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Chocolate Brioche buns

These pleasantly light Chocolate Brioche buns are perfect to serve to friends who've come round for morning coffee or afternoon tea. We have to avoid milk products in our household, so in this recipe I used dairy-free chocolate, almond milk and sunflower spread which work very well - but you can just as successfully use the same quantities of the regular chocolate, milk and butter. The hard kneading work is done in a bread machine but the pleasingly tactile and creative part is done by hand. They look (and really are!) very tasty, so they also make excellent edible gifts for friends and family.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 3 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Cuisine: French
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • In the Bread Machine: 1½ tsp dried Yeast
  • 400 g Strong White Flour e.g. Canadian
  • 4 Tbsp unrefined sugar
  • 1½ tsp Salt
  • 70 g sunflower spread ½ dozen dollops
  • 3 Medium Eggs beaten
  • 90 ml Almond Milk
  • 1 Tbsp Liqueur e.g. Cointreau
  • To add halfway: 50g more dollops of Sunflower Spread
  • By hand: 100g good quality dark chocolate
  • 1 beaten egg to glaze

Method
 

  1. Attach the kneading blade then add all the ingredients to the machine in the order above (or as per manufacturer's instructions)
  2. Use the brioche dough (or equivalent) setting - about 1hr 50min.
  3. When the addition bell sound (if applicable - about 55 minutes) pop in the extra sunflower spread.
  4. When the kneading is completed, press the dough lightly to remove any trapped gas then make into a ball shape, place into a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for 20 mins.
  5. Roll out the dough into a foot (30 cm) square on a lightly floured board then sprinkle chocolate chips (see tip) evenly over it.
  6. Fold the bottom one third up, the top one third down, then fold in half sideways - squeezing the sides a little to seal in the choc chips.
  7. Rest the dough at room temperature for about 10 minutes before dividing and shaping it into a dozen rolls.
  8. Pre-heat the oven to about 50°C. Space out the rolls on a lightly greased baking tray and pop them into the oven to prove for 30-40 mins - they'll almost double in size.
  9. Turn up the oven to 180C while you glaze the brioches with a brush, then return them to bake for about 15-20 mins.