Chocolate Brioche Cup

 Brioche is a French pastry which is highly enriched type of bread due to the amount of eggs and butter that you add to it. It has a dark and crispy crust caused by the eggwash which was applied.

You make it in the basic way that you make your bread but only adding more eggs and butter. Sometimes raisins, berries, chocolates and even meat are added to it. It's not as sweet as ordinary bread as you would only add a small amount of sugar to brioche. It is quite famous in France and even Jean Jacques Rosseau mentioned it in his autobiography. It is also recorded that the term "brioche" was first used in 1404 and it was of Norman origin. It is also interesting to note that Greeks make this bread every Easter Weekend.

Brioches come in many forms -- cup, muffin, braided, loaf, bundt but it doesn't matter how it looks like though.

At first I didn't know what a brioche was.  I didn't even know how to pronounce "brioche."  Good thing I am an avid fan of My Kitchen Rules Australia!  The other night the sisters, Carly and Emily, from Victoria, Australia, baked Blueberry Brioche Cup in Labneh Yoghurt, and that's where I've learned the correct pronunciation of brioche.  I would try their recipe which became the people's choice at that episode.  I would like to start though with the less complicated brioche recipe.  I got this recipe from one of my cookbooks that my husband subscribed for me as a gift more than a year ago (still receiving more copies).  My husband and I had brioche with vanilla ice cream and cream and it's quite a yummy combination.

Here's the recipe that you might want to try doing...

Ingredients

500 g white bread flour + extra for rolling

1 tsp salt

7 g easy - blend yeast

6 large eggs

75 ml milk plus extra to glaze

250 g unsalted butter

75 g caster sugar

200 g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

Procedure

Place the dough, salt and yeast in a food mixer fitted with a dough hook (spiral looking one).  Beat eggs and milk in a jug and with the mixer low, pour onto the flour in batches.  Allow the mixer to knead the dough for 5 minutes

Meanwhile, beat together the butter and the sugar in a mixing bowl until creamy.  Add to the dough, a little at a time, with the machine still on a low setting.  Knead the dough for another 5 minutes in the mixer.

Cover the bowl with palstic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours until it doubles in size.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 1 minute.  Cover and chill for 4 hours until doubled in size.

Grease a 12 hole muffin pan.  Lightly knead the dough, then roll out into a 40.5 x30.5 cm (16x12 inches) rectangle.  Scatter chopped chocolates and roll up.  Cut into 12 equal portions and place in the muffin pans.  Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 200C.  Brush the buns with the milk and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden.  Allow to cool a little int he pans before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

A comment or two will be appreciated...