Flaky brownie brioche

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 2 brioches, you will need:

• 1 500 g flour
• 2 15 g yeast
• 3 10 g salt
• 4 20 g brown sugar
• 5 325 g egg  ( How to... )
• 6 100 g fermented viennoiserie dough
• 7 60 g brown sugar
• 8 20 g powdered cocoa
• 9 200 g butter
• 10 250 g dark chocolate
• 11 120 g butter
• 12 50 g brown sugar
• 13 200 g pecan nuts
• 14 50 g Pearl sugar
• 15 20 g beaten egg
• Total weight: 1,940 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
13 hours 15 min.	2 hours 30 min.	1 hour	16 hours 45 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1:

  Prepare the chocolate brioche dough

  Put into a food-mixer bowl: 500 g flour, 15 g yeast, 10 g salt, 20 g brown sugar and 325 g egg.
• 2: Knead for 15 minutes.
  Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
• 3: Then add 100 g fermented viennoiserie dough, 60 g brown sugar and 20 g powdered cocoa.
• 4: Knead for a further 5 minutes until well mixed in.
• 5: While still kneading, add 200 g butter a little at a time.
• 6: Stop kneading once the butter is fully mixed in.
  Cover the dough with plastic film and leave to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
• 7:

  Prepare the chocolate-butter square

  While the dough is resting, melt 250 g dark chocolate with 120 g butter and 50 g brown sugar over a bain-marie.
• 8: Mix until smooth. Don't worry if you can feel that there are still some sugar crystals undissolved; this will add texture, so worth keeping.
  Tkae the mixture off the bain-marie.
• 9: Stand an 8 inch (20 cm) square frame on a sheet of cooking parchment laid on a baking sheet.
• 10: Pour the mixture into this mould and leave to cool. Refrigerate overnight.
• 11: After the dough has rested for 1 hour, knock back the dough by lifting and dropping hard back into the bowl.
  Cover once more with plastic film and refrigerate overnight.
• 12: Next day, take the square of chocolate butter out of the fridge and leave at room temperature to soften slightly.
• 13:

  Toast the pecan nuts

  Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
  Spread 20 g brown sugar on a baking sheet.
• 14: Toast in the oven for 15 minutes.
  Leave to cool.
• 15:

  Flake the brioche

  Put the brioche dough on a floured work surface.
• 16: Roll out into a large rectangle, about the same width as the square of chocolate butter.
  You can trim the sides to neaten the rectangle and use the trimmings to make the leaven or soured dough for your next batch of brioche.
• 17: Lay the square of chocolate butter on the dough.
• 18: Cover the chocolate with the pecan nuts, either whole (as in the photo) or roughly chopped with a knife.
• 19: Fold the dough over to seal in the chocolate butter, then scatter coarse sugar crystals over and press in with the rolling pin to help them stick.
• 20: Fold the dough in half over the sugar.
• 21:

  Shape the brioche

  Roll the dough out once more into a rectangle...
• 22: ...and roll this up.
• 23: Cut the roll into slices about the same thickness as the depth of your tin or mould, either loaf style...
• 24: ...or special brioche shape.
• 25: Glaze the top of the brioche.
• 26: Leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour 30 minutes.
  Before baking, you can scatter a little more coarse sugar over the top if you wish.
• 27:

  Bake the brioche

  Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C) and bake the brioche for about 40 minutes.
• 28: Turn out while hot and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Remarks

You will notice that the chocolate brioche dough is a lttle more complicated to make than a plain brioche dough. The ingredients are added in stages to obtain the right texture.
It is also a bit sweeter to balance the slight bitterness of the cocoa.

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