I can't remember the last time I baked as a Bread Baking Buddy, let alone the last time I baked bread. First my gluten intolerance, then being burnt out by my professional baking kept me away from one of my the greatest satisfactions, getting my hands in some yeast dough. Lately I have started baking again to my family's happiness.
I saw this bread when it was chosen as bread of the month by the Bread Baking Babes, and I decided to make it for my family since they love bread and they are all serious chocoholics. Plus I was also up at 2 due to jet lag so why not bake some bread?
I followed the recipe to the letter, except that I omitted the chocolate chips in the dough and did some extra mixing since the dough didn't come together easily.
I used the gluten developing technique I learned from my friend and mentor DMG, which works great with very wet doughs and when a mixer is not available. I know this is a no-knead bread but the recipe warned that the dough works better when chilled, I figured I would get some gluten going to make it easier to handle.
After the initial mixing, I transferred the dough onto lightly floured surface, and by hand pulled the dough and folded it few times until it looked more homogeneous. After a 10 minute rest, I pulled and refolded it again. After another 30 minute rest, I pulled and folded it a final time. The dough was left to rise in a warm spot for another hour and thirty minutes.
The recipe was chosen by Jamie of Life's a feast blog and can be found in Jamie's post, to find the recipe in a printed friendly link check Lien's post.
I left out the prunes, and tried two versions, a chocolate roll inspired by Ilva of the blog Lucullian Delights, and a loaf.
For the loaf, I cut a pound and a half off the main dough, covered with chips and pat it down into a rectangle, rolled it tight as long as my loaf pan. I transferred the loaf, seam down, into the loaf pan and let it rise for 90 minutes in a warm place. I then brushed it with the egg wash and covered it with sugar.
For the chocolate roll bread I used the remaining dough, rolled the dough into a thin rectangle, brushed it with egg wash (one egg beaten with one yolk), sprinkled some granulated sugar and enough chocolate chips to cover most of the rectangle (leaving one long edge free of chips to seal it). I then rolled the dough into a tight roll, cut about 2 inch sections and arranged them into a buttered 8" pan (the type with a 2" edge). I let the shaped breads rise for 90 minutes, and baked it until the internal temperature reached 200F.
This bread was delicious, best eaten warm, but it makes a lot of dough so next time I will either make half of the recipe or freeze the dough after the first rise. Loved the challenge!
