Chocolate Chips Swirl Bread

This chocolate swirl loaf was baked 2 weeks ago. I didn't manage to post this until today. I have been lacking behind in my blog posting...it seems that I am baking faster than I could write about it!

Unlike all my previous attempts on bread making, this is the first time I've tried using a 'roux' to make a loaf. In the past, whenever I came across any bread recipe that requires the making of a water roux, I would give it a miss, as I have no idea how to 'cook' the water roux to the right consistency and temperature. I decided to give this recipe a go as the method of making the roux for this bread seems simple enough for me. All that's required is to cook a slice of shredded Cheddar cheese with some milk, then add in the flour and stir to form a soft dough...it's almost like making a roux for a cream sauce for a pasta dish. The soft dough is then chilled for an hour before it is added with the other ingredients. The rest of the steps are not very different from the usual bread that I have been making. After using the bread machine to do the kneading, the dough was divided into two portions...one added with chocolate chips, the other with cocoa powder. After the first rise, the doughs were rolled up together and baked in a pullman tin.


The texture of the bread was almost the same as the Marble Bread I made earlier...soft and yet there was a slight chew to it. I would say it was quite a tasty, hearty bread...especially when the slice was slapped with a generous helping of nutella :)



Chocolate Chips Swirl Bread

Ingredient:

(A)
1 slice Cheddar sandwich cheese
70g fresh milk
20g bread flour

(B)
260g bread flour
40g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon (4g) instant yeast
130g water

(C)
20g butter

(D)
25g chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon water


Method:

1. Tear Cheddar cheese into pieces. In a saucepan, over very low hear melt the shredded cheese with the milk. Stir till the cheese is melted. Add in the 20g of bread flour and stir quickly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until the mixture becomes very thick and resembles a soft, wet lump of dough. Let cool. Cover with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 60mins.
2. Place the soft dough in Step 1 together with the rest of the ingredients in B in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine).
3. Select the Dough function of the bread machine and press start.
4. After about 8mins of kneading, add in the 20g of butter (Ingredient C). Let the machine continue to knead the dough. After the kneading cycle has stopped (20mins), Stop and Restart the machine. Continue to let the machine knead for another 10mins.
5. Stop the machine and remove 200g of dough from the bread pan and set it aside.
6. Add cocoa powder and water (ingredient D) into the dough that's left in the bread pan. Re-start the machine and let it knead for another 5mins.
7. While the machine is working, manually knead in the chocolate chips into the dough that was removed from the machine.
8. Place both doughs in 2 separate mixing bowls, cover with cling wrap and let them rise till double in volume, about 80mins.
9. Remove doughs and give a few light kneading for each dough. Press out the trapped air as your knead. Shape into balls and cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.
10. Flatten and roll out the cocoa dough into a 20cm square, and the chocolate chips dough into a 16cm square. Place the chocolate chips dough on top of the cocoa dough. Roll up swiss roll style and place in a pullman tin (size, 7.5"x4"x4", well greased). Tuck the ends down. Cover the lid and let dough proof for 60mins or until the dough rise up to 90% of the height of the tin.
11. Bake at preheated oven at 180-190 degC for about 30mins.
12. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.

Recipe adapted from 孟老师的100道面包