Brioche au Chocolat– Buttery brioche dough is stuffed with chocolate and baked until beautifully golden brown

Brioche is one of my favorite breads to make. It’s done entirely in a mixer, which makes the process so simple. Also, the dough is made overnight so I can make it the night before and simply wake and bake. But above all, my favorite thing about brioche is the the texture – it’s so buttery and light that it’s simply irresistible.

Recently, I had a craving for some pain au chocolat, which is croissants filled with chocolate. It’s not in the crescent shape like a croissant so that’s probably why they call it pain or bread.

Anyway, I digress…back to my craving. Instead of going through the pain of making croissant dough, which takes days, I decided to try out brioche and fill that with chocolate. And man was it delicious! Brioche has all the buttery flavor of croissant but the texture of bread. And that melted chocolate center? Yummm.

Before we dive into the recipe, let’s look at these gorgeous Brioche au Chocolat buns some more, huh?

Making brioche in a mixer

Brioche is made with lots of butter. In contrast, most breads have very little, if any, fat at all. Maybe 1 tablespoon? Whereas, brioche has 7 tablespoons! This is why we need a stand mixer to make the dough. Have you ever tried mixing in butter into a wet dough? It’s not easy and can get quite messy. Why not make the mixer do the work for you??

To make the dough, you first start by making the base of the dough. To do this, add scalded milk, yeast, flour, salt, sugar, and eggs and mix together using a dough hook. Once the dough forms, it’s mixed for a few more minutes to soften and smooth the dough.

Now it’s time to add the butter. To make it easier to mix in, the butter is added 1 tablespoon at a time. It will look like it won’t mix in and then suddenly, the dough engulfs the butter and it’s suddenly gone. Finish with all the butter and then knead in the mixer for another 5 minutes.

The dough is wrapped and chilled overnight. This allows it to rest, but most importantly, it chills the dough to make it easier to work with. Now that the dough has all that soft butter, we need to solidify the butter again, similar to making a cookie dough.

Forming the buns

Once the dough has chilled, it’s split into 16 even pieces. Take one piece and flatten it slightly. Place a piece of chocolate in the center and then fold the edges around it. Roll the dough into a smooth ball and then place on a prepared baking sheet, seam side down. Finish with the rest of the dough.

The buns get proofed until puffy, about 1.5 hours. Then they’re brushed with an egg wash before baking in a 350-degree oven.

Tips & Tricks

1. Brioche dough is made with lots of butter. It will be very hard to mix by hand because the warmth in your hands will melt the butter and create a whole mess. Therefore, a stand mixer is necessary for this recipe.
2. The dough needs to refrigerate overnight to let it rest and chill before it gets rolled out. Therefore, make sure you give yourself enough time to make the brioche before you want the buns ready to eat.
3. The egg wash on top is so important because it gives the rolls their sheen. Don’t skip this step!
4. The buns are best served slightly warm so pop them in the microwave if they’re at room temperature. No more than 10 seconds will do the trick!

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