My lovely friend Patrick mailed me some fantastic chocolate to bake with as an early birthday gift.
E. Guittard Bittersweet Dark Chocolate and Sharffen Berger Unsweetened Dark Chocolate. I decided to make bread using the bittersweet chocolate.
I followed the Pane Al Cioccolato recipe in Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter.
Pane Al Cioccolato
3 C unbleached white bread flour
1 1/2 tbl cocoa powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbl caster sugar
1 envelope yeast
1 C lukewarm water
2 tbl butter–softened
3 oz high quality chocolate–coarsely chopped
Melted butter for brushing
Sift flour, cocoa powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
Stir in the sugar.
Make a well in the center.
Cream the envelope of yeast with 4 tbl of the lukewarm water.
Allow to sit for about 10 min. or until frothy.
Add this mixture and the remaining water to the well and gradually mix into a dough.
Knead in the butter and transfer to a lightly floured surface to knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 min.
Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clear film.
Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hr).
Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and gently deflate.
Gently knead in the chocolate.
Cover again with film and leave to rest about 5 minutes.
Shape into your desired shape and place into the desired cookware. (I shaped into a round and placed in a lightly greased Pyrex bowl to bake.)
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (about 45 min).
Bake in a preheated oven at 425F for 10 min.
Reduce temperature to 375F and bake for about 30 min.
After baking, brush the top with melted butter and cool on a wire rack.
(If you choose to make two small loaves with this recipe instead of one, be aware that the baking time should be reduced about 10 min. Watch carefully.)
I substituted a mid-sized Pyrex mixing bowl for the bakeware, hence the odd shape. This bread is fabulous served with mascarpone or cream cheese, it also fares quite well alone.
show hide 12 comments
Joe @ Culinary in the Desert - Wow that looks so good!
tanvi - i love that whimsical shape!
Zarah Maria - Tanvi took the words right out of my mouth – I love that shape! And the bread looks gorgeous!
keiko - Gemma, this looks sooo good! Any chance you’re posting the recipe…? BTW, I’m glad you got a new camera ;)
Molly - Gemma, that thing looks sooo luscious! And I second Keiko in requesting the recipe…if you don’t want to post it, any chance you might e-mail it? Wink, wink…
gemma - Thank you Joe, Tanvi, and Zarah!
On the recipe issue, Keiko and Molly, I have never been quite clear on the nuances of posting published recipes. . . If I credit the authors and the book, am I allowed to post the recipe or would that infringe on their copywriting of the recipe? I will be happy to send it along via email, but it would be good to know the answer to this question for the future and also to share the recipe with others who might be interested. Your thoughts on the matter would be appreciated!
Molly - Hey there…
I’ve heard from people in publishing that most of the time, you can safely reprint one or two recipes from a cookbook, as long as you properly credit the source. It’s good publicity for the book or magazine, and it’s only a single recipe.
Now, that said, lists of ingredients are *not* protected by copyright; only the text (instructions, etc.) of the recipe is. So in reality, you can post recipes to your heart’s content as long as you make at least a few significant changes to the recipe text (i.e. not just a few words rearranged). A lot of the recipes I post come straight from cookbooks, but I always change the text, mainly because I find that I have a different way of explaining a method, or I did things in a different order, etc. I give the author credit and usually say that I’ve “adapted” from his/her recipe. Ultimately, it really depends on what you’re comfortable with.
Hope that helps!
gemma - Hi Molly, thank you so much for your input on the topic. It helped me quite a bit!
Shannon Richards - I just made this bread and it turned out great! For some reason it fell during baking, may have been that I had to substitute instant yeast and therefore only let it raise a short while the first time, and double the second, but either way it tastes delicious and the texture is perfect as well.
Thanks so much – I immensely enjoy your blogs and have now tried several of your recipes!
-shan
Katie Smith - made the bread this evening after eyeing the recipe for a week. We great right out of the oven, I did bake it in 2 small Le Crueset dutch oven pans because I’m going to freeze one of the lofts.
Great recipe, will try your other ones in the future.
gemma - Hi Katie,
I am very happy that you had good results with the recipe. For the record, it is based on a recipe from Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter (just to give everyone their due).
I think I need to make this again soon as well.
Gemma
Jude - Found your blog when I was searching for this. I have a recipe for it as well and I’ve been wanting to try it out.
Looks so good.
Looks like we own the same pyrex over there. :)