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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Chocolate Bread....Better than Club Med's!


It really is a Yeasted Chocolate Coffee Cake according to Martha Stewart Living (March 2011)  but to me it is
CHOCOLATE BREAD.
Many of you know that I have worked in the travel industry a gazillion years, and so many times I have heard people ask when they were chatting with someone who had gone to Club Med was "Wasn't the Chocolate Bread Amazing?"  And everyone agreed.  At one time I had the recipe but can't find it now.....Who cares?  Move over Club Med...honestly I like this one better. 

My friend Ivonne, over at Cream Puffs in Venice, started "Magazine Mondays" back in 2007, and I have been meaning to participate, so here goes.  It is very informal and it really is about trying those recipes in Magazines you have hanging around.  Go check her out, she has a great Blog. 

Susan of Wild Yeast has another  blog that I follow religiously.  I wanted to mention her since she features all kinds of breads and products made with yeast.  I have been shown on her "Yeastspotting" feature on occasion....:)

Now for the Chocolate Bread/coffee cake.   Here are the ingredients:


Bread
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons plus a pinch of granulated sugar
3/4 cup warm milk ( 110 degrees)
1 lg egg plus 1 lg yolk
3 cups All-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
Coarse salt
1 stick unsalted butter - room temperature plus extra for pan and bowl
1 lg egg plus 1 tbsp heavy cream lightly beaten for egg wash

Filling
8 ozs bittersweet chocolate (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 tbsps unsalted butter - cut into small pieces

For the crumb topping
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsps confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsps unsalted butter - room temp




Sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of granulated sugar over the milk in a medium bowl and let it stand until foamy.



Whisk together the remaining sugar, the egg and yolk in another bowl, then whisk it into the yeast mixture

Combine the flour, salt in the mixture (whirl it around a bit to mix)

 then add the egg/yeast mixture.  Beat on low about 30 seconds. Switch to dough hook and add butter and beat until smooth, soft and slightly sticky.


Butter a large bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a little until smooth.  Place in the bowl, turn to coat and cover with plastic wrap.  Let stand in a warm place until doubled - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. 

Now let's make the filling!

 Coarsely chop the chocolate 


Combine chocolate, granulated sugar  and cinnamon then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or rub it in with your fingers...that's what I did!
Now let's assemble!


Punch down the dough then transfer it to a floured surface - let it stand for 5 mintes to relax.


Roll it out to an 18-inch square (1/8 inch thick)- brush edges with egg wash.  Spread the filling over the dough (reserve 1/2 cup) - leave a 1 inch border - and tightly roll like a jelly roll.
Pinch the seam to seal. Now fold this in half to form a U and twist 3 or 4  times.  I forgot to take a picture of the twisted dough...sorry....

Make a crumb topping
Combine confectioner's sugar,flour and butter

Butter a 5x10 inch loaf pan and line with parchment, leaving 1inch overhangs, butter parchment and transfer dough to pan.  Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle crumb topping and reserved 1/2 cup of filling over bread/cake.  Drape a plastic wrap over dough/pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees....
and let dough stand until risen by half (20-30 minutes)

Remove plastic wrap and bake, rotating half way through, until golden about 55 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until deep golden 15-20 minutes more.  Have some foil to cover it if it gets too dark.  Transfer to wire rack and let cool.





It was good.... Camera Guy
enjoyed  it toasted with butter....yummy... and chocolatey....

Until we bake again....
Penny



7 comments:

Unknown said...

The chunks of chocolate look insanely good (along with the rest of the loaf, of course :-).

creampuff said...

Oh, baby! I bookmarked this one as soon as I got the magazine and now I want to scramble to make it. It looks GLORIOUS!!!

Unknown said...

Oh Penny, this looks wonderful! I just saw this in the mag a few days ago! Yours looks much better. Fantastic blog, btw! Cheers.

The Food Hunter said...

Whatever you call it...it looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

This is great! Reminds me of the chocolate Babka I love so much. I will try to make one soon and thank you for passing on Sadie"s recipe!

Smith said...

nice

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I used this recipe as a basis for my own recipe. I did pretty much the same, but made a bigger loaf. Rather than an egg and a yolk, I used three yolks. The only bittersweet I could find at Trader Joe's had almonds, so I did half bittersweet with almonds and the other half with a dark chocolate. Also added a little dried coffee. My flours included not only AP, but a little buckwheat and some ATTA (whole wheat). Added vanilla and orange flavoring to the dough. It seems that most recipies with chocolate wind up being a coffee cake rather than a bread, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. My bread is made with natural yeast, not commercial, so I will have to wait overnight before I can bake. Forgot to buy cream for the topping, so I will have to get by with milk instead.

Mostly I put this comment to encourage people to actually make bread- not just comment on the pictures. Don't get too hung up on the exact recipe- just have fun.

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