Sunday, February 14, 2010

February 15th HBin5 Bread Braid Part I


Assignment: 
1/2 recipe Red Beet Buns, Pgs 180-181
½ recipe Chocolate Espresso WW Bread, 302-303
Chocolate Tangerine Bars, pgs 304-305

We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

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Chocolate Espresso WW Bread
Substitutions:
White whole wheat for whole wheat
Added 4 ½ oz cocoa and ¼ c butter in place of 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
Added 2 handfuls cinnamon chips and 1 tbsp cinnamon
Had to add an extra cup of water because the dough was too stiff, 
probably because of the extra cocoa

This is a bread I will definitely make again!  I love the rich flavor!  BUT, as is usual I had to put my own twist on it.  

While we were in Mexico we had a lot of chocolate!  But down there they love to put cinnamon with their chocolate.  So it seemed natural to me to include cinnamon in this recipe. 

Also, I didn’t want to do just bread, I wanted some sort of “pastry”.  I used my pasta bike to cut long ribbons of dough which I then twisted and coiled around to form a “round” which I’ve named “meadow buns!”  See if you get the joke!   They are very delicious!  


I used Apima Mexican honey in this recipe.


Pasta bike worked great in cutting out the strips of dough.



I also baked some Chocolate Espresso Cinnamnon Straws 


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I still had some extra dough, since I had made a full recipe, and decided to try a baked apple wrapped in this dough.  I used my apple slicer (which also cores the apple), and while holding the apple together on the dough, I shoveled in more sugar and cinnamon.  Then I quickly wrapped the bread dough around it.  



I put the dough wrapped apple in one of my large muffin molds and baked it at the temp called for.




When I served this I poured a bit of my homemade Chocolate Raspberry Port over it.


But I felt that the dough had dried out a bit, so decided to take the rest and make it into Apple Chocolate Espresso Bread Pudding!




I topped the bread pudding with a bit of cream.  Now that's a dessert!  



Chocolate Tangerine Bars  
Substitutions:
Zest from one orange, I didn’t have any tangerines
Cinnamon chips for chocolate
Dried cherries for cranberries

This is another one that I love with the cinnamon chips and extra cinnamon!  I wouldn’t waste cherries on it again however.  The next time I will just put in the dried cranraisins as they are cheaper.  The taste of the chocolate pretty much overwhelmed the cherries. 

I read a trick about zesting citrus fruit…put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes if the fruit is soft.  The skin freezes up and makes it much easier to zest.  Don’t remember where I read that, but it works!







Red Beet Buns
Substitutions:
1 c WWW (white whole whe

12 comments:

  1. WOW..WOW...WOW! I'm almost speechless! It's like a festival of Chocolate!

    Isn't the pasta bike a blast to use! I love mine and use it all the time!

    I like Chocolate with cinnamon too and use the combo often. Love your Chocolate Straws...such a cool idea!

    My favorite is the Baked Apple Muffin! And it shaped so nicely around the apple too. Great idea!

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  2. A baked apple muffin, what a scrumptous treat. I would have never thought of that. And all that cinnamon, yum, yum.

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  3. I echo Michelle. That's a whole lot of baking you did. Really liked the chocolate straws.

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  4. I love cinnamon and chocolate together! Genius idea. AND HOLY COW that bread pudding sounds good. That's really what I should have made with this bread.

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  5. Oh my gosh, you got so creative. I am inspired. I can barely just get to the loaf. I'm going to have to try making your meadow buns. I loved the look of them.

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  6. Love, love, love the bread pudding! What a great application for this choclate bread (and the cinnamon is a lovely idea as well).

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  7. oooh my!! look at all you did! everything looks wonderful. I love the wrapped apple! YUM!

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  8. Wow! All I can say is "wow!" That's a lot of chocolate. A lot of yummy chocolate.

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  9. You are so creative. I just made the plain ol' recipe. Your inspiring me! Love the straws!!!
    That homemade chocolate raspberry port is right up my alley. Have you posted the recipe for that one?

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  10. wow! You were a busy baker! Great job on all of them!

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