Even after baking so many breads, I cannot resist a new bread recipe when I see it. I have been wanting to make Chocolate Cherry bread for a very long time now. For some reason, I always miss buying the pack of dried tart cherries. Few days back, I got the urge to bake a bread and the moment I opened this book, my eyes fell on the bookmarked page. Since I had neither time nor the patience to go to the store, I replaced cherries with dried cranberries. And because cranberries and white chocolate chips go hand in hand, I threw some in the dough and here comes this delicious bread.
One Year Back - Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Two Years Back - Cream Cheese topped Pumpkin Bars
Makes 2 loaves - adapted from Good Housekeeping Baking book
Ingredients:
Warm water - 1 1/4 cups (Or use part Brewed coffee and part water)
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp or 1 pack
Sugar - 1/3 cup (You could use brown sugar too)
Dutch processed cocoa - 1/3 cup (Regular cocoa works but dutch processed cocoa gives a better color)
Oil - 4 TBSP or melted butter
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups (May need 1 or 2 TBSP more)
Egg - 1 large (See Notes)
Sweetened dried cranberries - 3/4 cup
White chocolate chips - 1 cup
Method:
To make the dough using bread machine:
Place the ingredients in the bread machine pan in this order - Water, oil, egg, salt, sugar, cocoa, all purpose flour, yeast. Set the machine on dough setting and start. Check the dough when it beeps. It should be soft but a little tacky. If not, add 1 or 2 TBSP more flour. When the cycle completes, remove the dough from the pan and add the cranberries and chocolate chips and work it into the dough. Divide the dough into two parts. Grease two 8 X 4 loaf pans with vegetable oil spray. Place the dough in the pan. It is sticky dough, so spray your hands with vegetable oil spray and shape the dough into a log and place in the pan. Cover with greased foil or plastic wrap and let it rise till the edge of the pan. It took almost an hour for me since it is cold here.
To make the dough by hand:
Refer to any of the numerous bread posts on this blog - example this one.
To bake:
Preheat the oven to 375 F towards the end of rising time. Just before placing the pans in the oven, slash the loaves in the center. I forgot to do it and the loaf cracked at the top edge. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 325 and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or until the internal temperature measures 190 F or the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the pan and cool on the wire rack. Slice when completely cool. Serve with some cream cheese or buttery spread or with some milk. This makes a great breakfast bread or a snack bread.
Notes:
Egg can be replaced by yogurt in this recipe without compromising the taste or texture. Another point to remember is to work the white chocolate chips inside the dough. I was in a hurry and didn't make sure no white chocolate chips were on the top of the dough. They got toasted. They were fine, but next time, I would work them into the dough more.
Enjoy.
Two Years Back - Cream Cheese topped Pumpkin Bars
Makes 2 loaves - adapted from Good Housekeeping Baking book
Ingredients:
Warm water - 1 1/4 cups (Or use part Brewed coffee and part water)
Active dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp or 1 pack
Sugar - 1/3 cup (You could use brown sugar too)
Dutch processed cocoa - 1/3 cup (Regular cocoa works but dutch processed cocoa gives a better color)
Oil - 4 TBSP or melted butter
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups (May need 1 or 2 TBSP more)
Egg - 1 large (See Notes)
Sweetened dried cranberries - 3/4 cup
White chocolate chips - 1 cup
To make the dough using bread machine:
Place the ingredients in the bread machine pan in this order - Water, oil, egg, salt, sugar, cocoa, all purpose flour, yeast. Set the machine on dough setting and start. Check the dough when it beeps. It should be soft but a little tacky. If not, add 1 or 2 TBSP more flour. When the cycle completes, remove the dough from the pan and add the cranberries and chocolate chips and work it into the dough. Divide the dough into two parts. Grease two 8 X 4 loaf pans with vegetable oil spray. Place the dough in the pan. It is sticky dough, so spray your hands with vegetable oil spray and shape the dough into a log and place in the pan. Cover with greased foil or plastic wrap and let it rise till the edge of the pan. It took almost an hour for me since it is cold here.
To make the dough by hand:
Refer to any of the numerous bread posts on this blog - example this one.
Preheat the oven to 375 F towards the end of rising time. Just before placing the pans in the oven, slash the loaves in the center. I forgot to do it and the loaf cracked at the top edge. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 325 and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or until the internal temperature measures 190 F or the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the pan and cool on the wire rack. Slice when completely cool. Serve with some cream cheese or buttery spread or with some milk. This makes a great breakfast bread or a snack bread.
Notes:
Egg can be replaced by yogurt in this recipe without compromising the taste or texture. Another point to remember is to work the white chocolate chips inside the dough. I was in a hurry and didn't make sure no white chocolate chips were on the top of the dough. They got toasted. They were fine, but next time, I would work them into the dough more.
Enjoy.
Love the color from the cocoa!!! looks sooo delicious!!!
ReplyDeleteSowmya
Ongoing Event - CWF - Whole Wheat Flour
What a yummy bread! It's true, cranberries and white chocolate are great together!
ReplyDeleteBookmarking this rich and decadent bread. happy Diwali to u and ur family dear
ReplyDeleteLooks absolutely delicious! I would so love to try some. I am sure it tastes great.
ReplyDeletepictures and recipe, both are awesome!! have never tried my hands baking a bread. Always intimidated. Looks like its about time :)
ReplyDeleteyummy...Happy Diwali to you and ur family...:)
ReplyDeleteLovely pics and yummmy
ReplyDeleteHello Champa, I baked this and your yeasted banana bread last week and really LOVED it! I do have a couple of questions for you, though.
ReplyDeleteThe bread was soft on the day I baked it.The next day onwards,I had to microwave it for a minute before serving as it had turned a bit tough. Is that to be expected or should I do something different? (I had added gluten to the flour).
Thanks a lot for sharing these recipes and now I am eyeing your apple cranberry bread :)
Rajani,
DeleteThanks for the feedback. Did you wrap the loaf properly so that it doesn't dry up? If you did and it still turned out dry, try increasing the water by 1 TBSP the next time. This bread doesn't have too much fat and all the sugar in the banana can hurt the performance of yeast. So, a wet dough should help to keep it moist.