Chocolate Swirl Bread Loaf & Pork Floss Swiss Roll

Another month is coming to an end, and it is almost August. And before we know it, we'll be marching into the last quarter of 2011. Time is just swishing by really fast and sometimes I feel kind of helpless thinking about it. Wonder if anyone of you felt the same. :P Anyway, I'll try to minimize the wasting of time here by posting two recipes in this post. First up is Chocolate Swirl Bread Loaf. I have again adapted the 17hr pre-fermentation method in this recipe. Using the plain white loaf recipe, I incorporated some cocoa sugar powder to create the swirl effect.

Pardon me if you find this loaf rather hideous looking...kind of like the incredible hock loaf, lol! I guess I should have dine a better job on the shaping. But it's really kind of messy and hard to handle as the cocoa sugar powder melts into the dough as I place it into the loaf tin....so lessonlearn ; choose a cooler day to bake this. ;P

Ingredients for White Bread Loaf (makes 2 loaves of 9X5X5)

Pre-ferment Dough

480g bread flour

274ml water

14g fresh yeast ( I used 8 g instant active dry yeast)

7g sea salt

14g 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:

206g bread flour

7g sea salt

69g caster sugar

199ml water

3g fresh yeast (I used instant active dry yeast)

48g unsalted butter, room temperature

Chocolate Mix:

40g cocoa powder
100g caster sugar

Method: (*note that I use only half of the dough portion for this)

• 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.
• Punch out the air and roll the dough into a flat rectangle, about 250cm by 30cm. Sprinkle the chocolate mix all over the dough surface.
• Cut the dough into 8 equal strips and stack them one on top of the other. Then further cut the dough log into 6 equal squares.
• Take the stacks of square dough, place them standing up like books until it fills up the whole

I apologize for the lack of visual aid in the shaping of the loaf this time. But no worries, normal Swiss roll style shaping will work just fine. :)

A shot of the bread's soft texture. Didn't bother to slice it this time, lol! Anyway, it's a good recipe, will make it again, perhaps with cinnamon sugar & chocolate chips next round.

The other recipe is Pork Floss Swiss Roll. I have done this Swiss Roll before...quite awhile back. Although this combination may seem unorthodox, cake with pork floss? But trust me, it is surprisingly delicious. So far anyone that has tasted it has changed their own opinion about this unusual marriage of ingredients and rave it's yumminess. :)

This time I used the vanilla sponge cake recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 cookbook. This vanilla cake recipe uses the same egg separation method which always yields a soft texture. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Vanilla Sponge Swiss Roll cake: (makes a 14cm X 10cm)

Set A:
40g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
100g egg yolk (about 5)
20g caster suagr
Set B:
160g egg white ( about 4)
75g caster sugar

55g cake flour

For detail steps; please refer to my earlier post for the technique.

I will be submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food. If you have not submitted yet, do hurry as it's only a few days left! Don't miss out the fun and the attractive gift that might just be yours! :)

Okay all, have a great weekend ahead! Cheers!