Carol's chocolate chocolate chocolate bread

When I first got my bread machine about fifteen years ago, I read a recipe for “milk bread.” It sounded interesting, and I figured I could substitute soymilk for milk. But then I got to thinking, why not use chocolate soymilk instead? Somewhere I remembered reading about a chocolate bread that used cocoa, so I searched and found one that called for about two tablespoons of cocoa. I decided to up the chocolate quotient: I used the “milk bread” recipe, and substituted the chocolate soymilk, and added not two but three tablespoons of cocoa. Ah, I thought: instead of adding raisins or dried fruit to bread, why couldn’t I add vegan chocolate chips? Thus the chocolate chocolate chocolate bread was created. I give this as gifts at holidays and always has it for receptions. My son has had several college piano recitals at which this has been the hot item. A friend of mine told me I didn’t need to work so hard with receptions and parties, all I needed to do was provide chocolate chocolate chocolate bread.

The best way to awaken the chocolate flavor in the bread is to toast the bread lightly. Topping it with raspberry jam makes this a luscious treat. It uses a lot less fat than chocolate chip cookies but delivers a similar heavenly taste.

For a variation, make chocolate chocolate dough (leave out the chocolate chips), using the dough cycle of the bread machine. Remove the dough and cut it in half. Roll each half out so that it is in a rectangle, just as you would for dough for cinnamon rolls, but instead of spreading the cinnamon mixture on it, sprinkle the chocolate chips all over the dough! Then roll the dough up, slice the roll into 3/4 inch pieces, lay them flat on a baking sheet and bake. Mmmm!

This recipe is for a bread machine.

dry ingredients:
· 3 3/8 cups of flour
· (I often use 1/4 cup of soy flour, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and the rest bread flour)
· 1 tsp. salt
· 3 T. cocoa
· 1 1/2 tsp. yeast

then add wet ingredients:

· 1 1/2 T. olive oil
· 1 1/2 T. molasses
· 1 7/16 cups chocolate soymilk

1. As the mix cycle of the machine begins to combine the flour with the liquids, check to make sure there is enough soymilk. If it isn’t forming a large ball, it might need a couple of tablespoons more of soymilk.
2. When all the flour is mixed in, slowly add:
1/2 to 1 bag of vegan chocolate chips
(or 1 1/2 to 2 cups)

Enjoy!

This recipe can be found in How to Eat Like a Vegetarian Even if You Never Want to Become One from Lantern Books. You can also find a recipe for kneading and baking chocolate bread by hand in this book, co-authored by Patti Breitman and me.