Chewy Chocolate Sticks

Hi, there. Here's a little Friday morning breakfast treat for you. Although, as with most yeasty things, you'd have to get up awfully early to serve these for breakfast. A lot of times you can let cinnamon rolls do their second rise slowly in the fridge overnight, so you can bake them for breakfast...I haven't tried that with these but maybe that would work?

What you've got here is just some yummy awesome twisty pain au chocolat sticks. Perfect for breakfast or snack on the run, or for dunking in a monster mug of something steamy. I've made these twice, both on cold stay-in-all-day days. I love staying home all day. And I love twisty chocolate bread. I love eating the cooled melty overflow chocolate pieces off the parchment. I love the way the filling is just bursting out of the peekaboo twists.

The author wants you to put plumped raisins in these with the chocolate chips, so you can if you like, but I'm pretty particular about raisins, and to me they just don't belong here.

Chewy Chocolate Sticks (print recipe)
Dough:
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 T rapid-rise yeast
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup dry milk powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups bread flour

Filling:
1 cup sugar
4 T cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
1 cup chocolate chips

Finishing Touches:
Egg white, beaten
Sugar, for dusting

1. Stack two baking sheets together and line top sheet with parchment paper. You will need to repeat this procedure for each batch.

2. In a mixer bowl, hand-whisk water and yeast together and let stand 2 minutes dissolve yeast. Briskly whisk in eggs, sugar, salt, butter, vanilla, milk powder, and most of flours and blend well. Attach dough hook and knead on lowest speed of mixer 8 to 10 minutes, adding remaining flour as necessary to form a soft dough.

3. Remove dough hook and spray dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover bowl or entire mixer with a large clear plastic bag or plastic wrap. Let dough rise 30 to 60 minutes or until almost doubled.

4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate.

5. Press or roll out dough to a 20-by-10-inch rectangle. Blend sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon and scatter over dough. Dot with butter and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

6. Roll up dough into a log; then flatten gently so it is a flattened log. Using a sharp knife or dough scraper, cut into 12 cylinders or logs and place on prepared baking sheets, stretching each a little bit and twisting. Brush pastries with beaten egg white and dust with sugar. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sticks rise 30 to 40 minutes or until almost doubled. (If you want them puffier, let them rise longer.)

7. Preheat oven to 350. Bake until well-browned, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let them cool on baking sheets.

Recipe from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman