In Italy, these tasty pastry confections are called cornetti or brioche and are commonly eaten at breakfast with a cappuccino or with an espresso in a local coffee bar. They can be plain, glazed, or filled with marmaletta (jam, orange marmalade most commonly used) or with chocolate.
While in Italy last year I noticed most of the chocolate filled brioche are now filled with Nutella rather than squares of chocolate as I was used to. Although I wanted to try my hand at making this tasty treat at home, I am consciously trying hard to eat whole grains so I decided to create a whole grain version. I adapted my recipe from the Whole Wheat Brioche bread in the new book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois since I have had great luck with many of the other breads I’ve already tried out from this book.
The one change I made to the basic recipe was to substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose to increase the wheat content of the dough. The crescents turned out great and were very easy to make! The dough recipe makes 2 pounds but only 1 1/2 is used for the brioche.
A Creamy Nutella Center
Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele
Nutella Filled Whole Wheat Brioche
A whole wheat brioche filled with a creamy Nutella center.
Ingredients
For The Dough:
- 4 Cups White Wheat Flour
- 2 Cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Instant Yeast
- 1/4 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten
- 2 1/4 to 2 1/4 Cups Warm Water
- 3/4 Cup Melted & Cooled Unsalted Butter
- 3/4 Cup Clover Honey
- 5 Large Eggs
Filling & Baking:
- Nutella
- 1 Large Egg
- Coarse Sugar
Instructions
- For the dough, mix together the dry ingredients in a large container with a lid.
- Combine liquid ingredients and then add to the dry ingredients mixing everything with a wooden spoon until blended.
- Cover the container with plastic wrap and allow it to rest at room temperature until it rises and then collapses, about 2 hours.
- Refrigerate dough in the lidded container overnight or up to 5 days.
- Remove 1 1/2 pounds of the dough from the refrigerator and dust lightly with flour while rolling it into a ball.
- Cover and allow dough to rest 30 minutes.
- Cover two baking sheets with parchment or silicone sheets.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/8th of an inch thick.
- Use a pastry or pizza cutter and cut the dough into 5 inch wide strips, and then cut into two triangles.
- Stretch each triangle gently, and then place a teaspoonful of nutella near the wide end.
- Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up and then bend into a crescent shape.
- Continue to prepare all of the dough in this fashion placing them on the prepared pans after they have been filled and shaped.
- Cover loosely with clean kitchen towels and let rise 45 minutes to an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and carefully brush the tops of each brioche.
- Sprinkle on the sugar if using.
- Bake the brioche for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool 15 minutes before serving.