Chocolate Loaf

Apples for Jam © 2007 by Tessa Kiros/Andrews McMeel Publishing

The name may mislead you into thinking this is actually a cake — but don't be fooled. From Tessa Kiros's Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007), this cocoa-infused recipe is most definitely a bread. Serve it toasted or fresh, topped with jam.

Ingredients:

1 (1/2-ounce) cake fresh yeast

2 tablespoons superfine sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

3 1/3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Crumble the yeast into a large bowl and add the sugar. Gently heat the milk in a small pan until it feels just a bit hotter than your finger, then add it to the yeast. Stir through and leave for 10 minutes or so, until the surface starts to turn spongy. Add the flour, cocoa powder, butter, and a pinch of salt and mix in well. Knead with your hands for about 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic with no lumps. If your dough is very soft, leave it in the bowl and just punch it around and squeeze it with one hand, holding the bowl with the other. Cover the bowl with a heavy dish towel and leave it in a warm, draft-free place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it has puffed right up. Butter and flour a 12-by-4-inch loaf pan.

2. Knock the dough down to flatten it and shape it to the size of the pan. Drop it in, cover the pan with the dish towel and leave it again in a warm place for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour, until the dough has puffed up over the rim of the pan. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Remove the dish towel and bake the loaf for about 25 minutes, or until the top is firm and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Tip out onto a rack to cool. Once it has cooled down completely, this loaf can be frozen (even just a chunk of it) in a plastic bag and saved for another moment in time.

Makes 1 loaf