Chocolate Bread

And now for the recipe...

Ingredients

• 2-½ tsp active-dry yeast
• 1-½ cups water
• 3-½ cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1-½ tsp salt
• ½ cup currents (optional)
• ¾ hazelnuts, chopped roughly and lightly toasted
• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped roughly
• 4 oz white chocolate chopped roughly
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter soft but not mushy and broken into small peices
• 1 egg beaten extra butter to grease the loaf pan

Method

Sprinkle the yeast into a bowl filled with a ½ cup of the water. Wait 5 minutes, then stir to dissolve. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt, make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture. Mixing the flour, stir in the remaining water, as needed, to form a soft sticky dough. If the dough gets too wet to work with, then add more flour sparingly until you have a soft sticky dough, it should not be a wet globby mess, like mine was the first time. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for at least 10 minutes, until it becomes smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let it rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. Grease your 9inx5inx3in bread loaf pan with butter and set aside. After about an hour, punch down the dough, then let it rest for 10 minutes(it's tired, lol). After 10 minutes add the currents, hazelnuts, white chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, butter and egg to the bowl and massage the ingredients in- working them into the dough until somewhat incorporated then turning out onto a lightly floured work surface and kneading until firm enough to handle and shape, about 3 minutes. Shape the dough into a fat log, tucking the edges under, and place in your greased loaf pan (you did grease your pan didn't you?). Cover with a dish towel and let proof until it has risen, about 30 minutes. It should rise so that it's about an inch over the rim of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350° F

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until it is golden brown looking. Remove from oven, let rest in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and cool.

Written by Deb on November 26, 2002 12:31 PM