Chocolate Filled Braided Bread

Today I would be making a not so simple, but not that difficult recipe which is Chocolate Bread recipe. You would definitely enjoy making it. Also, the Chocolate bread would only take 1.30hr only which also includes the baking time also.Come along and follow through my recipe.

Flour making Ingredients:

• 1 Cup fresh Milk (240ml)
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 tsp granulated sugar (50g)
• 2 tsp Instant Yeast (~6g)
• 2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour (400g)
• Salt (4g)
• Butter (30g)

Chocolate Making Ingredients:

• Warm Water
• Butter (70g)
• Sugar Powdered (14g)
• Cocoa Powder (12g)
• Dark chocolate (150g)

Utensils and other items required:

• Digital Scale
• Bowls
• Sauce Pan
• Cutting Board
• Butter Paper
• Convection Oven

I struggled for a few times to get the milk and yeast mixture right. Follow the below technique and you would never go wrong.

First take a warm milk (heat it at 100-150F), then add Eggs + Powdered Sugar + Yeast to it. Mix them well and keep it aside for fermentation.

Now put the fermentation mixture in a separate bowl. Then Add 400 g of all purpose flour to it. then add a teaspoon of fine salt and mix everything continue mixing once we have a cohesive dough.

Now we gonna start adding Butter (30g) slowly to it, in small - small quantities and try mixing it together, keeping adding the butter and try to mix together for 5 to 6mins until the butter is fully incorporated into the mixture. The butter is going to stick to the sides of the bowl so keep scraping it down the sides intermittently.

After 3mins the dough would start becoming soft smooth and slightly elastic.

Now transfer the dough into the work surface where you can knead the dough thoroughly. On the work surface dust a very little flour on top of it and knead it very briefly for like a minute to align those gluten networks in the dough.

Then we are gonna tuck all the corners under the dough and shape it into a smooth ball.

Now take a separate bowl oil the bowl from inside and place the smoothen dough into, cover it and Proof the dough into the Microwave oven for 1hour.

After proofing the dough would be doubled in size because of all the slow fermentation that happened for 1 hour. Now we are gonna divide the dough into 4 equal parts.

Now, we gonna melt the chocolate filling using boiling water technique.

Take 2 utensils, in one of the utensils we gonna add boiling water and in the other utensil we gonna add Dark Chocolate (150g) which we wanted it to melt. Make sure the two utensils are not touching to each other.

Now place the two utensils on top of each other as shown in the picture, below we gonna keep the boiling water and on top we gonna place our chocolate utensil.

Now the chocolate would start melting then add 70g Butter + 14g Sugar Powder + 12g Cocoa Powder into the mixture. Keep mixing the mixture using a spatula until the chocolate is completely melted and looks like a thick shiny chocolate paste.

Now take a dough from the 4 dough that we have which we had made in Step 3. and roll it out into a rectangle (approx 9 x 12 inch).

You might have to put a little extra effort while rolling as the dough is sticky, keep dusting it with flour. Also if you see that if your dough is shrinking back a lot then I suggest you to cover the dough in a napkin wrap bowl and let it relax for 5 to 10 mins so it's a little easier for you to roll out.

Keep moving the dough so it doesn't stick to the work surface and once you are done rolling, measure it. Make sure you go the right size because the final look of this product totally depends on it

Then we are gonna rotate it so we have the longer side facing up which is 12 inch then put half of the chocolate filling onto it and then spread it using an offset spatula leaving a quarter inch space on the edge of the dough.

Then using our fingertips we are going to roll the dough into a very tight lock by rolling and putting it back at the same time because the tighter the dough is rolled the more layers the chocolate bread gonna have. so go nice and slow take enough time and don't rush with this thing.

Once we have tight lock we're gonna pinch the seams to seal it then carefully transfer it to a baking sheet by keeping the seam side down and repeat the same with the other piece of the dough.

Now take that rolled dough that we made in Step 5, cut them in 2 equal parts, now stretch that cutted part into slight thin roll and now using a serrated knife make stripe of that roll from the half centre, don't completely separate them out (Please refer to the photos).

We are gonna use that separated dough to weave. Now weave them together as tightly as possible and you should have at least 2 twist on each side from the centre then we are going to squeeze it very gently while twisting at the turn then turn a round and on the other side of the piece push it on the side and on the other side of the piece do the same but opposite side twisting.

Your dough is now ready, do the same process for the other part. Now will 2 ready dough. Now use the same technique of cutting and twisting process for the remaining 3 dough that is left.

Now to avoid excessive browning at the bottom while baking, we would cover our tray with damp butter paper.

Let the dough proof at room temperature for 1.30 to 2hrs or until doubled in size they might take longer or shorter depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Then after 2hrs, our braid bread are doubled in size. Now while they are still hot we are gonna brush them generously with 1 egg it will give them a shiny look and of course make them look more beautiful.

Pre-heat the oven and Bake it @180 Degree Celsius for 25 to 30 mins. Baking time may depend on oven specifications or until Golden Brown. Then admire this beautiful braid bread that we just baked then cut a piece and eat this thing.

This braided bread is little crusty on the outside and has a crumbly cake like texture, it's really chocolatey, it's buttery, it's rich, it's firm and absolutely delicious.Our Chocolate Filled Braided Bread is now ready to eat.

Thank You !!