Chocolate Hazelnut Filled Brioche Feuilletee (Flaky Brioche)

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Layers of sweet, flaky, buttery brioche laminated with butter and spread with a layer of chocolate hazelnut spread rolled into a tower of deliciousness. This winter wonderland treat is definitely worthy of holiday breakfast and brunch.

As I mentioned in Fig Walnut Tarts and Swedish Cinnamon Buns, creating pastry is one of my favorite hobbies. Pastry is absolutely a labor of love that takes time, patience, exactitude, and focus. All things I admittedly don’t have a lot of! I tend to be as flaky as this brioche recipe! So I save my pastry making for the early morning weekend hours before anyone is up in the house. I plan ahead and get my ingredients ready the night before so all is set up when I creep into the kitchen before sun up.

These recent chilly mornings allow me precious baking moments. During the weekend mornings Grant, the girls, and Lukas stay snuggled in their beds just a little longer. Meanwhile, I set the coffee an hour earlier than usual. And I get to work quietly laminating, folding, rolling, baking, and then snapping pics at the morning’s first light.

We have already gotten our first snowfall of the year that led to the girls getting off school early and having a late start the following morning. The temperatures have dropped to the teens. Of course this meant cozy fires and fun treats to warm up with. While I was making chocolate hazelnut spread, the idea came to me to incorporate this into a pastry. So let’s transport ourselves to a cozy a Parisian pastry shop and dive in to baking one of the best wintry pastries imaginable.

Flaky Brioche Or Brioche Feuilletee

Feuillettee in French means flaky, which is exactly what this delicate, crispy, layered brioche loaf is. Brioche Feuilletee is much like a hybrid of a croissant and brioche. Within each yeasted layer is a soft and buttery dough that slightly caramelizes throughout the bake. Creating layer after layer of thin, buttery, moist, and slightly sweet inner brioche bread with crunchy bits of caramelized chocolate spread and crispy outer edges. What could be better than that?!

The process of making brioche Feuilletee takes time. You could even start the brioche dough the night before and continue with the remaining steps the next morning. This recipe is a great weekend morning breakfast or brunch. This recipe may seem a bit daunting. But just read through the steps a couple of times before getting started so you know exactly what to do before you begin. And as always, I’m just an email away if you need any help!

The following recipe yields enough for a few people to share as it makes two loaves. Although, I did eat a whole bun in one sitting. But pastry does not last long in my company. Ideally, this would serve about 10-12 people. Just don’t invite me to the feast since I cannot control myself around flaky pastry! Which brings me to a question I get asked constantly, “Who eats everything you post on this blog?”. ME! I eat all of it!

Brioche Dough

Brioche is a yeasted sweet bread that is enriched with eggs and butter. This is probably the most caloric bread, but it’s truly worth it! It has been my favorite bread since childhood. I remember I would beg my parents to go to a local bakery on weekend mornings. In fact, I learned early to save my allowance for my budding pastry addiction! I suppose I was destined to be a recipe developer since I was 2!

There was a local St. Louis bakery called Lake Forest Pastry that sold packs of 6 fresh sweet buns that always sold out within an hour. We raced to get the coveted brioche before it was all gone. I opened the bag mere moments after emerging from the bakery and bit down into the fluffy sweet rolls with such glee. We’d be lucky to make it home with any left for later. No butter or toppings required. They were pure flavor and the perfect texture. I can taste them just thinking about them.

The bakery closed long ago, much to my dismay. Lake Forest is even rumored to have had the original St. Louis gooey butter cake recipe. I’ll try to work some magic and get that recipe for us all to enjoy in the future! Stay tuned. In addition, it produced so many classics and some of my favorite food memories.

Even though Lake Forest and all those beloved bakes aren’t around anymore, my love for brioche has never faded. I have been wanting to share flaky brioche with you for awhile, and the holiday season seems like the ideal time to do so.

Flaky Brioche Dough

The first step in making the brioche fieuelletinne is to get the brioche dough prepared.

Heat milk in a microwave safe bowl until it reaches 110 degrees F. Make sure to use a thermometer! Then gently stir in yeast and a teaspoon of sugar and let it sit and get foamy for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, set up your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. In the bowl of the mixer, combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Then make a well in the middle. Add yeast mixture, eggs, and vanilla extract. Use a wooden spoon to incorporate the ingredients from the inner well, bringing the flour mixture into the beaten egg mixture.

Then use the dough hook to mix the dough on medium speed for 10 minutes.

Add the softened butter a tablespoon at a time, mixing well for a minute or two after each addition.

Then turn the mixer to medium high and mix for 5 more minutes.

Then butter a large bowl and use a spatula to turn the dough into that bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in size, which takes about 60-90 minutes.

*If you are making this overnight flaky brioche then leave the dough tightly wrapped in the fridge overnight for about 12 hours.

Butter Block

For the butter block use dry butter that is at least 84% fat. This entire recipe uses European butter.

*This post was edited after getting emails about where to find butter for the butter block. Finding dry butter is a challenge. So here are some options.

*82% butterfat blocks are a great substitute and are easy to find at stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, and evening Costco. These brands for European butter include ones like- Kerrygold, Plugra, and now even Land O Lakes makes – European butter.

Arrange the butter onto parchment paper and set another piece of parchment on top. Gently tap the butter block until it’s an 8 x 8 square. Chill for 30 minutes.

Laminating The Brioche

Brioche Feuilletee is all about layers within flaky layers. I made a few plain buns below to show you the lamination and how they rise from within if you bake them separately on a baking sheet rather than in a loaf pan.

When the dough has doubled in size, lightly flour a surface and turn the dough onto that surface. Flatten the brioche dough and gently shape it into a square. Then use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle that is about 16″ x 24″. Place the butter block in the middle of the rectangle. Then bring the bottom third up and over the butter. Bring the top third down over that. Essentially, fold it like a letter. Then use the rolling pin to gently push on the dough to seal in the butter block, pinching the seams as needed to conceal butter. Roll it out to seal in the butter. Turn it 90 degrees and repeat the letter folding process. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Chill 20-30 minutes.

Unlike other bread rolls like cinnamon or dinner rolls, this laminated brioche dough gets chilled during the lamination process like puff pastry does. This ensures the dough won’t tear and the lamination process goes smoothly.

Bring the dough out of the fridge. Roll it into a rectangle once again. Then repeat the folding and chilling process once more.

Chocolate Hazelnut Filled Brioche

*The following recipe gives you the option of filling the flaky brioche with chocolate hazelnut spread, like Nutella, or having it plain. For the plain version, brush on melted butter in place of the chocolate hazelnut spread.

For the last roll, roll it very thin so it is about 1/16 inch thickness. After you have rolled it out for the last time, either brush it with melted butter or spread chocolate hazelnut spread over the dough.

Then use a pizza or pastry cutter to cut the dough through the middle so you have two even pieces. Trim the sides as necessary so you have straight edges and even pieces. Roll up each side from the short side until you have two big layered rolls. Chill 20 minutes. Then slice each roll in half with a sharp knife so you have 4 equal portions.

Butter and line 2 9 x 5 loaf pans. Set parchment with overhang inside for easy lifting, if desired. Then place two flaky brioche buns into each pan. Cover and let rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake the brioche loaves for 25-30 minutes, until crisped and golden. Dust with powdered sugar after they have cooled.

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