¿ Chocolate Cherry Bread

zxcvbob said:

DW bought a loaf of bread from a fancy bakery; it was oblong and kind of
flat, with white chocolate chips and dried cherries swirled inside. The
bread itself had kind of an odd (but very good!) texture to it; large
holes and a bit tough like french bread, but not as chewy. Maybe it was
French or Italian bread dough and the filling had butter in it that
cooked into the loaf and changed the texture. It was obviously rolled
up or folded because of the swirl pattern. It was not very sweet, but
it was a little bit sweet. Does anyone have a recipe like this? It
would probably work just as well with sweetened dried cranberries
("craisins"😉 or with sliced prunes instead of cherries.

I don't like to swirl in the chocolate and cherries, I like
them more evenly distributed. You can do that if you want
though. No reason why not.

The basic dough is really a brioche.

Chocolate Cherry Bread

2 C bread flour
1 1/2 C water
1/4 t active dry yeast

Mix the above sponge. Let it rise for 6 - 8 hours. If you're
in a hurry you can speed it up by using 1/2 t yeast, which will
shorten the rise time. You want to use the sponge when it's
bubbled up but not before it starts to fall back down on
itself.

2 C flour
2 1/2 t active dry yeast
5 T sugar
6 T dark unsweetened cocoa (darkest makes for best loaf color)
8 T butter, softened
2 t salt
4 oz sour dried cherries (approx 1 C)
6 - 8 oz chopped chocolate

Mix in the sponge and all the above ingredients except the cherries
and chopped chocolate. Mix thoroughly, about 5 minutes at medium speed.
Add the chopped chocolate and cherries and mix on low for 1 minute.
If you want you can do this by hand.

Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Form the loaves and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45
minutes. Bake at 375 F to 190 F internal temperature, about 40-45
minutes depending on loaf size.

I like to spread it with mascarpone cheese.

--
Reg

zxcvbob said:

DW bought a loaf of bread from a fancy bakery; it was oblong and kind
of flat, with white chocolate chips and dried cherries swirled
inside. The bread itself had kind of an odd (but very good!) texture
to it; large holes and a bit tough like french bread, but not as
chewy. Maybe it was French or Italian bread dough and the filling had
butter in it that cooked into the loaf and changed the texture. It
was obviously rolled up or folded because of the swirl pattern. It
was not very sweet, but it was a little bit sweet. Does anyone have a
recipe like this? It would probably work just as well with sweetened
dried cranberries ("craisins"😉 or with sliced prunes instead of cherries.

Thanks,
Bob

Phillipa's in Melbourne makes chocolate cherry bread. Dark not white
chocolate. She says it was adapted from an American recipe. It's not as
sweet as you expect, but a little goes a long way! Yummy with fresh
goat's cheese.

Christine

Reg said:

zxcvbob said:

DW bought a loaf of bread from a fancy bakery; it was oblong and kind
of flat, with white chocolate chips and dried cherries swirled
inside. The bread itself had kind of an odd (but very good!) texture
to it; large holes and a bit tough like french bread, but not as
chewy. Maybe it was French or Italian bread dough and the filling had
butter in it that cooked into the loaf and changed the texture. It
was obviously rolled up or folded because of the swirl pattern. It
was not very sweet, but it was a little bit sweet. Does anyone have a
recipe like this? It would probably work just as well with sweetened
dried cranberries ("craisins"😉 or with sliced prunes instead of cherries.

I don't like to swirl in the chocolate and cherries, I like
them more evenly distributed. You can do that if you want
though. No reason why not.

The basic dough is really a brioche.

[snip]

Brioche! [smacks forehead and says "D'oh"] I should have known that.
That's the piece I was missing.

They call this chocolate, but it is really just a brioche dough
sprinkled with white chocolate chips, dried cherries, and a little
butter and sugar, then rolled up like a jelly roll and baked free-form.

Thanks,
Bob