Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Chocolate Brioche Crossiants

I have always love croissants... the rich buttery taste, flaky crust on the outside and soft bread on the inside. Good on it's own or with some delicious spread...yummy! Thinking about it even gives me the "tingles", haha. ;)

Actually I was due to bake a birthday cake for a dear friend today. However something turn up and I had to hold off baking the cake, which gave me some time to bake these delicious chocolate Brioche Croissants! So perhaps I have my friends to thanks for allowing me to have time to bake this yummy croissants for my family. ;)
Brioche and croissants? Two in one, even better right, haha. For the benefit of those who does not know what is brioche, it's a yeast dough, a cross between pastry and bread. It's rich in butter and eggs, just a little sweet, pullable - a gentle tug, and the bread stretches in long, lacy strand, a fine texture. :)
I happen to come across this recipe from CookingBread.com and was intrigued on how it uses brioche recipe to make the croissants. Hence I decided to give it a go, but made some changes to it, here's my version of the recipe:

Ingredients for Brioche:
325g bread flour
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast

2 eggs
1 tsp salt
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
10 to 12 Chocolate truffles, or 10 to 12 ounces of semisweet chocolate

Method:
  • Dissolve the active dry yeast into the lukewarm milk and let stand till foamy, about 5 minutes.
  • In a large mixing bowl, sift 1 cup bread flour & sugar into it. Then add the lukewarm milk mixture and stir well.
  • Lightly beat the eggs and add into the flour mixture. Then add the rest of the bread flour and salt in and mix until it comes together into a soft dough.
  • Knead for 5 minutes and then add the soft butter and continue to knead till it's not too sticky and the dough pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl. This takes about 20 minutes of kneading, so use a bread mixer if you have one.
  • Place dough in oil bowl and let proof for 4hrs.
  • Note: For steps on how to roll the dough into croissants, please refer to the original recipe link for a pictorial steps. Also I used chocolate truffles instead of lemon pie filling...since I love chocolate. :)
  • Preheat oven to 180°C.
  • Let croissant doughs proof for another hour, then brush surface with egg wash.
  • When oven is ready, bake bread for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the surface.
Nothing beats a warm croissant for breakfast...looking forward to breakfast tomorrow already! Haha. ;D I would say this is a much easier recipe to make compared to traditional croissant recipe, so give it a try, it's really good! But I have to watch it though, CNY is coming and eating all these high calories goodies isn't gonna help me fit in my new cloths, haha!

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