When bread met chocolate ...

Flo Braker

Strawberries and cream, peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, pie and ice cream are fine examples of perfect duets. Another ideal culinary partnership that once you taste you'll never forget is bread and chocolate.

I speak from experience: The first time I encountered this combo was when I was just a child. I remember watching fine flakes of chocolate being sprinkled on a slice of lightly buttered bread. At the time, I was a picky eater, so chocolate on bread seemed strange (my uncensored reaction: candy on bread with butter? Weird!). However, my love of chocolate prevailed, I tasted it, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, pain au chocolat is a familiar bakery offering, and just recently I came across a recipe for a grilled chocolate sandwich. No wonder I was inspired to create Chocolate Swirl Bread for St. Valentine's Day, which is coming up shortly.

I started with a typical American yeast dough, not too sweet or too fatty. I experimented with several chocolate fillings; the one that achieved my goal of a delicious and attractive spiral turned out to be a simple combination of three ingredients. For this recipe, I prefer a chocolate that contains 70 percent cocoa solids.

It's fine to serve this bread warm from the oven; however, it will be more difficult to slice and maintain the chocolate swirl pattern. Because I'm a sucker for a cross-section that reveals a handsome surprise, I wait a couple of hours after baking the bread before cutting into it. Either way, my young grandchildren are much more adventurous eaters than I was at their age; they don't consider the combination of bread and chocolate strange at all -- to them it's pretty neat.

Chocolate Swirl Bread

Enjoy this bread plain or with butter, or make sandwiches of peanut butter and thinly sliced bananas, or whipped cream cheese. To freeze for up to 2 weeks, wrap each loaf tightly in plastic wrap, slip into a plastic baggie and overwrap with aluminum foil. To defrost, remove loaf from freezer and let come to room temperature in its original wrapping. To refresh the bread, unwrap, and bake in a 300° oven until it feels warm to the touch, about 10 to 15 minutes.


INGREDIENTS:
Bread Dough

2 cups whole milk

1 package active dry yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons canola oil

4 3/4 to 5 cups flour

2 teaspoons table salt

Chocolate Filling

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70%), very finely chopped

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

INSTRUCTIONS: Dough: Heat milk to 100° to 110°. Pour into the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment; sprinkle yeast and a pinch of the 2 tablespoons sugar over milk. Let sit about 5 minutes. Add remaining sugar and oil; mix until blended. Add 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. (Dough will be soft.) Add 2 1/2 cups flour and the salt; mix to combine. Replace paddle with a dough hook. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. If dough is still sticking to sides of bowl and is sticky to touch, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Resist adding too much flour or dough will be too stiff. After adding about 4 3/4 cups flour, transfer dough to a work surface. Knead by hand. When dough no longer clings to your hand (though it can still feel a bit tacky) you don't need to add any more flour. Resist adding a lot more flour (add only a tablespoon or two). Continue to knead until it is a moderately firm dough.

Place in an oiled bowl, turning to grease top. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled in bulk. (To test if dough has doubled, poke a finger in it. If indent remains, the dough is ready for the next step).

Filling: Blend together chocolate, sugar and cocoa; set aside.

Shaping: Punch down dough, and work it briefly and gently with your hands to press out bubbles. Divide dough in half; cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly grease two 8 x 4 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pans; line bottoms with parchment paper.

On a very lightly floured work surface, roll one portion of dough into a 16 x 7-inch rectangle; with a short side of rectangle facing you, sprinkle half of the chocolate mixture over lower two-thirds of the dough, leaving an inch border free of filling. Beginning with short side nearest you, roll up jelly-roll fashion; pinch seam to seal and keep chocolate filling from bubbling out (it's not necessary to pinch the ends closed). Place seam-side down in prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Sprinkle flour lightly over top of each loaf. Cover lightly with a cloth towel and set aside in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Adjust rack in lower third of oven; preheat oven to 375°. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown and loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove the loaves from pans to cooling racks. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing (with a serrated knife).

Yields 2 loaves

PER SLICE (18 per loaf): 100 calories, 2 g protein, 17 g carbohydrate, 3 g fat (1 g saturated), 2 mg cholesterol, 137 mg sodium, 0 fiber.
 

Flo Braker of Palo Alto is the author of "The Simple Art of Perfect Baking" and "Sweet Miniatures." You can e-mail her at food@sfchronicle.com.