Coffee and Chocolate Swirl Bread

It had me at coffee. This bread has all the things that I love; coffee, chocolate and soft fluffy bread. It goes well with chocolate spread or peanut butter. But I like it simply toasted with margarine and a light sprinkling of sugar so that I can still get that hint of coffee and chocolate.



Coffee and Chocolate Swirl Bread

I used a small deep loaf pan- 20cm x 10.5cm x 7.5cm deep

5 grams instant coffee granules
10 grams cocoa powder
2 tablespoons hot water
30 grams unsalted butter
210 grams milk
300 grams bread flour
30 grams caster sugar
2 grams salt
4 grams instant dried yeast (See note at the bottom of this post)

Combine instant coffee and 1 tablespoon hot water in a small bowl, stir to dissolve coffee granules to make paste. Add more water if required, set aside.

Combine cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon hot water in a small bowl, stir to dissolve cocoa powder to make paste. Add more water if required, set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter over low heat just until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, set aside until warm (46 to 52 degrees celsius).

Combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add warm milk and butter mixture. With the mixer on low speed (#2 on KitchenAid), knead until smooth and elastic (about 8-10 minutes). The dough is ready when you can take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin sheet before it breaks.

Divide dough into two equal portions. On a lightly floured work surface, knead coffee paste into first portion of dough until smooth and coffee is fully incorporated (about 3-5 minutes). Add a bit more flour if dough is too sticky. Place the dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl cover with cling wrap.

Repeat with the chocolate mixture. Place the chocolate dough in a seperate lightly greased mixing bowl cover with cling wrap.

Let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for the next step.

Gently deflate the doughs, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured work surface, knead each dough gently into a ball. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll each dough out. The doughs should be about 20cm x 40cm (doesn't have to be exact as long as the shorter side is the same width as the bread pan).

Place the coffee dough over the chocolate dough. Starting from the shorter side, roll up the dough tightly. Place dough seam-side down in bread pan. Cover with cling wrap. Let the dough proof for the second time until double in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (or 160 degrees celsius fan-forced). Remove cling wrap, brush bread with milk, and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Note: I used instant dried yeast that can be added directly to the flour without having to go through the step of dissolving the yeast first. If the type of yeast that you are using needs to be dissolved, whisk yeast into 3 tablespoons of warm milk. Add a pinch of caster sugar and allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes until the mixture is foamy and frothy.