WHEN YOU CAN'T BE IN PARIS...

  So what do I do when I dream of being in Paris and can't?  I bake French pastry and try to trick my mind into thinking I am actually there.  Sad, but true, I doubt I will be visiting Paris anytime soon.  Never say never, but I just don't think this is the year.  After my trip last summer, I came home to stories of my dog Pipi acting suicidal while I was gone.  That's when I said, as long as I have Pipi I cannot travel anywhere without her.  (But, give me a convincing argument why I should go, and who knows... )

  A pastry that you will see in many of the pâtisseries in Paris is Brioches aux Gouttes de Chocolat (chocolate chip brioches).  I found Patisserie Gérard Mulot's recipe for this in the book, Paris Boulangerie Pâtisserie, by Linda Dannenberg.  It takes some time, but is worth every minute.  This brioches recipe is my favorite.  I've always had fantastic results.  After the second rise, in the refrigerator, it is rolled rather thin into a large rectangle and spread with vanilla pastry cream then sprinkled with chocolate chips before folding and cutting into thin strips.  Any brioche dough that is left, I form into a ball and bake. 

                                   Brioches aux Gouttes de Chocolat
                     from Paris Boulangerie Pâtisserie by Linda Dannenberg

Brioche Dough:
• 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 4 cups (500 G sifted all-purpose flour)
• 1/4 cup (50 G sugar)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
Pastry Cream:
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Assembly:
• 4 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large egg, well beaten, for glaze

Brioche Dough:  Place the lukewarm water in a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast.  Let stand for 10 minutes, then transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook or a large mixing bowl.  Add the sifted flour, sugar, salt and 3 eggs.  Mix at low speed until blended, using the dough hook or by hand with a wooden spoon.  Gradually add the remaining 2 eggs and raise the speed to medium.  Mix until the dough is smooth, elastic, and fairly soft, about 10 minutes.  When it is ready, it should stick to the sides and bottom of the bowl. * My dough was extremely dry and I had to add additional water until I got the texture of dough described above *  Gradually add the butter 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing just until it has been absorbed, then quickly adding more.  Don't overmix, or the dough will become warm.  Transfer the dough to a buttered large mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until the dough has doubled in volume, 1 1/2 to 2 hours (my house is always cold and took quite a while to double, probably more like 4 hours).  Punch down or fold the dough over onto itself.  Cover again with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight

Pastry Cream:  Bring the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium-high heat in a heavy saucepan.  In a large nonaluminum mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar, then add the cornstarch and whisk until well blended.  Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly, then return the mixure to the saucepan and bring to a boil.  Boil over medium-high heat, whisking vigorously, for 2 minutes.  Strain the cream into a clean mixing bowl; if you are using vanilla extract, add it now.  Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard.  Cool, then chill at least 1 hour, and up to 3 days. 

Assembly:  Roll out the cold dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 12 x 18-inch rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick.  Stir the cold pastry cream once or twice to smooth it.  With a spatula, spread 1 cup of the pastry cream over the surface in a thin layer.  Scatter the chocolate pieces  over the top.  Fold the short ends of the rectangle toward the middle, so one short end meets the other in the center.  With a very sharp knife, cut the dough in half along the center seam.  Cut each half crosswise in 12 strips, cutting decisively all the way through so the dough doesn't pull.  Place the strips on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing about 3/4-inch apart.  Cover loosly with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough is puffy-- about 1 1/2 hours.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly brush the tops of the dough strips with the beaten egg.  Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Cool the brioches in the pan on a wire rack.  * Cutting the strips of brioches as described in the recipe will give you 24 pastries.  I have previously cut the dough to give me 18 pastries, which I think had better results.  The top dough tends to slide on the pastry cream and chocolate during the last rise and again in the baking, and I found this to be less of a problem when the strips were cut a little wider.