Chocolate Bread

 

On most mornings we have bread for breakfast as it is convenient. The type of bread depends on what I decide to bake in the morning or the night before. Usually sourdough, no knead ciabatta and focaccia breads take a longer time to prepare and bake so I have to do it a day earlier before we can enjoy them. Others require only 1 or 2 proofing and can be made on the day that we want to eat. 

Ingredients:

• 640 g bread flour
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 120 g castor sugar
• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 290 ml warm milk
• 2 grade A eggs
• 75 g butter
• 100 g chocolate shavings
• Topping - chocolate chips or any nuts

Method:

• Put the bread flour, cocoa power, sugar, yeast and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Turn on low speed to mix all the ingredients.

• Add milk into the bowl.

• Add in the eggs.

• Knead the ingredients until the dough forms into a ball.

• Add butter to the dough and continue to knead.

• Knead the dough till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl.

• Transfer the dough to the greased bowl.

• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the dough proof till it doubles in size.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to a slightly floured surface.

• Punch down the dough and knead it by hand for another 5-10 minutes.

• Shape the dough back into a dough.

• Roll out the dough into a rectangle.

• Spread the chocolate shavings onto the rectangle.

• Roll up the dough according to the length of the bread pan. (I use a 9 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch bread pan.)

• Cover the bread pan with a moist towel and let it proof a second time.

• Pre-heat the oven at 175 deg C.

• When the dough is ready to be baked, brush the top with some milk. Spread some chocolate chips or nuts on top.

• Bake at 175 degrees Centigrade for 25 minutes.

• When done, remove the pan from the oven immediately and the bread from the pan.

• Wait for the bread to be cooled down before slicing it up.

Spinach Egg Roll

Spinach Egg Roll is a very delicious dish. Stir-fried spinach by itself tastes very good and if enclosed in eggs will taste even better. It is simple to be cooked up especially when most of us would definitely have this vegetable and eggs in our refrigerator. Most of the time when I stir-fry spinach, I would remove some to be made into spinach egg roll.

Ingredients:

• 150 g spinach
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• Some cooking oil

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• Some cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up some cooking oil in a wok.
• Sauce the garlic till fragrant.
• Add the spinach.
• Season it with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.
• Dish up when cooked.
• Let the spinach cool down.
• Drain it so that it is dry.
• Use a pair of kitchen scissors or knife to cut it into small pieces.
• Set aside.

• Separate egg white from the yolk.
• Add seasonings of salt, pepper and light soy sauce to the yolk.
• Brush some cooking oil onto a non-stick pan.
• Lightly beat the egg white and pour it into the non-stick pan.
• Swirl the pan so that the egg white covers the pan evenly.
• Wait for the egg white to cook slightly.
• Spread the cooked spinach onto one side of the egg white.
• Using a spatula, roll up the egg white to cover the spinach, pulling the egg white to the edge of the pan as you roll it up and leaving a space for the egg yolk.
• Pour the egg yolk into that space to join up with the egg white.
• Wait for the egg yolk to cook and then continue to roll it up from where we stopped.
• Remove the roll from the pan.
• Slice it up and serve.