Chocolate Hazelnut Bread

When I first came across this bread recipe that uses chocolate chips and hazelnuts, I almost wanted to try it out immediately. It was put on hold as I didn't have any chocolate chips or hazelnuts left. However, this recipe has been at the back of my mind all the while...I finally got a pack of chocolate chips and hazelnuts when I dropped by Phoon Huat recently. Since it was a few weeks before I last read the recipe, I got the wrong type of hazelnuts! The recipe calls for chopped hazelnuts, but I bought home a pack of grounded hazelnuts :'( I went ahead with it, thinking that there shouldn't be much difference between chopped and grounded hazelnuts.


This bread recipe is for a bread machine...as such it is quite a simple and straight forward loaf to bake. I only got a little worried just after I added in the grounded hazelnuts and chocolate chips. The dough didn't seem to be able to blend in the nuts and chips well. Fortunately, after the second kneading cycle was completed, all the chips and nuts were fully incorporated into the dough. In fact, most of the chips were already melted into the dough.

It was only when the bread was almost baked, I then realised that I didn't set the loaf size and crust setting! As the crust was almost dark browned, I stopped the machine 5 mins earlier. I wasn't sure whether it was the wrong setting, or it was meant to be, the crust was a little hard and crisp...just like the crust texture of a country loaf.

Too bad with the use of a wrong type of hazelnuts, I couldn't taste the grounded hazelnuts in the loaf at all...and the bread wasn't really sweet as what I expected. Nevertheless, the bread tasted marvellous when served as a toast with jam :P

Ingredients

200ml semi-skimmed milk (I used low fat fresh milk)
3 tablespoon melted butter, cooled
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
450g bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon instant or fast acting dried yeast
75g chocolate chips
50g chopped toasted hazelnuts

Method:

1. Pour milk into the pan of the bread machine, followed by melted butter and egg. Add sugar and salt. Cover with the flour and sprinkle the yeast over.
2. Fit the pan into the bread machine and set to BASIC white programme. Select 1 lb or 1.5lb loaf size and set to light or medium crust setting (depend on your preference).
3. Add the chocolate chips and nuts when the machine beeps.
4. Once baked, remove the loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

Recipe Source: The Breadmaker Bible by Karen Saunder