Chocolate Bread

Chocolate bread is a variety of baked bread that has cocoa added to it. Chocolate bread is generally served for tea with special bread spreads.

History of the Chocolate Bread

Not much is actually known about the history of the dish. But most gourmands state that there are already several versions of chocolate bread that are served as a dessert or a tea accompaniment in different countries. Generally, different kinds of flavored breads became popular with the popularization of baking soda and baking powder in the 1930s. Cooks also use yeast to prove their chocolate bread to create a much moister version. Several varieties of flavored bread recipes were provided in the Pillsbury's 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook and the original inspiration of the recipe arose from the same book. No one really knows where the recipe originated from but different cooks in the 1960s who experimented with chocolate to create versions that are sweet, bitter, or to be eaten only as toasted.

Chocolate Bread Recipe Overview

A traditional recipe suggests use of cocoa powder, butter, chocolate chips, wheat flour, yeast or baking powder and baking soda. Generally, adding cocoa with baking powder in the flour creates denser, richer dough and much softer bread. A few recipes suggest addition of milk to create the same effect. Using yeast in the dish results in a firmer and less buttery bread that should be eaten toasted or spread with paste spreads, jams and candy. Chocolate chips can be added to the bread along with white chocolate chips and melted chocolate to get a richer taste.  

Serving and Eating Chocolate Bread

Chocolate flavored bread is a snack that is served at tea. Chocolate bread is generally made commercially by bakeries. Toasted chocolate bread is served with jam, nut spreads like pistachio butter, or peanut butter or chocolate spreads like Nutella.

Popular Variations of the Chocolate Bread Recipe

There are several varieties of chocolate bread recipe that are followed by cooks. For example, a few of the most popular variations include-

• Chocolate zucchini bread is prepared by mixing finely chopped zucchini into the basic chocolate bread dough.
• Chocolate coffee bread is created by adding espresso coffee powder to the basic dough before baking.
• White chocolate bread is made by omitting the cocoa in the recipe but adding white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to the basic dough recipe. A few cooks also add pudding mix, white vanilla yoghurt, honey and dried cherries to the dough to make the cake moister.
• Sweet bread with chocolate is made by adding butter, brown sugar, walnuts, raisins and semi-sweet chocolate chips to the basic recipe.
• Chocolate caramel bread is prepared by adding chocolate ganache to the prepared cake.  

Nutritional Value

 A single slice of the chocolate bread of 336 grams has about 876 calories.