Chocolate Loaf

I was in two minds about putting this recipe in, mostly because, despite the clear warning, it wasn't anywhere near as good as I wanted it to be. That is to say, I knew that it was undoubtedly a bread, despite its chocolate cake looking exterior. And even though I knew this, it still wasn't as good as I wanted a chocolate loaf to be. It just wasn't sweet at all, with more than a hint of bitterness from the cocoa. So I would suggest either having this with some jam or nutella or adding more sugar into the dough. Or going all out and making this a chocolate studded bread, much like those thick toast loafs that you can get a bakeries with tiny choc chips.

Otherwise, be prepared for some possible disappointed expressions, especially if you are serving this to kids for breakfast (or chocoholics). Because once a chocolate loaf cake appears on a breakfast table, some may think that they are still in bed dreaming, only to find that it tastes nothing like it looks. I'll give a recipe for a chocolate studded sweeter loaf.

Chocolate Loaf

• 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast

• 100g caster sugar

• 400g bread flour or plain all purpose flour

• 40g unsweetened cocoa powder

• 200g chocolate chips

• 1 cup of milk

• 40g butter melted

Step 1 - Warm the milk in a jug until warm and then mix through the butter. Add the first 5 ingredients into a mixing bowl with a dough hook. With the dough hook on low, add the buttery milk to the dry ingredients and leave to knead for 4-5 minutes or turn out onto a clean surface and knead for 6 minutes until smooth and elastic. If using a mechanical dough hook, you may need to loosen it from around the hook several times.

Step 2 - Brush butter around the base of the bowl and place dough in bowl, cover with tea towel and insert in a warm water bath (if finding a warm space is hard) or place in a warm space until risen. Using a water bath always reduces the time for me to about 45 minutes whereas it can normally be 1-2 hour wait.

Step 3 - Butter and flour a loaf tin and add a layer of baking paper to the base. Once the time is up, knock back the dough to flatten it and then shape it to fit the tin. Cover with a tea towel and place in a warm place for 25 minutes, I put it on top of the preheating stove. Preheat oven to 180c.

Step 4 - Remove the tea towel and bake for about 25 minutes until the top is firm and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. It is good when toasted and spread with more chocolate by the way of Nutella although I think most things in life are better with the addition of chocolate.

Adapted from Apples from Jam by Tessa Kiros