Chocolate layer bread

Is it just me or is time passing faster. Seems like nowadays there are a lot more things to do and always not enough time, well, I am very sure you have that feeling sometimes. Even if you have the week all well planned out, it will just whisk right by. Maybe age is really catching up on me. *sigh*

So instead of letting today to be mundane, I decided to make it extra special for myself. I told my husband and girls I love them very much this morning before sending them off. I went for a swim this morning. Bake a new chocolate bread recipe. Make arrangements with my girlfriends to meet up in mid week for our usual baking fun. Painted my toe nails (haven't done that for ages!). Made my favorite chicken curry for dinner tonight. And lastly of course is to share and blog my recipe....don't you know sharing is caring. ;)

What another chocolate bread, so boring! Heehee, sorry, but I have been wanting to make this bread for awhile now....so couldn't resist anymore. :P It's actually quite different from the other chocolate bread that I've blogged, so please bare with me. ;)








I have made both buns and a small loaf with the amount of dough. And if you see carefully, there are in fact 3 different layers of dough, plain, chocolate and chocolate paste. Together they create magic in my mouth, haha!
So here is my Chocolate layer bread recipe:
Ingredients for Chocolate layer bread:
Bread dough :
250g bread flour
40g cake flour
10g coca powder
5g instant dry yeast
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
8g milk powder (about 2 tsp)
55ml heavy whipping cream
80ml fresh milk
1 tsp baking powder
30g unsalted butter, room tmp

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, except butter & cocoa powder, mix all ingredients together to form a soft dough.
• Knead the dough till it is not sticky and add the butter. Continue to knead. To test if dough is ready, stretch a small piece using the finger tips of both your hands. If you can pull the dough to almost see through texture without breaking it, it's probably done.
• Divide the dough into half. Mixing cocoa powder and 1 tbsp of water to form a chocolate paste. Add chocolate paste to one of the dough portion and knead till it's uniform in color.
  
• Place both the dough pieces in separate oiled bowls, cover with plastic wrap and let proof for at least 80 minutes.

Chocolate paste:
15g cake flour
8g cornflour
16g cocoa powder
30g melted chocolate
65g caster sugar
8g agar-agar powder (jelly powder)
50ml water
1/2 tsp of fresh lemon juice
1 egg white
25g unsalted butter

Method:

• Except for butter, mix all ingredients in a heat proof bowl and stir well till all incorporated.
• Microwave mixture for 1 minute and stir well again. Add butter and mix well.
• Let paste cool on plate and wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1hr before use.

Assembly:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter the 6 cup muffin tin and small loaf tin (7" by 3"").
• Punch out the air in the bread doughs. Roll out both dough into 30 cm by 30cm flat square.
• Stack the chocolate dough on top of plain dough or other way, which ever your preference is. Roll out chocolate paste, so it's 13cm by 30 cm.

• Place chocolate paste on one side of the bread dough as shown below:

• Flip and cover up the chocolate paste with the bread doughs and seal the edges. Roll it out to 20cm by 40 cm. Then fold it like a letter form, and roll it out till it's about 30 by 30 cm. Cut in to half , so each piece is 15cn by 30 cm.
• One of the pieces, seal the edges making sure the chocolate paste is conceal inside. Roll it our further to 30 by 20cm. From the short side, roll it up like a swiss roll form and seal the edges when done. Place in the loaf tin and let proof for another 60 minutes.
• The other half of dough, cut it up into 6 equal portions and roll it with the palm of your hands to make it slightly round. Place each piece in the muffin tin and let proof for 60 mins.
• After proofing, brush top with egg wash and bake for 20 -25 mins for buns & 30 to 35mins for loaf. Remove bread from mold once it's out of the oven.

The bread is super soft and the chocolate paste is just sweet enough to eat the bread on it's own. Looking at the swirl in the bread can be quite mesmerizing....look deep into it...yes...deeper...and its telling you something. "Make me today....., make me and you won't regret it. And when you do, you'll never buy those pre-sliced sandwich bread in a soft plastic bag from some factory bakery that specializes in long shelf lives again". Hahaha! Enjoy my friends!!