Chocolate Bread Recipe - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

How does cocoa powder affect bread dough? ›

Adding cocoa powder to your mix of flour, water, salt, tightens the dough, it makes it kind of stiff, it affects its extensibility which will translate into your crumb. That brings the need for higher hydration to fight that stiffness and make the dough more relaxed and easy to work with.

Sourdough bread is difficult to make because it requires a sourdough starter, which is a complex mixture of flour and water that must be carefully maintained and fed over time. The bread also requires a long fermentation process, typically between 12-24 hours, to develop its unique flavor and texture.

If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

Cocoa: A cocoa quantity of around 10% of flour weight is a good starting place. More than that and I'd have to make measurable adjustments to hydration. Also, the pH of cocoa powder could impact yeast activity.

It is starch that will absorb liquid.

That means that too much of it also means a dry-baked good. So to avoid your baked goods from coming out dry, either reduce the amount of flour (by the same amount of cocoa) or increase the amount of liquid in your formula, about 1/4-1/3 cup of liquids per 1/2 cup of powder.

If the dough isn't punched down, the carbon dioxide will continue to be released, which can cause big, uneven air pockets in your bread. Additionally, if you don't knock back the dough, it can lead to a weaker gluten structure, meaning your bread may not maintain the desired shape.

Knocking back

This is a technical term for punching or pressing down on the dough after the bread's first rise. This process bursts the tiny air bubbles that have formed in the dough and then forces them to reform again in the final shape you want, which results in a smoother texture.

So how did the pioneers bake their bread and cakes? A bake kettle! A bake kettle is a deep cast iron pan with three legs and a rimmed, close-fitting lid. Around 1850, it was usually referred to as a bake kettle or bake oven.

What is the secret to making homemade bread? ›

If the area is too warm, bread will rise too fast and begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting. This will impart a "yeasty" taste to the dough that will be transferred to the finished baked loaf. Using old ingredients (rancid nuts, "old" shortening) will cause yeast breads to taste old or have an "off" taste.

Butter and especially stronger oils, such as walnut, can also add flavor to bread. Dry milk powder adds flavor to bread and can soften its texture, as in the case of this basic white sourdough. Add it to dough with the flour.

The role of cocoa powder in cakes: When used alone in cakes, cocoa powder imparts a full rich chocolate flavor and dark color. Cocoa powder can also be used in recipes with other chocolates (unsweetened or dark) and this combination produces a cake with a more intense chocolate flavor than if the cocoa wasn't present.

Using cacao or cocoa powder is a great way to bring a deep chocolate flavour to your baking and desserts. However, cacao is less processed, particularly as the production of cocoa involves the use of an alkalising solution. Cacao powder also retains higher levels of nutrients.

cocoa powder is about 7 percent moisture where flour is about 14 percent moisture. flour is also a gluten which acts as a binder. so when substituting cocoa powder. you want to make sure that you're adding more moisture and another binder.

“The fine particles found in both cocoa and chocolate can act like flour in a recipe,” according to “BakeWise.” “When you convert a plain cake recipe to a chocolate cake, if you use cocoa, you need to consider it as flour.