Tuesday, March 18, 2008

TWD - Brioche Snails



I have to confess – I did skip one of the steps for these delicious brioche raisin snails that were this week’s TWD challenge. Umm, mine aren’t brioche raisin rolls – they are brioche chocolate rolls. I don’t actually like raisins. I was going to use dried cranberries, but when I went to make the recipe I didn’t have enough cranberries in the bag. So, I decided to use chocolate chips. And, they were delicious!!

I was a little hesitant when I read through the recipe – I had a lot of baking to do in the weekend, and no special reason for making these. There seemed to be a lot of time consuming steps, but I am so glad I went to the effort as these were divine!!

The recipe is basically a brioche dough - once again I strayed from Dorie’s instructions. You only needed a half batch of dough, but Dorie said don’t halve the dough recipe – make the whole lot and freeze half of it. Nevertheless, I decided to halve the recipe – kind of difficult halving 3 eggs!!! But I used one full egg and a yolk. Halving the recipe actually did work, although I can see that if you are making the effort to make the brioche dough, you might as well make the full recipe. I didn’t think that the butter was going to beat into the dough successfully – but it did and I ended up with a beautiful yellow, silken dough. The dough was made on Saturday night and then left in the fridge over night for a second, slow rise.



On Sunday morning the dough was rolled out and then filled with a delicious pastry cream which I had made the night before. This was divine!! Basically a rich, thick custard - I could have eaten the whole bowl before it got anywhere near the rolls!! The dough was then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and then, in my case, chocolate chips.



These rolls were so delicious!! I baked half of the rolls and then froze the rest of the dough. I could hardly wait for them to come out of the oven! They are sooo good. I ate one and my husband ate the other four! Funny how last week he said that the pie cake was as good as apple strudel in Austria – this week he said the rolls were the best pastries he has had since Danishes in Denmark (and they were divine!!!! Nothing like the Danishes you get here!). So, Dorie comes up trumps again!!!

21 comments:

CB said...

They look fabulous! Chocolate chips huh? I don't like raisins either. Maybe I should go the chocolate route! Great job!
-Clara

Anonymous said...

Oh these look wonderful! I bet the chocolate was a perfect accompaniment to the sweet brioche dough and pastry cream!

noskos said...

Beautiful snails!! I will try a few with chocolate next time!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes. I like raisins just fine but chocolate wins every time. These are gorgeous!

BTW, the easiest way to halve an egg is to beat it in a separate bowl and use 2-3 tablespoons. My Granny taught me that one. :D

Jhianna said...

Gorgeous rolls, and good idea!

Nikki57 said...

Oh yum, I'm about to finish mine up and I think I may just need to use chocolate chips.

slush said...

They look amazing!!! I love the chocolate oozing out. Holy yum! Fantastic job!

Annemarie said...

Love the idea of using chocolate! They look wonderful..Great job!

Sarah said...

Oh wow...chocolate?! That will be a must try variation the next time I try these. Great job!

Anonymous said...

This has to be made. Chocolate, brilliant!

Marie Rayner said...

Ohh Yummo!!! Chocolate chips! I am going to have to make these again now and use chocolate chunks in them. Green and Black's organic milk chocolate . . . I can taste them now! Your snails look fabulous!

Gretchen Noelle said...

I love these kinds of rolls with chocolate, I think that was a wonderful sub!!!

Mari said...

NAUGHTY, those chocolate chips snails look dangerous! Yum! Great work!

Di said...

Mmm...chocolate. I am definitely going to have to try that next time. It looks like your snails turned out great!

Anonymous said...

These look wonderful! I definitely want to try these with chocolate chips!

Julius said...

Great looking snails! I think I'll try your chocolate chip substitution.

Julius
from Occasional Baker

Rachel said...

Looking good!

Jaime said...

great job! i love the idea of chocolate :)

Cakelaw said...

Yum!! I love pastry cream in anything, and these snails look great.

Donna said...

Those melty chocolate chip snails look divine! I want one!

Anonymous said...

Chocolate! THAT will get the husband to try the snails. Good call!