Chocolate Chip Coffee Bread
I was just playing with some ingredients on Sunday afternoon, and this is what I came out with - it wasn't perfect, but is probably my favorite breakfast/dessert bread that I've made to date.
Ingredients:
1.5 cups water (80-85 degrees)
1.5 cups freshly brewed coffee (allowed to cool to 80-85 degrees)
.5 cup whole milk
1.25 cups chocolate chips
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
1.5 cups all purpose flour
2-5 cups bread flour (enough to give a good dough consistency - slightly tacky, but not wet)
1 packet instant yeast
1 tablespoon finely ground sea salt
Combine the water & the yeast in a small bowl.
Combine the coffee, milk, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, & all purpose flour in a large bowl. Once combined, add 1.5 cups of bread flour along with the water/yeast mixture, and combine completely.
Slowly add more flour to dough until it moist and tacky, but pulls into a ball (I begin by adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time, and then taper the addition when it's getting close to the correct consistency)
Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-12 minutes. Return to a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel, and allow to rise at room temperature for 90 minutes.
Punch down dough and divide into 2 equal pieces. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Form dough into desired shape and allow to rise for 60 minutes. Put dough into oven and cook for 30-40 minutes until the top is a dark brown.
Allow to cool on rack for 45 minutes before cutting.
I have made this dough into rounds with great success - it should work in a pan too, but I have not tried it this way. Do not place dough directly on a baking stone - use parchment paper to cover or the chocolate chips will melt all over your stone
If you try this bread and have any comments, please e-mail me - I would love to know how it turned out for you!
Comments
Yum. That sounds really good.
Hello dhedrick,
I had a few bars of chocolate in my fridge yesterday, so I decided to give your recipe a try. I really liked it!!! For me, it is the perfect bread to have with an afternoon cup of tea. Delicate texture and somewhat decadent without being overly sweet :)
My husband agrees wholeheartedly...he took almost half a loaf to work with him today!
Some photos:
You asked for comments, so here goes:
*I am lazy about doing dishes and waiting for hot liquids to cool to appropriate temperatures, so I put the freshly brewed coffee together with cold milk and water. This instantly resulted in liquid that was the right temperature for yeast, so I added the yeast and let it dissolve. Then I added all the rest of the ingredients except the chocolate chips (I used broken bits of chocolate bars instead) and the 5 cups of flour. The rest of your instructions I followed exactly.
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*Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't figure out from your description when to add the chocolate. I added it when I still had about 2 minutes left to knead the dough and the dough was a bit warm so I think lots of smaller chunks melted? I have never made a yeasted bread with added chocolate chips, raisins, nuts etc. before, so maybe there is an obvious answer to this question...
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*I think I added close to 5 cups of flour in the final mixing process.
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*I made one round loaf and one in a pan...they both turned out very nicely (except I burned the top of the "panned" loaf a little bit and the second rise of the round loaf was a little too long...it had to wait its turn while I cooked the other loaf first in my little oven!)
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*I haven't cut into the second loaf yet, but I am highly suspicious that most of the chocolate chunks ended up in that one...I didn't do a very good job at distributing them evenly throughout the dough.
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Thanks for the recipe...I will be making this loaf again!!! I bet it will make unbelievable bread pudding in a few days if it lasts that long :)
tea...eeerrr...chocolate coffee bread. I've been wanting to do a coffee bread for a while now. Thanks for the warning about the baking stone too! We love the mocha flavor that chocolate and coffee make when combined and regularly make mocha ice cream.
Love the cust and crumb of your bread. Very nice baking,