Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread Loaf

I love all things chocolate, no doubt about that. :) So if you adore chocolate like me, you have come to the right stop today. :) I have a chocolaty bread recipe to share with you folks, sure to satisfy any chocolate craving you have. Its been awhile since I last baked bread for the family, and what's better then to start it off with a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Loaf, yum! :)

I adapted this recipe from the latest bread recipe book I purchased, "Natural Breads Made Easy" (Chinese is "天然麵面包"). There is a Coffee Bread recipe which I modified it to Chocolate version instead. :) This is one of those that requires pre-fermented dough and leaving it to chill in the fridge up to 17 hours. Please refer to my previous Milk Tea Bread Loaf. :) Curious how good this Chocolate loaf is? Well, here is the modified recipe, try it out if you "dare", hahaha!

Ingredients for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread:
Pre-ferment Dough:
469g bread flour
268g water
13g fresh yeast (I used instant active yeast)
7g sea salt (I used table salt)
13g skim milk powder

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap or a big zip log bag. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

Note: The dough will expand in the fridge. So whatever container you put the dough in, do give some allowance for growth.

Main Dough:
201g bread flour
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
7g sea salt (I used table salt)
70g sugar
80g beaten egg
60ml fresh milk
60g quality milk chocolate melted and cooled
7g fresh yeast (I used instant active yeast)
66g unsalted butter, room temperature

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable consistency.
  
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
  
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top like mine. If open top, brush with egg wash. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

I have actually separate the dough recipe into 2 loaves to bake on separate days. The first loaf was done the very next day after the pre-fermented dough was chilled for 17 hours. While the other portion was used 4 days later...still good! So no worries if you got a little busy and can't make the bread the very next day, the dough will still bake out nicely. :) Cool huh!

The loaf turned out great, easy to knead and also rises pretty fast too. The only mistake I made was to add chocolate chips. :P Why? Because when I slice the loaf, the chocolate get all gooey and stuck onto the knife...not clean cut if you know what I mean.

Once again this method has yield a really soft, tasty and slightly "bouncy" (the Chinese would describe it as Q-Q, heehee) loaf. If you have tasted this, its really hard to go back to those off the shelf store-bought loaves. :P And when it was fresh out of the oven, my little one was really eager to taste it and kept on hurrying me to finish the photo shots, lol! She gobbled up one and half slice!s Yes, she's a choco-lover like me. :D

Okay, hope you folks will try this out and have fun baking it! Have a great week ahead!