chocolate bread

When Da and I got married in 1998, my mother gave us a Hitachi bread machine which she bought from an electronics shop at Holland Village. Over the years, I have used the bread machine several times although not as often as I would have liked to. There were two main reasons:-

(a) the bread machine takes 4 hours and 10 minutes to bake a loaf of bread (MIL got a shock when I told her this years ago. I had baked a loaf of bread for her and FIL (when they visited us) and she had asked whether I could bake another loaf of bread for her to bring home that night); and

(b) my bread does not always rise / not rise sufficiently. When you end up with a loaf of bread that is rock hard after you have waited 4 hours and 10 minutes, it can be a little frustrating. I do not know whether the problem is with the bread machine or the ingredients that I have used. The strange thing is that this happens even when I use a pre-mix for bread. I can only conclude that the problem lies with the chef and not the tools.

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that the more often I use the bread machine, the more likely that the bread will be successfully baked. Perhaps it is a case of "practice makes perfect" for my bread machine?

I have also since learned two important aspects of bread-making:-

(a) the yeast has to be fresh as it would otherwise affect the ability of the bread dough to rise; and

(b) varying the recipe can affect whether the bread turns out fine. As such, unless you know how to vary the recipe, it is best to follow the recipe wholesale.

After a disastrous attempt at baking a loaf of peanut butter bread the other day (which failed miserably because I had an attack of "itchy fingers" and I varied the recipe, resulting in the dough not rising), I have mustered up courage to use my bread machine again to bake chocolate bread. This time, although the centre portion of the bread sunk a little, the bread rose (phew!) and was very soft. I could smell the lovely aroma of the chocolate as the bread was being baked.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup low-fat milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
4 tsp cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup chocolate chips
3 cups bread flour
1 tsp active dry yeast

METHOD

1. Pour the milk into the breadmaker bucket.

2. Add the vanilla essence, egg, butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt and chocolate chips.

3. Add 2 cups of bread flour, making sure that the flour covers the liquid.

4. Add the yeast.

5. Add the remaining 1 cup of bread flour.

6. Insert the bucket into the breadmaker and set to basic loaf.

7. When the cycle has completed, remove the bucket from the breadmaker and shake out the bread.

8. Let the bread cool upright on a rack before you slice the bread.

Tips

1. As preservatives have not been added to the bread, you would need to refrigerate the bread if you do not finish consuming it within two days. Once the bread has been refrigerated, you can warm it up in an oven before eating it.

2. I always use Hersheys cocoa powder in my baking, whether it be for bread, cakes or cookies. I have tried other brands but still find that chocolate bread / cakes / cookies made using Hersheys have more "oomph".

3. I did not set the desired colour of the crust (the default is "medium" for my breadmaker) but if you find that the crust of the bread that you see in the photographs in this post is a little too dark, you can select "light" for the crust.