Chocolate & Hazelnut Bread

I've had a craving for chocolate and hazelnut bread for a while now and a real craving to make bread. Normally, I don't have much patience when it comes to cooking. I just want to get it cooked and decorated as soon as possible. Making bread takes time and a lot of love, you have to nurture your dough in order to get results. You have to give your dough a warm house and a good pounding - please, no innuendo intended... A good kneading is a great way to relieve stress, whilst giving your dough the stretch it needs. So, it's a win, win situation.

Chocolate and hazelnut are a great flavour pairing and inside a sweet bread, it's rather quite heavenly. As I said in my last post, it's time to start thinking about your Christmas bakes and this bread would make a great centre piece to share with the family over the festive period.

Chocolate & Hazelnut Bread
560g Strong White Flour
100g Golden Caster Sugar
1 TSP Salt
7g Dried Yeast
1 TBSP Cinnamon
380ml Milk
60g Chopped Hazelnuts
80g Chopped Dark Chocolate

Sieve the flour, salt, cinnamon and golden caster sugar into a large mixing bowl of a free standing mixer. Add in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate and mix together.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk and stir to bring the ingredients together. Using a dough hook attachment, place on a low speed until a dough starts to form.

Turn the speed up to medium and leave for 10 minutes to knead in the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for a further five minutes until the dough becomes smooth and springy.

Place the dough into a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm place to rise and double in size, this should take about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 160C, Gas Mark 4.

Once the dough has doubled in size, knock it back by kneading it for a few seconds. Split the dough into three equal pieces and roll each piece into a long sausage - this should be around 30cm long.

Place the three rolls next to each other and squidge them together at one end. Then you want to take the right strand and place it over the middle strand, then take the left strand and repeat. It should go right to the middle, left to the middle until you reach the end of the dough. Once you reach the end, squidge the ends together.

Once you have plaited the dough place it in a fluted cake tin, making sure to dust the tin with flour to avoid sticking. Cover with a damp tea towel and place back in a warm place to prove for 20 minutes.

Once the plait has risen, place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown. To check if the bread is baked, tap the bottom to see if it sounds hollow.

Transfer onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

Once cooled, melt some milk chocolate and drizzle over the top.