Cinnamon-Chocolate Brioche

Ingredients:
brioche dough

2 cups chopped bittersweet chocolate
2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups pastry cream*

1 cup confectioners' sugar
melted semisweet chocolate
whole milk

*Ingredients for pastry cream:
1 pint whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean seeds scraped out, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ounce cornstarch
3 ounces granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces unsalted butter

Preparing the pastry cream:
In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, cornstarch, vanilla seeds, vanilla extract, sugar and whip on high with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy.

Bring milk to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the boiling milk. Whisk on high until fully incorporated and then transfer it back to the saucepan and place over medium heat. Whisk briskly and constantly until the mixture boils and thickens. Take from heat, add butter and whisk until it's completely incorporated.

Pour the custard into a bowl and immediately place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool before using.

* * * * * *

Preparing the cinnamon-chocolate brioche:
Roll out your brioche dough into a rectangle that's a little over 1/8 inch thick.

Blend cinnamon into the pastry cream. Slather the entire surface of the dough, but for a small one inch band at the very top, with pastry cream. Sprinkle the dough with chocolate and roll into a log. Don't stretch the dough too tightly as you roll - Be gentle and firm, not too tight, not too loose.

Cut the log into 1-inch rounds and pinch the loose end of the dough or tuck it under the roll.

Space the rolls a few inches apart and set aside so they can proof. They should rise a fair amount, to almost double in size. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are golden and spring back when you poke them.

Drizzle with melted chocolate or a simple glaze made from 1 cup confectioner's sugar mixed with a few teaspoons of milk and stirred until smooth.