Chocolate Orange Brioche – Weekly Bake Number 44

This weeks bake was something I don’t know why I left so long to make! Having made panettone this Christmas I knew that Brioche is very similar to make and would be winner! This bake takes a bit more time to make as you have to knead, leave in fridge and then leave to rise. So this is best made in an evening then baked fresh mid-morning. I used the Paul Hollywood Recipe but used oranges rather than satsumas as thats all we had in the house, just remember to not add as much of the juice of one orange as it will make the dough too wet.

Ingredients

• 250g of Strong white bread flour
• 3g of Salt
• 30g Caster sugar
• 5g of Fast Action
• 80ml of Milk
• 2 Medium Eggs
• Finely grated zest of two oranges
• 1/2 juice of 1 orange or all of Satsuma
• 130g of Unsalted butter
• 100g of Dark Chocolate 70% + cocoa solids

Method 

You can use a mixer using the dough hook attachment but I don’t currently have one. Kneading by hand can take a little longer to get a soft dough but is a good way to get rid of any anger!

1. Add the flour to the bowl, add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl and add the yeast to the other this is needed as if the yeast directly touches the salt it will de-activate it.

   

   Step 1

2. Whisk the eggs, milk, citrus juice and zest together then add slowly to the dry mixture until it forms a dough, add the butter in small pieces and knead together when almost fully formed ball of dough add the chopped dark chocolate.

   

   Step 2

3. Knead the dough until until soft, elastic and smooth. Then put the dough in a lightly oiled plastic tupper ware box and leave in fridge overnight or for 5 plus hours to become firm.
4. Once firm, shape the dough into a sausage on a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 equal size pieces then shape into balls.
5. Grease a 1Kg loaf tin and place the balls into the tin. (Paul says to place them in 2-1-2-1-2, I just places them in the tin however they would fit). Cover with a plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
6. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
7. Brush the top of the brioche with an egg glaze, and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, if the top becomes too brown cover with tin foil. Serve warm or toasted.