We Should Cocoa: Chocolate Monkey Bread

This months We Should Cocoa, the creation of Choclette and Chele, is hosted by Nazima of Franglais Kitchen who has challenged us to use our loaf (pun intended) and come up with a bread and chocolate creation. Last months round up featuring all things pumpkin from Nat at The Hungry Hinny, can be found here.

I wrote all the narrative for this post. Left it to one side. Had a flick about on the Internet about the subject and landed on a blogpost on exactly the same subject about what I had written. This has happened before. I think I've come up with something witty to say and then BAM! I find someone has beat me to it. Someone has probably beaten me to this too.

People do come up with the same ideas. If you've ever been near anyone who deals with patents, they'll give you examples.

Which made me think about this bread. It's not new, or amazing*, or never been done before. The quantities and methods are different but the end result is the same. I don't think I can find anything new to say.

Apart from the fact that I know someone who calls it "Monkey Brain Bread", and that made me laugh, loudly and uncontrollably.

Ingredients

Bread Dough
400gr strong bread flour
1 x 7g sachet of easy blend yeast
10gr cocoa powder
50gr caster sugar
50gr butter
250ml lukewarm milk
1/4tsp vanilla powder or 1tsp vanilla extract

50gr caster sugar and 25gr melted butter for the dough glaze

50gr dark chocolate, melted for the top

Method

1, In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, yeast and salt together. Stir in the sugar and rub in the butter until it is all uniform in texture.
2, Slowly incorporate the milk to form a dough and turn out into a floured work surface. Knead for around 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
3, Place in a greased bowl and cover with cling film. Allow to rise, in a warm place, for an hour or until doubled in size.
4, When the dough has risen, knock it back with your fist and knead it briefly. Flatten the dough out and cut into pieces that are just smaller than a ping pong ball when rolled into balls.
5, Dip the balls of dough into melted butter and then roll in the sugar. Place them in a 1lb greased loaf tin. Cover with clingfilm and return to the warm place until doubled in size again.
6, Preheat your oven to 220o/c and bake the loaf for 20-25minutes until the underside of the load sounds hollow when tapped.
7, Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before drizzling the melted chocolate on and eating. It's best served slightly warm with doughy aromas and sticky chocolate covered fingers. We're all friends here..

*It begs to be torn apart and shared. That means it doesn't have to be new, or amazing. You get to share it with people you love. Perfect.