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Braided Cocoa And Peanut Butter Brioche

Let’s call this for what it is, absolutely incredible. Seriously, I can’t take how delicious (or stunning) this braised cocoa and peanut butter brioche is. This is not my recipe, this amazing recipe is from the magazine Bake from Scratch and it is a killer one. The moment I saw it, I had to make it, and boy was it worth it. I am already a huge brioche fan and the coco and peanut butter combo looked too exceptional to pass up.

cocoa and peanut butter brioche

This is by no means an easy recipe I list it as “difficult” which is not something I do often. But it is not impossible, you just need patience, as it requires a double rise time. The twisting technique sounds hard at first, but don’t let that stop you, it is somewhat forgiving and can be mastered.

cocoa and peanut butter brioche

Bake has a great video titled “Babka like a boss“, which uses the same method as in this recipe if you want a little more guidance on the method, I suggest you watch it. I only made one slight modification regarding the type of cocoa used, otherwise the recipe below is as written. If you wish to check out the original recipe on the Bake website, the link can be found here.

For those unfamiliar, brioche (pronounced brie-osh) is a rich French yeast dough pastry made with lots of eggs and butter. Brioche is technically considered a Viennoiserie, in that it is made in the same basic way as bread, but has the richer aspect, more similar to a pastry because of the extra addition of eggs, butter, liquid (typically milk or cream), and occasionally a bit of sugar. What’s not to love?

cocoa and peanut butter brioche

Brioche is not, however, inherently sweet, which is one of the reasons I love it as much as I do. But brioche is also incredibly versatile (another something I love about it) and can be used to make either savory or sweet baked goods from basic dinner rolls to sticky sweet cinnamon rolls. As a chef, brioche is a go-to for me and I simply could not live without it.

A quick note about ingredients. Above I mentioned one tweak I made in this recipe. The original calls for black cocoa powder. Black cocoa powder is a great ingredient, it is a super-dark Dutch-process cocoa with an intense, dark color and unsweetened chocolate highlights. But it can be hard to find. I used my standard Droste cocoa powder, something I have in my house at all times.  Droste is not nearly as dark or as intense as black cocoa powder, but it works nicely in this recipe.

Another important thing to remember with recipes like this is using good-quality ingredients helps. Good quality flour and butter especially, make a difference in the world. Think the better the quality, the better the result.

cocoa and peanut butter brioche

About the Author

Andrea Potischman

I am a professionally trained NYC chef turned CA mom and food blogger. I post about real food, with doable ingredient lists that are family friendly.

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