Red Currant Bakery

Chocolate Dough
Heat the milk to just under 100 F in the microwave. Stir in the yeast and set aside for 10 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the flour and sugar. Then sift in the cocoa powder and whisk it all together by hand.
Add in the egg, egg yolk, butter, bloomed yeast/ milk mixture and vanilla extract. Knead the mixture with the dough hook on the stand mixer for 10-15 minutes on low speed until it is smooth and the bowl is clean.
Remove the dough and shape it into a ball. Lightly grease the mixing bowl and place the ball of dough back in.
Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic and place somewhere warm for 30-45 min. The dough should double in size.
Chocolate Cream
Follow the instructions for the instant or cooked chocolate pudding but use only half of the milk that is called for on the box.
If you made cooked pudding, lay a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding to keep it from forming a skin as it cools. Place the finished pudding into the fridge to chill for an hour or leave to cool to room temperature.
Shape & Bake
Preheat the oven to 350 F or 325 F if baking on convection.
Arrange two racks so that they divide the oven into thirds and line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions.
Shape each portion into a ball by first flattening it slightly into a disk and then tucking all the edges of the disk under.
Shape your hand into a claw over the ball of dough with the smooth side face up. Roll the ball around in your hand on a clean work surface to create tension on the dough and seal the seem on the bottom of the ball.
Place 6 rolls onto each baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between each roll.
Leave the rolls to rest for 30 minutes somewhere warm to proof.
Then bake for 15 minutes – rotate the baking sheets halfway through if not baking on convection.
While they bake, prepare the coatings.
In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and espresso. In a separate bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Then whisk in the milk.
When the krapfen are finished baking, work one at a time and brush half of them with butter and roll in espresso sugar and the other half in the chocolate glaze.
Leave to cool before assembling.
Assembling
If the chocolate pudding is very stiff, use an electric whisk to beat the chilled it until smooth.
Then whisk the heavy cream on medium high speed until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold half of the stiff whipped cream into the chocolate pudding. Then pour the pudding and whipped cream mix into the bowl with the remaining whipped cream and fold to combine.
Fill the chocolate cream into a piping bag fitted with a metal piping tip.
Poke a hole into the side of each bun with the end of a spoon and wiggle it around to create a whole inside the bun.
Push the piping tip into the hole of each cooled bun and fill until the cream starts to come back out of the opening.