My First Marble Bread

This is my first successful bread. In fact,I made 2 batches of bread before, last year. However,both of them turned out to be very bad and registered them as top items on my fail baked list. It did not rise properly and it was so hard (nearly like a stone) to consume. 4 hours of effort were just gone and that happened on my 2nd batch as well. I was almost giving up of making bread again until I found the recipe here . Chocolate swirl and soft texture of the bread really attracted my attention. I told myself " why don't I give it a try again". I made the correct decision and really thank HHB for the recipe!.The bread was really soft and tasty.

My chocolate swirl were not pretty as hers. It was due to my mistake. Being clumsy person, I didn't read the method carefully on making of the chocolate sheet. Instruction stated "need to stir over low fire till mixture thickens and form a thick lump". But I didn't put it onto fire and it was ended up as a little runny chocolate paste instead of chocolate sheet. I still wonder why my paste was ended up so runny, however, I didn't bother to check the instruction again and just proceeded as it is. Glad that my bread turn out to be good even I didn't follow the instruction properly. I will try to make chocolate sheet again soon.

Ingredients

chocolate sheet

• 20g cake flour

• 50g sugar
• 1 egg white
• 80ml milk (warmed)
• 18g cocoa powder
• 10g butter

Bread dough

• 270g bread flour
• 30g cake flour
• 5g active dry yeast
• 15g milk powder
• 40g caster sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 125g fresh milk
• Half an egg
• 75g whipping cream

Method (chocolate sheet)

1. Mix sugar and cake flour into the egg white until smooth.
2. Place milk in a saucepan and heat till just simmering.
3. Add coca powder into the milk and stir till cocoa powder is incorporated into milk.
4. Add egg white mixture into the cocoa mixture and stir over low fire till mixture thickens and form a thick lump.
5. Add in butter and stir till incorporated.
6. Leave to cool. Place in a plastic bag and roll into a square (about 14cm x 14cm). Keep refrigerated before use.

Method (Dough)

1. Place all ingredients in the mixer and knead it for 15mins (my mixer does not include dough function, I just use the dough hook and knead it)
   
2. Remove from mixer and knead again by hand until the dough become very smooth and not sticky. (It took 20 mins for me at least)
   
3. Leave the dough in a bowl. Cover with a cling film and let it proof for about 1.5hrs or until it rises double in volume.
   
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and punch out the gas. Roll out the dough into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. Place the chocolate sheet in the middle of the dough. Wrap both ends of the dough over to cover the chocolate sheet completely. Take note that the dough should be rolled long enough for both sides to fold over the chocolate sheet.
5. Fold the dough into 3 folds. If you want more swirl, roll it out again make another 3 folds. Twist the dough and place it in the baking pan. Let it rise again for another 45mins.
6. Bake at 180 degree C preheated oven for about 35 - 40 minutes. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let the loaf cool off before slicing.