What to do with all that pesky left over Halloween candy? Besides from eat all of it and give yourself a tummy ache. (It's not worth it. Step away from the Reeses.) I've seen all sorts of great ideas, like frozen pie, cupcake toppers, milkshakes, and (mom's favorite) hot cocoa.
Being cooped up for 2 days brought a little accidental inspiration. If you're on the East Coast, you probably experienced tropical storm Sandy. We were on lock down in Northern VA with nowhere to go. A whollllee day home. And our power didn't go out. Yes, you know where this headed.
I was a short on chocolate. There were kit kats lying about in anticipation for trick or treaters. A recipe for brioche. Let's do the thing.
Introducing my Halloween Bon Bon Brioche. Don't make that face, pastry chefs! It may not be fancy chocolate but it gets the job done. I used the same measurements for the chocolate that were in the recipe, but substituted with a mix of dark chocolate and chopped up Kit Kats. You could do the same thing with any other chocolate based candy, though I'd be weary of anything with too much caramel. I loved finding bits of crunchy wafer in a sea of rich chocolate. And like any pastry- there's a lot of butter!
As for the brioche itself, I feel that I added too much all purpose flour. I stuck to the recipe verbatim and weighed the flour, but when it wouldn't stop sticking to the side of the mixer, I did what I would normally do with any other bread: added a lil more flour. I think this created a slightly thicker brioche. Woops! Ah well, can't be perfect every time.
Another error was made letting the bread rise too close to the edge of the cookie sheet when it was rising for the 2nd round, with no parchment paper underneath. Come on Michele! When it rose, it ballooned and had no where to go except to the left. The result... this crazy divide of chocolate and plain brioche. I tried to edge it to the center with a spatula for baking but alas, the structure of the bread threatened to split. We ended up eating the plain half of the brioche with jelly so everyone wins.
Don't be scared of brioche! It's a learning experience and I'm eager for round 2! For the full recipe, check out Citrus and Candy's Guest Post! And don't forget the Kit Kats!
As for the brioche itself, I feel that I added too much all purpose flour. I stuck to the recipe verbatim and weighed the flour, but when it wouldn't stop sticking to the side of the mixer, I did what I would normally do with any other bread: added a lil more flour. I think this created a slightly thicker brioche. Woops! Ah well, can't be perfect every time.
Another error was made letting the bread rise too close to the edge of the cookie sheet when it was rising for the 2nd round, with no parchment paper underneath. Come on Michele! When it rose, it ballooned and had no where to go except to the left. The result... this crazy divide of chocolate and plain brioche. I tried to edge it to the center with a spatula for baking but alas, the structure of the bread threatened to split. We ended up eating the plain half of the brioche with jelly so everyone wins.
Don't be scared of brioche! It's a learning experience and I'm eager for round 2! For the full recipe, check out Citrus and Candy's Guest Post! And don't forget the Kit Kats!
