This Chocolate Brioche Bread Wreath is the perfect homemade chocolate sweet bread. Delicious and impressive looking, this chocolate bread is the perfect edible gift and will be a great addition to your Holiday breakfast table!

Sweet bread from above on a square cake stand with a white napkin

Why we love this recipe

If you ask me, there is nothing more satisfying than making your own bread. The smell, the taste, the excitement of seeing it slowly rising - it is just too fun!

Today, I am associating this favourite of mine with another one - Dark Chocolate. Perfect for breakfast, brunch and especially for the holidays, this Chocolate Brioche Bread Wreath is a real show stopper recipe!

This Christmas Brioche will make the most perfect festive Christmas Bread to enjoy with your family or to give away as an edible gift!

What is a Brioche Bread

Brioche is probably my favourite type of Sweet Bread. They are so light, fluffy and addictively delicious. But what is Brioche, after all?

Brioche is a classic French Sweet Yeast Bread that is made with Eggs and Butter. Although usually called a bread, brioche belongs more to the “Viennoiserie” category - baked goods that are richer than breads because they have fat in them.

Brioches can be served plain or made with different types of filling. The most commons ones are probably Chocolate Chips or Raisins, but you can pretty much fill them with anything!

The Basic Brioche Recipe is really great because it is super versatile. The dough is really easy to work with because it is enriched, which makes it easy to shape in any way you want.

Once again, I based my recipe on one I found in my favourite recipe book ever: “The Complete Guide to Baking: Bread, Brioche and other Gourmet Treats”

Basic Sweet Brioche Ingredients:

To make this Pull Apart Milk Bread Wreath, you will need:

Milk: preferably full cream

Yeast: I used Instant Dry Yeast

Sugar: Brown Sugar in this case

Flour: Plain / All-Purpose, but Bread Flour can be used too

Eggs: medium size, at room temperature

Butter: unsalted

Salt: simple table salt or fine salt

Wreath on a cake stand next to a single bun a plate.

How to make a Bread Wreath

There are a few different ways to make a Bread Wreath. The easiest one is probably to use the Babka technique. A Babka Bread is rolled into a large rectangle, covered with a filling, rolled on its length then sliced in half lengthwise.

The two parts are then twisted around each other to create the famous Babka 'Shape'. In the case of a Bread Wreath, you would simply add an extra step: roll the long twisty bread into a circle.

I particularly love this Chocolate Babka Wreath made by Michelle from the Brown Eyed Baker. This technique has been explained step by step with photos in this recipe: Mozzarella Pesto Babka Bread

You may want to check it out to better understand how to make this recipe, as it starts with the exact same process. To make this Chocolate Brioche Bread Wreathe, I used another technique.

Or more specifically, I pushed this technique a little bit further. Instead of making a Bread Wreath out of one large dough, I divided the Brioche into 8 little twisted buns that I placed next to each other to create a Wreath.

Shaping the Chocolate Swirl Bread

Making this recipe may seem a little bit complicated, but trust me - it is easier than it seems! The recipe is basically the same as the one I used to make my Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Brioche Buns.

Just like for this recipe, I divided my Brioche Dough into small, individual buns. I rolled each buns into a rectangle, covered them with the Dark Chocolate Ganache filling, then rolled them into a rope-like shape.

Slice the dough ropes in half, lengthwise and twist them around each other. Lastly, wrap the twisted dough on itself to create little buns.

To create this Chocolate Brioche Bread Wreath, I used a classic Tube Pan like the one I used to make my Chocolate Chiffon Cake. I highly recommend greasing your tube pan well to avoid getting your bread wreath stuck in.

To create the Wreath effect, simply place each little Chocolate Brioche Buns next to each other in the Tube Pan and let them prove until they touch.

While baking, the Brioche Bread will rise and the individual buns will connect to form the Wreath. You will then be able to simply pull one bun out rather than having to slice it. It's that easy!

More Bread Recipes:

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