Chocs away!

All you choc-aholic crumbniks won’t be disappointed with this recipe – Loafing Pete’s naughty choc-n-fruit loaf.

She's a real sweetie!

I found myself with a few spare hours early this afternoon - and having knocked out another lunch loaf, I thought I’d experiment with chocolate (sorry, you’ll just have to wait another day or so for the coffee version).

The ingredients for this 750gm loaf are:

* 290 mls of tepid tap water

* 2 tbspns of olive oil

* 450 gms of plain flour

* An extra tbspn of plain flour (or 3 tspns of gluten flour if you have it)

* 2 tbspns of rich powdered drinking chocolate (I use a brand called Taboo, distributed here in Australia by Grinders Coffee)

* 2 tbspns of brown sugar

* 1 ½ tspns of salt

* 1 tspn of improver

* 1 ½ tbspns of milk powder

* ½ cup of sultanas

* 1 tbspn of finely crushed peanuts

* 1 ½ tspns of dry yeast.

I definitely recommend putting all dry ingredients and the fruit in a bowl and mixing thoroughly to ensure the chocolate is uniform through the mix.

I then added this to the water and oil in the baking pan, then added the yeast.

I set Bev on her “sweet” cycle, and dialed up a medium crust (all up, about 3hrs).

The result is an amazingly rich, soft fruit loaf (if you want it fruitier, add more “tarnies”) with a lovely rounded top. Gang members say they want to take tomorrow as a morning-tea snack.

Taboo, being a drinking chocolate tends to be rich, and not overly sugary, but the brown sugar seems to add real oommpphhhhh and an extra degree of mellow softness. The nuts add some extra crunch. Can’t describe it any other way.

I’m going to tinker with this recipe, as it’s definitely going on my baking dance card as a morning or afternoon tea loaf.