The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Pan de Cioccolate

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Pan de Cioccolate

Hello,
I first tasted Pan de Cioccolate, an amazing bread!, when it was served to students at SFBI's weekend Baguette workshop last October. I was so happy to see that bread again, when attending my recent class there :^)
The formula for this bread is in Advanced Bread and Pastry, so today I gave it a go.
My husband loves it too, and upon tasting it, requested that I bake it for his birthday and stick a candle in it! :^)

By way of explanation, my girlfriend had kindly given me a little chocolate knick-knack...I was looking at it and was inspired by the little "chocolates"...hence the scoring and flour patterns on these loaves:
 

Some close-ups:
                                                        

I used some Guittard 62% semi-sweet chocolate for this, with no regrets!
This formula mixes up into a gorgeous, supple dough:


And just a couple of more photos, one taken just before baking, and a crumb shot:
 

Happy baking everyone!
from breadsong

Comments

louie brown's picture
louie brown

and gorgeous, breadsong. The pre-bake pictures are especially helpful.

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Gosh, louie, thank you so much!
Hey, you know what I found while in California? Zatar! Can't wait to taste this spice blend.
Your pita points made with it looked so yummy.
:^) from breadsong

louie brown's picture
louie brown

Good for you, breadsong! Let us know what you do with it and how you like it.

Syd's picture
Syd

Just beautiful, breadsong.  Don't  know what else to say, except that I would love to taste one.

All the best,

Syd

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thank you, Syd!
This bread has an amazing flavor thanks to the cocoa (6%), honey (18%), vanilla (1%) and chocolate (20%).
mmmm, good!!! (The Guittard chocolate is heavenly, and I used some good, dark Dutch cocoa). 
And honey and vanilla, well, don't get me started...but this combination is wonderful in a latte,
and is a great addition to this bread!
:^) from breadsong

Franko's picture
Franko

Those look amazing breadsong! You've managed to reproduce the patterns shown on the chocolates, onto your loaves brilliantly. They all look great but I really like the look of the spiral pattern loaf. Very eye catching and elegant!

Years ago I when I was baking for a restaurant I made a similar chocolate bread from Carol Field's 'Italian Baker' for a Chocolate French Toast we were serving for a brunch special. I recall it taking an incredibly long time to rise (4+hours) before I could finally get it baked off. Field's formula is a slightly richer straight dough using a small amount of butter, an egg yolk and 3% yeast (not osmotolerant), which would account for the lengthy rise time. I'm wondering if this was the case with these lovely loaves of yours.

Franko

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Franko, Thank you so much for your compliments! (I liked the little spiral too :^)  ).
The osmotolerant yeast must be liking all of that honey, as I let these loaves proof for 2.5 hours at 80F 
(2.5 - 3 hours recommended at 80F).
The addition of egg and butter, as with your Italian loaf, would bring this bread yet closer to 'cake' for my husband's next birthday!
:^) from breadsong

yy's picture
yy

Yum! Did you have to bake the loaves at a lower temperature to prevent the sugars in the dough from burning? They seem to have the hearty crusts that you get from a bold bake.

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thanks, yy.
The instructions are to bake on a rack...but I didn't read that part!
I baked at 400F on the stone, and it worked out OK.
I turned the loaves frequently while baking so that certain areas wouldn't get too dark.
There certainly is potential for burning with this sweet dough.
from breadsong

varda's picture
varda

and all with your artistic and precise scoring.    Very nice!  -Varda

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Varda, and thank you; I tried using scissors to snip down the length of the batard on the left.
Other scoring was done with a traditional blade.
I'm so glad you liked these!
:^) from breadsong

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Beautiful, beautiful scoring.

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thanks so much, Floyd!

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

and very creative too, breadsong. If you happen to recruit an apprentice with scoring class, I'll be among the first to raise my hand.

I like the idea of birthday bread too. Great alternative:)

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Sue,
Thank you - that's very kind of you to say :^)
Birthday bread it's going to be, this year!
:^) from breadsong

diverpro94's picture
diverpro94

Please do a tutorial on your scoring techniques!!! Those are way too beautiful!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello diverpro94,
Thanks so much! I will try to explain a little bit. I was winging it, trying some new patterns :^)

I found the hardest part about doing this...was that the straight blade I was working with, naturally, 
wanted to go straight.
I was wanting to get some nice curved scores, so went slowly and gradually.
This is what I used (a razor blade with one end masking-taped, for a safer place to hold on to).

Holding the blade directly makes me feel like I've got better control over where the blade's going to go.

As I was going along I was trying to watch how the dough was opening up. If there were parts that looked narrow,
I went back over that section to score a bit deeper, so that each score would be approximately the same depth.
For the boules I think I was only scoring about 1/4" deep. I scored a bit deeper for the batard on the right.
This dough was a dream to work with, and permitted me some time to flour and score...it stayed put and didn't start to spread out a whole lot once I'd started scoring; I appreciated having some time to work on decorating before putting the loaves in the oven!
:^) from breadsong

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Beautiful scoring on your loaves, breadsong!

Sylvia

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Thank you Sylvia - this was a fun and delicious project!
:^) from breadsong

ananda's picture
ananda

These are really beautiful Breadsong.

I'm just wondering what your scaling weight was for these loaves?   I can imagine they might be a bit tricky to bake.

Best wishes

Andy

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello Andy,
This batch of dough was 1500 grams, roughly divided into 4 x 235g boules, and 2 x 280g batards.
(rich dough - made smaller loaves for gift-giving)
I did keep them moving around while baking and kept an eye the loaf bottoms too, being on the stone
(my error! - supposed to bake these on the rack).
:^) from breadsong

rolls's picture
rolls

Hi breadsong thank you for sharing your beautiful loaves. I'd love to see them on the home page and can't imagine anything nicer with a  was just reading over carol fields recipe the other day 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hello rolls,
Thanks so much for your sweet comment!
The chocolate bread is a really nice treat - so nice to know you have Ms. Field's recipe - which must make lovely bread!
I just saw another beautiful chocolate bread, posted by lumos - you might like this one (and the flavor variations! described).
:^) from breadsong

lumos's picture
lumos

Thanks to your kind post on my blog (and thanks for plugging above! :D), I could encounter your wonderful array of chocolatey bread heaven!  

 Advanced Bread and Pastry is one of very few "I-know-I-should-have-but-I- don't-yet" bread books, so I don't know what the formula is like. Is ' 20% chocolate' in the dough or the filling?

I entirely agree with you about the ease of cocoa dough. It's so well behaved :p, scoring it is a piece of cake! (or dough...)

 

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Ha ha, lumos...I like your description of scoring this dough :^)
...considering how close this bread is to cake!

The final dough is 6% cocoa and 20% chocolate chips (per the formula - I substituted chopped chocolate for the chips).

I just loved your chocolate bread and its beautiful scoring and oven spring.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the book Advanced Bread and Pastry. The text for instruction is top-notch, as are the formulas - spot on! As much as I love the breads, I am really looking forward to getting more into the pastry side of this book also.

Thanks so much for kind comment.
:^) from breadsong


 


 

lumos's picture
lumos

I hanven't seen the recipe, but if they're suggesting to use a special kind of yeast for that kind of  bread with high content of sugar, I assume it's probably sugar tolerant (or osmotolerant, as a proper term) yeast.  Kinds of yeast sold for retail are so different from country to country (I'm in UK and I know I can't get it in a homebaker-kind amount), so the best thing you can do is probably to ask the retailers or the yeast manufacturers in your country or search on internet using Danish search engine.  Or try search for 'SAF yeast.'  They are one of the most respected yeast manufacturers and make various kinds of yeast.  It's not sold in UK, but you may be luckier where you are.  Or being the country of sweet bread like Danish pastries,  maybe your yeast is already made to be more osmotolerant than usual if a lot of homebaker make sweetened dough (as in Japan), though it may not state it on a packet.  

Good luck! :)

lumos's picture
lumos

Oh, you're so kind, moma. Thank you very much.

At the moment I rarely make bread with high sugar content, so fortunately I can more or less survive without osmotolerant yeast. But if the time comes when I suddenly decide I need to live on daily dose of  sweet dough, I may ask for your mercy. ;)

Happy baking, and good luck with your search! :)

 

ETA: Just in case you can't find osmotolerant yeast, Dan Lepard suggests just increase the amount of yeast you use.  Or another idea is to look for a reliable recipe by a Danish baker aimed at Danish homebakers with similar proportion of sugar in the dough and see how much yeast is used.  I'm sure that can give you a good idea about what sort and how much of yeast you should use where you are.

sourdoughschoolhouse's picture
sourdoughschoolhouse

stunning bread ... so creative and inspiring 

sourdoughschoolhouse's picture
sourdoughschoolhouse

stunning bread ... so creative and inspiring