How To Make Chocolate Bread
Depending on who you are, you may not want to know how to make chocolate bread. It can be dangerous! I know how to make chocolate bread and weekly I put my pretty waistline in danger. Chocolate bread is proof that chocolate can go anywhere. Perhaps it shouldn’t, but it does! When I say chocolate bread, I don’t mean a quick bread that is more cake like or a chocolate cake. I mean a yeast raised wheat bread with cocoa and chunks of chocolate. Chocolate bread is one of those items that proves once again that humans are good at adding calories to everything. I stand guilty. It isn’t simply the addition of cocoa and a small amount of chocolate to the dough, it is the added quarter of a pound of chocolate in the swirl that makes this bread an indulgence. Worse, this bread gets even more dangerous when you serve it warm with butter. Watch Out!
How To Make Chocolate Bread – The Dough
The dough is very simple. It really is a classic wheat bread recipe with added cocoa. Yes, I add whole wheat flour to the chocolate bread to give it some nice texture. Doesn’t adding the whole wheat flour make this bread healthy? Let’s be clear – NO! The ingredients are pretty standard beyond the flour and cocoa – yeast, eggs, butter, sugar, and salt.
To keep it even more simple, I use my bread maker to do all the work. Yes, you could use a stand mixer or a food processor. You could also mix the dough by hand and say you burned extra calories to fit the bread into your diet. Well, that might be a start.
Click Here For Stand Mixer, Mix by Hand Bread Machine and Food Processor General Guidance
How To Make Chocolate Bread – The Chocolate
The chocolate in the dough can vary depending on taste. I like to use a middle of the road 70% cacao chocolate, but a milk chocolate or even a darker chocolate can be used. After all, doesn’t using a very dark chocolate make the bread healthy? A very dark chocolate plus the whole wheat flour must make this a dietitian’s dream, right? Let’s be clear – NO. This is all about taste and indulgence!
Of course, the swirl is another matter. The swirl chocolate can match that which is in the dough, but mixxing it up would be fun. Even using a dark chocolate in the dough and white chocolate in the swirl would be very nice. A milk chocolate would work – just be careful of sweetness. A chocolate bread should not be decadently sweet. This is a place where we are looking for balance between the sweetness of the chocolate and the bitterness of the cocoa. A good dutch cocoa will do.
How To Make Chocolate Bread – Making The Swirl
As discussed, the making of chocolate bread is pretty straight forward. It is, for the most part, a mix, rise, punch down, shape, rise, bake operation. It is the shape part that is the most different because we want a swirl.
All a swirl entails is rolling out the dough into a rectangle. The rectangle should be 1 bread pan width wide and 2 bread pan widths long. So if you were using a bread pan that was 8.5 x 4.5 the width of your rectangle would be 8.5 and the length would be about 9ish. It really does not have to be exact, but the width is slightly more important. The rectangle is then brushed with egg wash (1 egg + 2 tbsp water). This helps the swirl stay together. Nobody like a swirl gap!
Then chopped chocolate is sprinkled all over and the dough is rolled up jelly roll style, put in the pan to rise and then baked. Simple! Make sure you pinch that seam shut after you roll up the dough. Don’t let your swirl ooze out!
Of course, the swirl can be omitted, too. Just shape as you would for a regular bread and proceed with rising. The dough can also can be divided into even pieces,, shaped into small balls and placed in a prepared muffin tin to rise, then baked at 350F for 20-25 minutes to yield small chocolate bread rolls.
The how to make chocolate bread video below shows you all the steps involved in making the bread. The full recipe follows.
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 cup of whole wheat flour
- ½ cup of cocoa powder
- ½ cup of sugar
- ¼ oz instant yeast
- 16 oz of 70% cocoa chocolate, divided
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tbsp butter at room temperature
- 1 cup of water
- 1 egg + 2 tbsp water
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
- Chop the chocolate into a small dice using a sharp knife. Divide the chocolate into four 4oz allotments.
- Place all the ingredients but only half the chocolate into the bread machine.
- Use the dough cycle to make the dough.
- When the dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the bread maker and punch it down.
- Divide the dough into 2 even pieces.
- On a floured surface using a rolling pin, roll out the dough pieces into rectangles 8.5 inches wide x10 inches long.
- Make the egg wash by beating the egg and water in a small bowl.
- Brush off any excess flour on the rectangles.
- Brush the rectangles with the egg wash. Sprinkle 4oz of chocolate onto the rectangles covering as much as the rectangles as possible.
- Starting at the end closest to you, tightly roll up the dough into a cylinder brushing off any excess flour and brushing on egg wash as you roll.
- Seal the end of the dough by pinching it closed.
- Place the dough into an 8.5 x 5 inch loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Let the dough rise in the pan covered with a towel in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Bake 35-40 minutes until it sounds hollow when you tap it or an instant read thermometer reaches 190F when inserted into the bread.
- Let cool in the pan 10 minutes then turn onto a cooling rack and cool completely. You can, of course, serve the bread warm!
- If desired, the swirl can be made with different chocolate (darker, milk, white) from that which is in the dough. The swirl chocolate can be omitted, too.
- The dough pieces can also can be divided into 18 even pieces each, shaped into small balls and placed in a muffin tin to rise, then baked at 350 for 20-25 minutes to yield small chocolate bread rolls.
We won’t even go into how you can make bread pudding or french toast with this. The links take you to pictures of carrots and celery!
I hope you enjoy!
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
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