So I did a bit of experimenting! I decided to use my bread recipe and make bread with cocoa powder mixed into the flour. See previous post for the bread recipe. I added 1 heaping spoon full of cocoa to the flour as I sifted it. Then added the yeast water as normal and followed the recipe as usual. Since I was experimenting I only did a half recipe for this loaf to see how it would turn out and the results are a resounding “let’s do that again!”
I have to say chocolate bread is fabulous! We tried it with a bit of butter but honestly the plain chocolate bread was better without the butter (weird, right?) and then we tried it with a bit of strawberry sauce. Now here is where I admit to a cooking fail that turned into a fabulous find! My strawberry jam didn’t gel! So we labeled it as strawberry syrup and have been using it over ice cream instead and it’s fabulous! So I thought … chocolate bread with a drizzle of strawberry syrup? YES PLEASE! And I’m happy the report it is absolutely delicious! There are recipes online for strawberry syrup but basically it’s simply crushed strawberries and sugar. I freeze my strawberries when they are in season so I have plenty to use throughout the year. Just place frozen berries in a pot and heat on low. Once they are smooshy you can use an immersion blender to blend them (no water added) add equal amount of sugar to amounts of strawberries (example 4 cups of strawberries use 4 cups of sugar). I’m not sure where the jam recipe failed because the only difference is that you add pectin… yeah it did not gel! But boy am I glad it didn’t because we are really enjoying the strawberry syrup much more than we would have the strawberry jam!
I’ve also been using cocoa powder to sprinkle on top of my bread to make designs using a paper doily as a “stencil” which turned out really nice and gave me the idea for chocolate bread. The stenciled lace cocoa design turns out really pretty! I keep forgetting to take a picture of that so I will have to do so at a later date.
The nice thing is that adding cocoa powder to the mix doesn’t really add enough calories or carbs to make a difference for those of us trying to watch our weight and a teaspoon of strawberry syrup isn’t too high in calories and carbs that I can’t enjoy a little sweet treat of this super delicious chocolate bread and strawberry combo. So delicious!!!!!!!!
Conestoga Chuck 