Chocolate Chip Brioche

Baking is a strong passion of mine and always has been, it has a way of calming my anxiety which makes it unique. One of my recent bakes was a chocolate chip brioche and it might be one of my favourite things to bake now. Bread has been a fairly new thing for me to be baking and I am really enjoying it.

I recently got the Kitchenaid Artisan Mini and it is making baking so much more enjoyable for me. As an avid fan of The Great British Bake Off I chose to use a Paul Hollywood recipe for my brioche, although decided to add some chocolate chips as an adaptation

Lucy's top tip for making brioche: Start the night before you actually want to eat it! Brioche making is a long but rewarding process. 

Ingredients:

-500g Strong white bread flour
-7g Salt
-50g Caster Sugar
-10g Instant yeast
-140ml Warm full-fat milk
-5 Medium eggs
-250g Unsalted butter (softened)
-150g chocolate chips

Method:

1. Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for a further 6 – 8 minutes, until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough. Add the softened butter and continue to mix for a further 4 – 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough will be very soft. This is the point where I gently mixed in my chocolate chips.

2. Tip the dough into a plastic bowl, cover and chill overnight (See why I said start the night before now 😉 ) or for at least 7 hours, until it is firmed up and you are able to shape it.

3. Grease a 25cm round deep cake tin.

4. Take your brioche dough from the fridge. Tip it onto a lightly floured surface and fold it on itself a few times to knock out the air. Divide it into 9 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth ball by placing it into a cage formed by your hand and the table and moving your hand around in a circular motion, rotating the ball rapidly. Put the 8 balls of dough around the outside of the tin and the final one in the middle.

5. Cover with the clean plastic bag and leave to prove for 2 – 3 hours, or until the dough has risen to just above the rim of the tin. (As an impatient baker I only left it for 2 hours, Sorry Paul!)

6. Heat your oven to 190°C.
7. When your brioche is proved, bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Bear in mind that the sugar and butter in the dough will make it take on colour before it is actually fully baked. Remove the brioche from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

As a first attempt I was very pleased with the final brioche, although being impatient I did slightly under bake it! I finished mine by gently rubbing some butter over the top whilst still warm to give a glossy finish.

Let me know how you get on if you give it a try!

Lucy x :)