Chocolate Brioche (Easy Brioche Loaf)

This chocolate brioche recipe makes deliciously soft, tender crumbed, chocolate-flavored brioche bread.

Brioche is a rich French bread that contains a lot more butter and more eggs than a normal loaf of bread. It still looks and tastes like bread but the taste is a lot richer than a loaf of normal white bread.

---

This brioche recipe is a brioche bread flavored with cocoa powder. The steps taken to make this chocolate bread are the same as a normal brioche bread except that this recipe has cocoa powder in it and is made using brown sugar instead of white sugar.

I choose the bake my chocolate brioche into a loaf bread, but you can also make it into chocolate brioche buns or braids. You can even add some raisins or chocolate chips to turn the brioche into a chocolate raisin brioche or chocolate brioche loaf with chocolate chips or even chocolate chip brioche buns.

Either way, this recipe makes a lovely chocolate flavored brioche bread that is not only good for eating on its own or making toasts, but it is also good for making bread pudding too!

---

How to Make

Ingredients

• Bread flour (or all purpose flour)
• Instant dry yeast (or active dry yeast)
• Brown Sugar
• Milk (warm)
• Eggs
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Butter
• Salt

Making the brioche

1. Start by measuring flour into a large bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook attachment (paddle attachment is not suitable to knead this bread). Add cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the instant yeast.
3. Pour in the warm milk, followed by brown sugar and the eggs. Turn on the mixer to a medium low speed. Mix for 2 minutes.
4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and salt and add these dry ingredients into the yeast mixture.

1. Knead on medium speed for approximately 2 minutes. The dough will be very sticky at this stage.
2. Cut or break the softened butter into small cubes. Butter should not be too solid or it will take a longer time to be incorporated into the dough. Add the cubes in 3 batches. This should take approximately 2 minutes. The dough will still appear very sticky at this stage and that is fine.
3. Once the butter is all added in and well incorporated, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Knead again at medium speed for 20 minutes. Do not cut down on the kneading time as this is an important step for brioches.
4. Turn the chocolate brioche dough out onto your work surface. It will be very soft and tacky and that is normal. If your room temperate is too warm, the butter will make it very greasy. If this happens, place dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes to allow the butter to cool down.

The first proof

1. Bring the dough together with a spatula. You wont really be able to form it into a nice ball as it will be very soft and not able to hold its shape well. Suffice if you can bring it together as much as possible. You don't need any lightly floured surface to knead the dough.
2. Transfer dough into a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap (cling film).
3. Refrigerate (proof) the covered dough for at least 8 hours (or overnight).
4. Before removing it from the fridge, prepare the bread tin. Grease it well and set aside. Remove the dough from the fridge and press out to remove air bubbles. Transfer it onto your workspace and knead it lightly. Divide into 4 sections.
5. Knead each section until smooth and place them in the tin, in a row.
6. Flatten the balls slightly to allow all four to fit into the loaf tin.

The second proof and baking

1. Cover the tin with a kitchen towel and let the chocolate brioche loaf proof again until slightly more than double in size, this time at room temperate (warm place).
2. Bake the chocolate brioche loaf at 165 degrees Celsius (in a preheated oven) on the lowest rack in the oven for 30 minutes.
3. Once baked, remove the chocolate brioche loaf from the oven and use a pastry brush to brush the top with melted butter.
4. Remove the bread from the tin and place it on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The chocolate broiche is best sliced when it has cooled down completely.

---

Notes

Can you substitute bread flour with all-purpose flour?

• Yes, you can. This recipe works fine with all-purpose flour just like it does with bread flour.

Can you add more cocoa to the brioche bread?

• Technically, you can. It will give you a stronger chocolate-flavored brioche loaf. But do note that adding too much cocoa powder will not only make your chocolate brioche loaf darker, there is also a tendency for it to taste slightly bitterish.

Why is it important to sift the cocoa powder?

• In my recipe, I have indicated for the cocoa powder to be mixed with flour and then sifted into the liquid ingredients. This is simply because cocoa powder tends to be lumpy and sifting it will help break all those lumps. Adding lumpy cocoa powder into your dough will result in your dough having specs of cocoa powder lumps in it.

Can you substitute brown sugar with white sugar?

• Yes, you can. For the recipe below, replace the 100g brown sugar with 50g granulated sugar.

Can you skip the overnight proofing in the refrigerator?

• This bread requires 2 stages of proofing. The first stage is after mixing the dough and the second stage is before baking.
• Overnight proofing in the refrigerator is only required for the first stage. It actually helps the brioche develop its flavor and also helps dough to firm up which then makes it easier to shape before baking.
• You can, however, choose not to do the first proof overnight. Instead, you can let it proof at room temperature. Do take note that depending on your room temperature, the dough will definitely be proofing faster than in the fridge, hence you definitely cannot leave it to proof at room temperature overnight.
• Having said that, given that the brioche dough is very very soft, for easy handling, you would still need to refrigerate it after the first proof (if you choose not to proof overnight in the fridge). Give it a light knead after the first proof and place it in the refrigerator (cover the bowl with plastic wrap) until it is firm enough to handle.
• Remove from the fridge, shape dough as you wish and let it proof for the second time as usual.

The brioche dough is extremely soft and very greasy. Is this normal?

• Yes, it will be very soft and droopy. In fact, it will be so soft and you can hardly knead it by hand (it is best to use a scraper to help in shaping it).
• It is, however, not meant to be greasy. Greasy dough normally happens when the room temperature is warm (butter melts to warm temperature). To solve this, simply place the dough in the refrigerator until the butter cools down.

What can you make with the brioche bread?

• This lovely chocolate brioche loaf is so delicious, you can simply eat it on its own. You can also make it is a simple toast with butter and your favorite jam or chocolate-based spreads.
• The chocolate brioche can also be used for making french toasts and brioche bread puddings!

---

Like this easy bread recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

• Brioche Donuts (Doughnuts) - Perfectly Soft and Fluffy
• Homemade White Bread Loaf - Basic Bread Recipe
• Easy Moist Banana Bread with Oil (No Butter)
• Dark Chocolate Banana Cake with Buttermilk (Super Moist)
• Blueberry Cake Loaf with Lemon Glaze Icing

---

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my super delicious chocolate brioche recipe.

And that's my easy chocolate brioche recipe for you.

Happy Baking 🙂