Bready or Not: Braided Cocoa and Cookie Butter Brioche
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.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are a delicious new twist on classic ingredients. They are incredibly thick, chewy, and indulgent, the kind of treat that makes a person want to continue nibbling away.
A big part of the deliciousness is the use of cookie butter. This is, essentially, pureed spice cookies with oil to form a peanut butter-like consistency, and they are indeed a perfect substitute for nut butters in most any recipe. The major brands are Biscoff Cookie Butter (carried at many major grocery chains in America) and Speculoos at Trader Joe’s.
Cookie butter enhances the inherent cookie dough flavor in any baked cookie/bar recipe. It’s also a delight to eat straight from the jar!
Add white chocolate chips and a generous amount of sugar and oats to that, and you really have a great combo.
These bars can be a little messy, but that’s okay. Every crumb is delicious!
Modified greatly from Bake from Scratch Magazine Sept/Oct 2018.
Bready or Not Original: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
- offset spatula
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 cup creamy cookie butter
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 8 ounces white chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with a long piece of foil. Apple nonstick spray or grease with extra butter.
- In a big bowl, beat together butter and sugars until they are light and fluffy. Add the cookie butter followed by the eggs and vanilla, scraping the bowl a few times to make sure everything is incorporated.
- In another bowl, stir together the flour, 2 cups of the oats, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the butter mix. Using an offset spatula, spread half the batter into the prepared pan. Dough will be thick and somewhat sticky. Sprinkle half of the chocolate over the top. Dollop on the rest of the dough, spreading into an even later again. Sprinkle on the rest of the white chocolate chips along with the remaining 1/4 cup of oats.
- Bake for 27 to 35 minutes. The middle should be set, not jiggly, and pass the toothpick test. Cool completely at room temperature and then the fridge (the bars will be firmer and less messy to slice if they are chilled).
- Use the foil to lift contents onto a cutting board. Slice into pieces. Store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Chewy Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Chewy Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are embodied with extra cookie dough flavor thanks to the miracle of cookie butter.
It always seems someone is always discovering cookie butter for the first time, so I shall repeat: this stuff is basically ground-down cookies blended with oil, giving it the same consistency as peanut butter, but without the health benefits. And oh yeah, it’s delicious.
Ccookie butter can be found under the Biscoff brand at many grocery stores (and sometimes in a store generic brand) and at Trader Joe’s as Speculoos. You can use it just as you would peanut butter for sandwiches or for baked goods.
It’s fantastic stuff paired with chocolate, as in this recipe. It makes cookies taste more… cookie. Once you try it, you’ll know what I mean.
This recipe makes a nice, big batch of crispy, chewy cookies. Use any kind of chocolate chips that you want–or use a mix! It’ll all be good.
Bready or Not Original: Chewy Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- tablespoon scoop
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 cube), room temperature
- 1/2 cup creamy cookie butter
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 bag milk chocolate chips or semisweet chips, about 1 3/4 cups
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a big mixing bowl, beat butter and cookie butter until completely blended. Add the two sugars. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the corn syrup, water, and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Use a tablespoon scoop to dole out dough onto a cookie sheet, giving each one room to spread while baking. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, until golden, then let them sit on the sheet another 5 to 10 minutes to set. Transfer to rack to completely cool.
- Store in a sealed container at room temperature. They will keep well for up to 3 days.
*OM NOM NOM!*
Bready or Not Original: Mini Cookie Butter-Chocolate Babkas
I hope it gets your attention when I say that these Mini Cookie Butter-Chocolate Babkas are among the best things I have ever made.
Really, these have it all going on. A tender enriched dough. Gooey chocolate. The sweet joy of cookie butter. Plus, the presentation is stunning with the dough coiled to reveal the layers of goodness.
Even better, this recipe is great about portion control. You don’t have a babka loaf to worry about. Each babka is muffin-sized. This makes it easy to take on the go, and they are also convenient to freeze.
If you’re unsure what cookie butter is, it is essentially sliced cookies pureed with oil to be the same consistency as peanut butter. It tastes like cookie dough in its purest form minus the risk of salmonella poisoning from raw eggs or flour. Find it near the peanut butter in a lot of stores; Biscoff is the most common brand, and it’s called Speculoos at Trader Joe’s.
You can, of course, substitute a smooth peanut butter in this recipe–which is what the original recipe in Bake from Scratch was all about. But me, nah, I’m a rebel. And my husband doesn’t like peanut butter, and he’s the one who needs to eat these things.
Modified greatly from Bake from Scratch Magazine July/August 2019; also online.
Bready or Not Original: Mini Cookie Butter-Chocolate Babkas
Equipment
- 12-cup muffin pan
- nonstick spray
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour divided
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast or one store-bought packet
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon water divided
- 1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter melted and divided
- 2 large eggs room temperature and divided
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 1 cup creamy cookie butter
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips plus extra
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together 4 cups flour, white sugar, yeast, and salt.
- Using a saucepan or the microwave, heat 1 cup water and 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter until it is 120 to 130-degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Pour the water mixture into the flour mixture. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add one egg and egg yolk, and beat for another 2 minutes. Beat in a 1/4 to 1/2 cup more flour until a soft, sticky dough forms.
- Switch to the dough hook attachment. Beat at low speed until dough is soft, smooth, and elastic, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add nonstick spray to a large bowl. Shape dough into a smooth ball, and place in bowl. Roll it briefly to coat in oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
- Use nonstick spray on a 12-cup muffin pan.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt 1 Tablespoon butter. Add to it the cookie butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla, stirring until smooth.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into roughly a 20x12-inch rectangle. Spread cookie butter mixture onto dough. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Fold rectangle crosswise into thirds as if folding a sheet of paper for an envelope, forming a smaller rectangle, about 12x6 inches.
- Cut rectangle crosswise into 12 (about 1 inch) dough strips. Gently stretch and twist one to coil it inside a prepared muffin cup, tucking the end inside edge of cup to create a rounded top. Repeat 12 times. If desired, press a couple of additional chocolate chips into the top of each babka, but try to place them so they won't melt off the pan during baking.
- Cover and let rise in a warm spot until they are puffed, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325-degrees.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the last egg with 1 Tablespoon water. Brush tops of dough with egg wash.
- Bake until babkas are golden brown, about 17 to 25 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted in center should register 190-degrees.
- Babkas are much better served warm--eat them fresh, or heat up later with a 20-30 burst in the microwave! This makes the dough soft and the chocolate gooey. They keep well sealed at room temperature for up to 3 days, but can also be frozen and thawed later.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Cookie Butter and Jelly Bars
Cookie butter and Jelly Bars! These things are soft and chewy, creating a whole casserole dish-worth of luscious goodies.
As often as I’ve advocated for cookie butter on Bready or Not, it seems people are always discovering it for the first time. Lucky you! It’s essentially pulverized cookies in spreadable form.
You can find generic versions or Biscoff brand at places like Walmart, Target, and Sprouts, and Trader Joe’s is famous for their Speculoos jars.
In these bars, cookie butter adds incredible softness and amps up the cookie flavor. That’s right, it has this weird ability to make cookies taste more like cookies.
Use whatever jelly or jam or preserves you want. Try not to spread it to the very edge, as it can be very sticky on the foil, even if it’s well-greased.
Bready or Not Original: Cookie Butter and Jelly Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups creamy cookie butter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 13 ounce jelly or preserves or jam, about 1 1/2 cups
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- In a big bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping bottom of bowl as necessary. Follow up with the eggs, vanilla, and cookie butter, until blended.
- Gradually mix in the flour and baking powder.
- Spread about 2/3 of the batter in the prepared pan. Spread the jelly but not quite to the edges. Dollop the remaining dough all over the top.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the surface is golden and not jiggly, with the middle passing the toothpick test.
- Cool completely at room temperature or in the fridge. Use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board to parcel into bars. Store in a sealed container with waxed paper or parchment paper between the layers, either in the fridge or on the counter.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes
Here’s a great recipe to make with kids! These No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes are quick, cute, and secretly healthy.
Buckeye treats typically include peanut butter and brown chocolate. I switched in Biscoff (aka cookie butter, available by the peanut butter in most American grocery stores these days) but you can use peanut butter instead.
What makes these secretly healthy, you ask, since I made them unhealthier with cookie butter? Well, the base ingredient of this recipe is… CHICKPEAS. Also known as garbanzo beans.
You cannot tell there are beans in this. All you taste is Biscoff and chocolate. They keep in the fridge for up to a week, too; they get a little sweaty, that’s it.
The white chocolate drizzle is pretty fun. There’s no art to it. Just drizzle every which way, then very quickly add the mini chocolate chip eyes. (Hopefully your mini chips won’t have bloomed like mine did! That means the chocolate has a white cast to it. Perfectly fine to eat, it just doesn’t look as pretty. FYI Mummies don’t care about being pretty.)
Modified from Cooking Light October 2017.
Bready or Not: No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes
Ingredients
- 15 1/2 ounce chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup cookie butter Biscoff, Speculoos, store brand, etc
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pulse chickpeas in a food processor until smooth. Add cookie butter, honey, vanilla, and salt, and pulse more. Use a teaspoon scoop to measure out the dough; place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet that will fit in the fridge. Use hands to smooth out each ball. Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Carefully melt white chocolate in the microwave at 20% power in 15 second bursts, stirring well between each pass, until it's smooth. Dip fork prongs in the chocolate and drizzle back and forth over the buckeyes to create a mummy bandage effect. Immediately place two mini chocolate chips for eyes on each mummy head. If need be, melt white chocolate again to use some dots of it as glue for the eyes.
- Store in the fridge for up to a week, but expect them to sweat and get moister.
- OM NOM NOM!
