Chocolate Chip Cookie Brioche
Two textures of cookie swirled into a plush brioche: a crunchy top which bakes just like a cookie, alongside the soft center of the bread with goops of soft cookie dough spread through the swirls.
Originally published: Nov 7, 2019.
Vanilla bean brioche laced with chocolate chip cookie! Two classics wrapped around each other: soft, plush brioche with bits of cookie dough in the center, and a crunchy crispy topping studded all over with chocolate chunks.
Recipe overview
The idea for this bread came from a recipe by Tiegan (which is incidentally what brought about the brownie babka – after all, if cookie dough can go into a pretzel why couldn’t brownie go into a challah?). And an earlier version of this ccc babka recipe was very similar to the brownie babka: it used a challah base and a this cookie dough recipe.
I’ve reworked it quite a bit over the past two years; first deciding the challah wasn’t sturdy enough to hold up the heavy filling and deciding a brioche (a brown butter one at that!) would be best.
The cookie recipe is also not necessarily a cookie recipe (I’ve never made it as an actual cookie, just expanded on the one yolk), but one that works exceptionally well for this bread. It spreads easily over the thicker brioche and leads to a crunchy top but keeps its pockets of soft dough in the center
You’ll also note I’ve traded the name; while it’s still shaped as one, it’s just so different than a traditional babka (I mean, all the BUTTER!) that I thought swirled brioche seemed more apt.
Two textures of cookie come from this: the crunchy top which bakes fully tastes just like a cookie alongside the soft plush center of the bread. This gives a way to a tender interior with goops of soft cookie dough spread through the swirls. It’s too good. TOO GOOD.
Key Recipe Ingredients
Butter
Some will go into the dough and some into the filling. For the half that goes into the dough, I like to brown it – I feel like it gives a bit more edge to the dough itself and complements the cookie dough well. For the second half it will be melted. In either case, no need to soften it. You can use salted butter, just reduce the amount in the dough and in the filling.
Yeast
Instant or Active Dry Yeast will work, if using active dry you’ll want to increase it by about 1/4 teaspoon. It’s best to dissolve either of them into the warm milk so you don’t get bits.
Chocolate
You can use chocolate chips or chopped chocolate for the filling; it doesn’t really matter (there’s no concern about spread) but do choose something you think will be enjoyable to eat.
How to shape a swirled bread (babka)
Bread knives are very helpful here.
How do I know when a bread is done baking?
The best way to do it is to use a thermometer, bread doneness registers at 190 F.
How far ahead can this be made?
Like all homemade breads, it’s best the day of baking. I’ll ask you to make the dough the night before because
The bread shrank after baking, did I do something wrong?
Not really, this happens when the yeast has been exhausted by the end of baking. Especially with a brioche that has a lower amount of yeast – most brioche recipes have you use a tablespoon (like this one) and you can go that high but it’ll taste more ‘yeasty’. Sometimes you can avoid this by timing the rising just right. It shouldn’t overly shrink, but some shrinking in the center is fine.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Brioche
Ingredients
Brown Butter Brioche
- 113 g or ½ cup butter
- 40 g or ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- 240 g or 1 cup whole milk
- 60 g or ¼ cup warm milk
- 7 g or 1 packet instant yeast
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 100 g or ½ cup granulated sugar
- 500 g or about 4 cups all purpose flour
Chocolate Chip Cookie Filling
- 113 g or ½ cup unsalted butter
- 140 g ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 50 g or ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 large egg
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 180 g or 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 100 g or ⅔ cup chocolate chips or chopped (dark or milk, baker’s choice)
Method
Brown the butter
- This is optional, you can simply add melted butter to the dough but I like to brown it. Cook it in a skillet over medium heat until you start to see brown bits at the bottom. Stir until the butter goes quiet, stops sputtering and there’s a lot of brown bits at the bottom. Set aside to cool.
Make the roux & the dough
- In a small pot, add the 1 cup milk and the ⅓ cup flour, whisk well. Turn heat to medium and cook while stirring until it forms a thick paste. Turn off heat.
- Add the warm milk and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer, stir to combine. Add the sugar and whisk then add all the ingredients, including the roux (but not the butter). Knead on low until the dough starts to come together in a ball.
- Add the butter (it’s okay if it’s melted or if it’s soft) and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough will at first separate and look very loose but as you knead it will come together again in a ball around the hook and will look shiny and smooth. Transfer to an oiled bowl and let rise in the fridge overnight or until it has almost (but not fully) doubled in size.
Make the ccc dough and shape the breads
- Divide the dough into two halves. Prepare two greased loaf pans with parchment paper, you can use metal clips to hold it in place. Set them on a floured countertop and cover with a tea towel while you make the cookie dough.
- Melt the butter in the microwave then whisk in the sugars until smooth. Add the egg, salt and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Fold in the flour, baking soda and powder. Fold in the chocolate.
- Roll out one of the dough halves to about 8x12 inches. Spread half the cookie dough over the dough in an even layer (use your fingers and an offset spatula to help it along). Roll up the dough from the shorter side, trim edges if necessary, and slice in half lengthwise. Wrap the two halves around each other in a twist. Set in one of the loaf pans. Repeat the process with the other dough half. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for about an hour, until you can press the dough and it leaves a slight indentation when springing back.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the two loaves for about 40-45 minutes, tenting them with foil if the tops are over-browning. Breads are done when a digital thermometer inserted into the center registers 190 F.
- Bread is best day of baking but can be stored in an airtight container.
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I made this once and it was fabulous! I’m looking to make it again and don’t need two loaves. Do you think it would work to bake and freeze the unneeded loaf for later, or would it be better just to halve the recipe?
I think it would be fine frozen if you want to save on the labor for later, you’d want to warm it up gently before consuming. but yeah, you can also halve the recipe and make just one.
So i’ve been baking through a lot of Sam’s recipes and it just gets better and better and better. This was the first time I used the tangzhong (i hope i spelled this right).
My notes: I wasn’t too sure how much of a “thick” paste I was supposed to go for, but i just went until it smelled yeasty and it was relatively thick without being completely too thick how i usually make some cheese sauces. following this by hand, I was able to stir this by hand with my Spoontula until it combined together, and then adding the browned butter it did break up a bit and then came back together. i was able to stir this until it came into a cohesive dough for me, and then i kneaded it by hand for the 10 minutes. I have a bench scraper so when the dough was getting relatively sticky, it was easy to get the sticky bits up and i kept flouring my hands (not the dough) to ensure that I did not add too much dough to the mixture. it was kind of weird not having to “proof” the yeast or anything but i mean yeast does its thing lol. i didn’t windowpane/spring test this dough either since it was still sticky and i just trusted my instincts and figured 10 minutes as enough. even while sticky it is easy to work with. (just dust your hands w/flour though i will say a bench scraper is a must).
out of the doughs i’ve made so far. [the Banana Bread Babka – Brownie Babka – and now this one] this was the first time I actually tried refrigerating it over night one of the things that was making my apprehensive was i wasn’t sure how long “overnight was.” ie – if i made the dough around 7pm, is overnight like 7am? when i just woke up- anytime during the day. i just took the dough out when i was ready for it. (it was really nice and puffy in the fridge) while i made the cookie dough. . As i don’t have a microwave, I just melted the butter (but then i decided out of habit to brown it. if you are melting you might as well brown it. I also added some chopped pecans and toffee bits to the mixture as it’s my favourite CCC combo. I did go chips here (dark/semi sweet mix).
Things I would change –
probably just add a milk/egg wash to the top (i brushed some butter on top after baking)
tent it WHILE baking and remove it the last 15 minutes to get some colour. mine looked a bit too dark for my liking. but it tastes. SOO GOOD.
the brownie brioche base is basically my new go to for anything sweet-ish babka. but this one will probably give it a run for its money. and I will be doing the cold rise now for babka because this was one of the first times i was able to do the split and not have it look like a murder scene LOL.
(oops forgot to rate it. 5 out of 5!)
OH MY GOSH. I realized Sunday night that I needed a memorial day breakfast, so I threw these together as fast as possible. I wanted it to be a bit of a grab and go kinda deal though, so when I rolled the dough out and spread the cookie dough over it, I cut it into about 18 strips, twisted them up, and put them into muffin tins. I let them rest overnight and baked at 350 for 20 minutes in the morning! Once they were out of the oven, I slathered them in a quick glaze and sprinkled some mini chips on top. They were ooey gooey, delicious, and the perfect treat to start the day!
I would LOVE to see these as a muffin – if you have a pic please share on IG!
wonderful, a nice flavor too with chocolate chips and really love the texture of brioche bread, so thank you
Sabrina, I LOVE THAT YOU MADE THIS. It’s definitely one of my tougher recipes so seeing someone make (and love!) it is very encouraging.
Firstly, I’ve made this recipe many times and love it! But I got to thinking about it and wondered if the cookie filling could be altered to be peanut butter cookie instead? Do you have any idea of how much peanut butter to add/how to alter the other ingredients to condensate for the added fat? Thanks!
Hi Amber, im sure it could – i suppose you could just add it to the dough but you might need to adjust for the new texture (if it gets too dry add more butter, too wet add some more flour)
I appreciate how creative and reliable your recipes are! Thank you for sharing and for all your hard work.
Hi, I made it yesterday in a breadmaker (dough cycle) as I don’t have a mixer with a dough hook. However, it came out really wet. Should it? I then knead it a bit using 2x of ¼ cups of flour 😅🤭. After baking it, the texture is very dense and breaks apart, I guess too much flour😭.
Whoops! Yes if it’s dense then there was too much flour. I don’t use a bread machine so I don’t know how they work. A challah base doesn’t really a long kneading time so I doubt the bread machine is necessary. I make mine in a stand mixer with the dough hook and it needs just 5 minutes until it comes together. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you could do it by hand in a bowl with a rubber spatula – it will take longer and be an arm workout. You can’t knead this one by hand, it’s a soft, sticky dough. Don’t expect it to come together into a ball, that would be too much flour!
Would this recipe work with all purpose flour? Covid has my store out of bread flour 🙁
Yes, definitely! And I feel you – I haven’t seen bread flour in weeks either =(