Triple Chocolate School Bun - Schulbroetchen

When I grew up, I really enjoyed so called "Schulbroetchen" which are to my knowledge only sold in and around North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Those are something in between a chocolate scone and a yeast bun. As I do not life in an area anymore where that kind of sweets are sold, I choose to make them myself and top it all by adding more chocolate :)

As it is rainy and cold at the moment (at least where I live), I baked them to make me happy and more comfy. The will make you feel better. Especially if dipped in hot chocolate or milk.

You will need:

-730 g of normal wheat flour (26 oz)

-100 g of sugar (3.5 oz)

-fresh yeast (however you can buy it)

-370 ml of (room temperature) milk (12,5 fl oz)

-100g butter (3.5oz)

-2 eggs -a bit salt

[ is oz the correct unit for US?]

After filling the sugar and the flour into your mixing bowl (do not mix them yet!) pour a bit of milk (4 big spoons) into a smaller mixing bowl. Add a big spoon of sugar to it and dissolve the sugar. Now, crumb the yeast block into the milk and dissolve the yeast by stirring until you get a nice homogenous mixture. To speed things up a bit, place the yeast-milk-sugar mix onto a radiator or similar. It should be left for 15ish minutes.

While the yeast grows in its favorite conditions, form a hole inside the flour. Be careful, that the hollow only consist of flour and not sugar. Check out Step 4 in which I add the yeast to get a better idea.

As there is still some time before adding the yeast, you may want to chop the chocolate into smaller chunks. I just used a normal kitchen knife.

After motivating the yeast with food and heat, the cells are ready to be added to the flour. As shown in the picture, the liquid has increased in height. Pour it into the pre digged hole and cover it with flour from around. The yeast mixture is not supposed to touch other ingredients (yet).

Do not pour the liquids straight into where you buried the yeast. You may want to heat the butter up a bit before adding (Microwave).

I like to use a fork to premix and then knead the dough by hand on my worksurface with a bit a flour. If your dough is too sticky to knead by hand, add some flour.

Obviously, you may also do this step by machine.

Cover the dough and leave it for 45ish minutes. Again, leaving it on a heated surface makes sense. Temperatures you are aiming for are between 25 and 30 °C (77 to 86 F).

After these 45 minutes, the dough doubled in size and clearly shows small bubbles. You want to spread the dough carefully with your hands. The dough feels flexible and a bit fragile.

Now, add all the chocolate to it and roll it. Then, keep kneading until everything is nicely distributed.

Again, you may use a machine to do that.

How to form your dough depends on your preferences. In this example, I braided it. When braiding, tense the individual strings a bit. That gives a nicer form when backing.

I simply coat the dough with milk as this gives a nice color. You may cover it with almonds or more chocolate. Anything you can imagine.

Bake at 170 °C (338 F) with circulating air for 20 to 30 minutes.

When baked, you may want to dip it in coffee or a hot chocolate to maximize your delight :) Enjoy!