Soft braided brioche with custard and chocolate chips similar to Torta Angelica
What we’ll prepare today is a sweet braided brioche filled with pastry cream and chocolate chips. A soft and indulgent cake to enjoy for breakfast or as a snack.
The recipe is inspired by the famous “Torta Angelica” by the Simili sisters, two very well-known pastry chefs from Bologna, and for a long time it was a web sensation.
As always in these cases I waited months, if not years, before trying it myself. In this case I was a little intimidated by the apparent length and complexity of the process.
In reality, unlike what one might think, this leavened cake is not difficult at all.
The dough works very well both with a stand mixer and by hand and perhaps the only difficulty for me, who doesn’t have superb manual skills, could be the strong dough development needed to obtain the typical crown shape of this cake.
I worked around this by making a simple braid and placing the dough in a cake pan… necessity is the mother of invention.
After all, appearance matters, but the most important thing for a cake is its taste!
And what you get is an incredibly delicious cake, fragrant and soft, enriched by the custard and chocolate chips.
Let yourself be tempted and make this fantastic soft braid with custard and chocolate chips.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Cooking time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 8 – 10 people
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups Manitoba flour
- 1/2 cup butter (softened) — about 4.2 oz
- 1/2 cup whole milk (just warmed)
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 2/3 cup chocolate chips (about 3.5 oz)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 1/8 cups Manitoba flour (for the starter)
- 0.35 oz fresh yeast (about 10 g; substitute with ~1 tsp active dry yeast)
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 1/4 cups milk (for the custard)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (for the custard)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (for the custard)
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 vanilla bean
Preparation
Let’s start by preparing the starter (levitino).
Dissolve the fresh yeast in the warm water with the addition of the honey, then add 1 1/8 cups of Manitoba flour and knead quickly.
Work the dough only briefly, cover it with a cloth and let it rise at room temperature for about one hour.While the starter rests, prepare the main dough.
Put the softened butter, the flour (about 3 1/4 cups Manitoba), the just-warmed milk (1/2 cup), the sugar, the egg yolks and the salt into the bowl of the stand mixer.
Knead everything very well until the ingredients are well combined.
When the starter has risen, add it to the rest of the dough and knead for another 5 minutes, mixing until there are no more visible color differences.
Form a ball and place it in a bowl. Cover with a dish towel and let it rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume.While the dough is rising, prepare the pastry cream so it has time to cool completely.
Put the milk, the cream and the vanilla bean (scraped, seeds removed) into a small saucepan and heat them.
Meanwhile, in a bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar and the scraped vanilla seeds.
Add the sifted flour and continue mixing. As soon as the milk mixture has warmed, remove it from the heat and slowly pour the egg mixture into the milk while stirring.
Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring with a whisk, for another two minutes until the cream thickens.
Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.By now the dough will have risen, so turn it out onto a work surface lined with parchment paper.
Roll it out with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 1 1/8 inches thick.
Brush a thin layer of cold pastry cream over the entire surface of the dough and smooth it, then sprinkle evenly with the chocolate chips.
Roll the rectangle up from the long side and cut the resulting roll in half.
Separate the two halves of the roll and braid them together.
Place the braided dough into a lightly buttered and floured cake pan and let it rise one last time for about 40 minutes.After the final rise, brush the surface of the cake with a little melted butter, and bake at 356°F for about 40 minutes.
Let the cake cool completely before slicing.
Notes
You can vary the filling to taste.
I chose pastry cream and chocolate chips, but you can also use only chocolate chips or replace them with raisins or candied orange.
You can store this cake for 3–4 days as long as it is well sealed in a container or wrapped in plastic wrap so it doesn’t lose its freshness.
The original recipe includes a decoration with a sugar glaze which I preferred not to make.
If you want to prepare it it’s very simple: mix with a fork 1 egg white with about 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar until it becomes a smooth, lump-free glaze.
With this glaze you can decorate the cake as you like.
Alternatively use sugar sprinkles or dust the surface with powdered sugar.
