparently tastes better with leftover bread, so I had to make a loaf in advance. Here's my bigger version of the brioche:

Ursula Ferrigno said in her book that you can make a bigger version (I'm not sure how long I baked this unfilled loaf, I just kept opening the oven door periodically and checking the color of the top to gauge its done-ness). Just add a bit of vanilla into the dough to make up for the lack of chocolate. It sure was a pretty shade of gold though. My parents ate almost half of it before I came downstairs and stopped them from consuming my Father's Day breakfast!