Guatemalan Hot Chocolate Bread

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

Some day I will have my own bakery, and when I do, I want it to just like Seattle’s Macrina Bakery. I haven’t actually ever been there, but based on the cookbook, which is based on the recipes that the bakery uses, I think I’d fall in love with the place and never leave.

Hmmm. Maybe it is a good thing I haven’t been there . . .

The first recipe that caught my eye was this chocolate yeast bread. Chocolate. Yeast. Bread. I was smitten. The recipe was pretty easy, and I had all the ingredients on hand. It is a basic enriched yeast dough that has some cocoa powder added to it. This version also adds chopped almonds and chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips).

The only problem I had with the recipe is that I wasn’t sure what the kneaded dough was supposed to look like. Mackie says the dough will look satiny and stringy, and mine was, but it was also more like a cake batter then a bread dough. It wasn’t very cohesive, and I ended up adding almost another cup of flour to the dough before it started balling up and acting like a normal bread dough. At this point, I could knead it by hand, although it was still pretty sticky.

Warm from the oven, this bread was very, very good. As it cooled down, however, it became slightly dry, so I may have added too much flour (or overbaked the bread). I guess I’ll just have to try this recipe again. Darn.