Chocolate Swirl Bread

Are you one of those who feels sorry to throw the chocolate wrapper without licking it off clean? Maybe people assume it's not a socially acceptable behavior, but personally I think there's no harm being a chocoholic, no matter how old you are. The good news is, chocolates are no more a junk food. There are good things about it as well. If you do some research, you will probably come to the same conclusion. 

Okay, coming to the recipe... This swirl bread has no addition of chocolate, what I used was cocoa powder. Moreover, I reduced the sweetness as I wanted to complement it with sweet spreads like jam and nutella. This or that, the choice is completely yours. Slice a loaf, apply your favorite spread and set for teatime.. and see how fast they disappear!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

All Purpose Flour - 3 1/2 Cups

Milk Powder - 4 Tbsp

Egg - 1

Softened Butter - 1/2 Cup

Cocoa Powder - 3-4 Tbsp

Sugar - 1-2 Tbsp

Salt to taste

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Active Dry Yeast - 2 Tsp

Sugar - 1 1/2 Tsp

Lukewarm Water - 3/4 Cup

Lukewarm Milk - 1/4 Cup

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1 Egg + 3 Tbsp Milk - for eggwash

Method:

1. Mix sugar and yeast with lukewarm water and milk. Keep covered for few minutes till it becomes frothy.

2. Meanwhile in a mixing bowl, sift and add flour. Make a well in the center and add the rest of the ingredients - milk powder, salt, sugar, egg and butter. Do not add the cocoa powder now.

3. Now with clean hands mix everything to form sand-like dough mix. Divide it between two bowls. One is going to be plain and the other one is chocolate.

4. Add your cocoa powder into one of the bowls and mix well. 

5. Pour the activated yeast mixture equally between two types of dough. Separately knead each of them really well for about 8-10 minutes or until they turn less sticky to touch. (If the dough is sticky, dust some flour; if dry, add water/milk in small amounts). What you should end up is two different kinds of dough like this:

6. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to prove for about 1-2 hours. After proving it should look like this:

7. Punch them down. Firstly take the plain dough and using a rolling pin flatten it out like a rectangle. 

Step 1

8. Place the flattened white dough aside and follow the same procedure with the chocolate dough.

Step 2

9. Now take the plain dough and brush the surface with water. Carefully place the chocolate dough on it and press the edges together. Then brush on the chocolate dough as well.

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

10. Starting from one side, gently roll all the way to the end, just like you do for swiss roll.

Step 6

                 

11. Fold downwards and seal both the edges like this:

Step 7

12. Place it carefully into a buttered loaf tin and cover it with a plastic wrap. Keep for 20-30 minutes to prove again.

Step 8

After a while it should look like this.

13. Preheat the oven at 200C. Brush the bread with egg+milk mixture and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Bake until the top becomes golden.

Step 9

14. Once taken out of the oven, apply some melted butter on top. Serve with anything of your choice - Butter, jam, cream cheese or nutella.

Notes:

*Nutella lovers try this tip: Spread generous amount of nutella on chocolate dough before you roll. You can enjoy the goodness of it in every slice. 

* For a rich tasting swirl bread, replace the cocoa powder with melted semi sweet chocolate. If you are  trying this tip, reduce the amount of water and milk you are going to add to knead the dough as the melted chocolate will have quite enough moisture to combine everything.