Kick your breakfast up a
notch with this so-awesome-it-should-be-illegal recipe for, yes, chocolate
bread. With bits of bittersweet chocolate scattered through, it’s sweet and
sharp and delicious for just about whenever that chocolate craving comes to
call.
Ingredients:
Makes one 10-inch loaf
2 ½ cups unbleached
all-purpose flour
¼ cup Dutch-processed
cocoa powder, such as Valhrona
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons instant
yeast
1 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted
butter, cubed, at room temperature
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup bittersweet
chocolate chips
4 tablespoons turbinado (look for "Sugar In The Raw")
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand
mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour, cocoa, granulated sugar,
and yeast and mix on low speed. Add 1 cup water and mix for 3 minutes. Let the
dough rest in the mixer bowl for 20 minutes.
After it has rested, add
the cubed butter and salt to the dough and mix on medium speed until the dough
comes together and the sides of the bowl are clean, about 5 minutes. The dough
mix will develop a satiny sheen. Turn the speed to low, add the bittersweet
chocolate chips, and mix until incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a
lightly floured surface and shape it gently into a round loaf. Put the dough
seam side down in a bowl that has been lightly coated with vegetable oil spray.
Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for
2 hours, or until it doubles in size.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of
turbinado sugar over the bottom of a 10-by-5-inch loaf pan. Turn the dough out
onto a lightly floured surface and gently form it into an 8-by-6-inch
rectangle. With a long side facing you, gently roll the dough up into a log.
Place seam side down in the pan. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and
let the dough rise again until doubled, about 1½ hours.
Position a rack in the
middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚ F. When the dough has risen, gently brush it
with the heavy cream. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons
turbinado sugar. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until the sugar on top is
caramelized. Let the loaf cool for 30 minutes, then remove it from the pan and
let cool completely on a wire rack. Wrapped in plastic wrap, the bread will
keep at room temperature for up to 8 days.
Many thanks to Cheryl Day
and Griffith Day for sharing the recipe with us. The duo say you can serve
chocolate bread a number of ways: with a sharp white cheddar; toasted, with a
spread of Nutella; or as French toast, with strawberries and whipped cream.
Their new cookbook, The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook (out now!), is packed
with recipes just as tempting as this one. And, psst! There are two more in our
August/September 2012 issue!
Excerpted from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by
Cheryl Day & Griffith Day (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2012. Photographs by
Squire Fox.
BY GL ON 7/26/2012 11:16:00 AM
POSTED IN sweet treats, breakfast, breads, chocolate