Chocolate Chip Bread

by Nyani-Iisha Martin

Stuff ordinary people don't have is asterisked.

Dough:

4 to 5 cups regular flour OR 2 cups of flour and 2-3 cups cake flour (I used 2 cups wheat flour and 2&1/2 regular)

1 heaping tbsp dough conditioner*

2 packages/2 rounded teaspoons yeast

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup water

1 stick butter

1 egg

1 rounded tsp vanilla

1 scant tsp sweet dough flavoring*

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Swirl (optional):

2 oz semisweet chocolate

1 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup sugar

2 oz white chocolate

1/2 stick butter

Stir together 2 cups flour, yeast, salt, conditioner and sugar in a large bowl.

Melt stick of butter. Add milk, flavorings, and water and heat to around 120 degrees. (My method: refrigerate half of liquid and bring other half to boil. Mix and test on inside of wrist. Should be comfortably warm; if it burns it'll burn the yeast.)

Combine milk mixture and flour. Beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes or wooden spoon for 4. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour and beat for 2/4 more minutes. Knead in remaining flour to make a soft dough; knead in chips. Let dough rest 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make swirl: place all ingredients except butter in blender and grind up fine. Melt butter; combine all ingredients and set aside.

Roll out dough smoothly and thinly. Spread with swirl mixture and roll up; cut in half and shape into two loaves (or more)as desired. Let dough rest and rise till doubled in bulk (seriously, even if it takes more than an hour. The only failing of my loaves is that they are heavy and not sufficiently leavened). Bake at 375 F. (For two loaves it should take 30-35 minutes.)

Note:The reason I suggested cake flour, unusual in a bread recipe, is that I used dough relaxer in this, to make the dough manageable and tender. Most people won't want to bother buying that, so cake flour should provide the same manageability and tenderness.

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