Chocolate marble bread 巧克力大理石吐司

This is another baking fun in the evening. I first learned this idea on Carol's blog, and I've been wanting to make this bread ever since. I finally got to make it today. I've got all the ingredients in my pantry. Chocolate is my all time favorite, you'll see. The final product looks a little different from Carol's, that's because I added too much chocolate! Not because I love chocolate, it's just out of convenience. The BAKER'S chocolate square is 30 g each, and the recipe calls for 50 g. I thought it's only a difference of 10 g, it wouldn't make a big difference, so I added 2 squares (60 g). The chocolate filling just wouldn't set! How am I going to wrap it in the dough? So I added more flour and corn starch. However, it did set beautifully after refrigerated for 30 minutes. So my bread has more marble pattern than others... Maybe it's not so bad?

Ingredients (makes one loaf, 4" x 4" x 8"):

Chocolate filling:

• Chocolate squares 50 g, melted
• Butter 20 g (1.5 Tsp), melted
• Bread flour 20 g
• Cocoa powder 10 g
• Corn starch 5 g
• Milk 60 g
• Sugar 20 g
• Egg white 1

Bread:

• Bread flour 260 g
• Cake flour 20 g
• Egg 1 (about 50 g)
• Sugar 25 g
• Instant yeast 3/4 tsp
• Salt 1/4 tsp
• Milk 125 g
• Butter 20 g

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the bread using a bread machine. Let rise.

2. Sift the bread flour, cocoa powder and corn starch

3. Whisk in the milk and sugar.

4. Whisk in the melted chocolate, melted butter and egg white.

5. Gently heat the mixture on extremely low heat. Stir constantly until you can see the tracks of the swirls.

6. Remove from heat. Let cool a little.

7. Wrap in the plastic wrap. Roll it into 18 cm x 18 cm square (7" x 7").

8. Refrigerate.

9. After the dough has done the first rise, roll it into 36 cm x 36 cm square (twice big as the chocolate filling).

10. Put the chocolate filling at the center of the dough diagonally. Fold the 4 corners onto the chocolate filling, so the chocolate is wrapped inside the dough.

11. Roll it out into a big rectangular and fold it like a business letter.

12. Repeat step 11 twice.

13. The last time, roll it into a rectangular. Cut into 3 strips, leaving the top connected.

14. Braid the 3 strips into a rope-like shape. Put it in the mold. Let rise until 90% full.

15. Bake at 170 C (340 F) for 35 minutes. 

16. Remove from the mold and let cool.