This Braided Cocoa and Cookie Butter Brioche is stunning in appearance and taste, so be warned: there are more pictures than usual for this post, including some process photos.
When I set out to rewrite the original recipe, featured in the January/February 2019 issue of Bake from Scratch, I knew this bread would be time-consuming. Intimidating, even.
The braiding process, shown here, had me worried to start, but that turned out to not be so bad after all.
What ended up being the most tedious aspect was all the necessary dishwashing between the various stages! This recipe would be a great time to have some helpful assistants around.
The original recipe used special black cocoa paired with peanut butter. I went with normal baking cocoa (Penzey’s), which is less dramatic in color but great with flavor, and my stalwart baking favorite, cookie butter.
Despite my evangelizing, some people are always meeting cookie butter for the first time. It’s found in jars near the nut butters in stores. Trader Joe’s carries it under the name Speculoos. The other major brand is Biscoff. It tastes like spice cookies pureed in oil, because that’s exactly what it is.
It’s also incredible to bake with because it can even make cookies taste inherently more cookie-like. Here, when it’s used with chocolate, cocoa, and fresh bread, it’s truly amazing.
During baking, I found the exposed swirls of cookie butter actually caramelized, creating a wonderful crunch in the same bite as tender enriched bread. That, along with chocolate?
Oh wow. Oh wow.
Bready or Not: Braided Cocoa and Cookie Butter Brioche
Equipment
- stand mixer
- food scale
- Rolling Pin
- uneven spatula
- bench knife
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm milk (105-110-degrees F)
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) melted
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, divided
- 4 1/2 cup all-purpose flour plus more if needed
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup plus 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar divided
- 2/3 cup creamy cookie butter
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate melted
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 1 large egg white
- 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, stir together warm milk and yeast, letting it stand about 5 minutes to get foamy.
- Mix in the eggs, 1 stick melted butter, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Follow up with the flour, sugar, and salt, beating until combined. Switch to the dough hook and beat for about 4 minutes, until smooth.
- Use nonstick spray on a large bowl. Lightly flour a flat surface and turn out the dough to form it into a round. Place it in a bowl, rotating it to grease the entire surface. Cover and let rise for about 1 hour, until it doubles in size.
- Clean everything and return to the stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat the 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar with the cookie butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 3 Tablespoons melted butter, until smooth. Transfer the mixture to another bowl. set aside.
- Clean the mixer and paddle attachment again. Beat the final stick of softened butter, the melted chocolate, cocoa, remaining 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, and last 1 teaspoon vanilla, until smooth. Set aside.
- Lightly flour a flat surface again. Punch down the dough and turn it onto the surface. Use a food scale to divide the dough in half. Stash one half back in the bowl for now, covered to prevent drying. Roll the other half into a 20 by 9 rectangle. Use an uneven spatula to spread the cookie butter filling onto the dough, up to 1/2-inch of the edges all the way around. Starting on a long side, tightly roll up the dough, pinching the seam to seal. Set aside with the seam faced down.
- Roll out the other dough in the same way, this time spreading on the chocolate-cocoa filling. Roll it up as well, placing the two dough rolls side by side. Use a bench knife to cut each roll in half, lengthwise. With the multi-layered middles facing up, twine the strips together.
- Apply nonstick spray on tube pan. Lift braid into the pan and tug it to form a complete circle, tucking the ends beneath. Cover the bread and let it rise in a warm spot until it’s puffed, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven 350-degrees.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg white and water. Brush the top of the dough, touching the cookie butter strands first, then the chocolate; this will prevent the chocolate from smearing too much.
- Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes, covering the bread with foil halfway through to prevent too much browning. When done, the top should be golden and an instant-read thermometer should be above 190-degrees.
- Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Turn out onto a plate, then tip it back onto a rack to completely cool, top-up.
- The bread is best eaten within a day, but it can also be sliced up and frozen in pieces. It'll thaw later and taste beautifully fresh! Eat at room temperature or slightly warmed.
