Chocolate Coffee Cardamom Bread! (CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED)
Thanksgiving has come and gone too quickly yet again. We have finished eating our Thanksgiving Leftovers Torta, but we’ll continue to hold on to our reasons to stop and give thanks, especially as the holiday madness begins in earnest. We’ve come up with a great way to celebrate the season with you–and they don’t involve turkey or long lines of shoppers–a decadent chocolate bread, laced with coffee, cardamom, and more chocolate!
Let’s start with the bread. The recipe is our Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Bread recipe, which comes from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day, but tweaked just a bit, with a swirl of cardamom sugar and chocolate chunks. The combination of chocolate, cardamom, and coffee is quite a treat; the flavors compliment each other beautifully. This bread is rich and dreamy, but the dough is still made with whole wheat flour and honey, adding lots of flavor with less fat than our regular brioche, for example. There is, of course, the coffee icing that covers the top, an added little indulgence for the Holidays.
Chocolate Coffee Cardamom Bread
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (or two packets)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup strong brewed coffee, lukewarm
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
4 large eggs
1/2 cup neutral-flavored oil
3/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
Whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten in a 5 quart bowl, or other lidded food container. Combine the liquid ingredients and mix with the dry ingredients without kneading.
The dough will be loose, but will firm up when chilled. Don’t try to use it without chilling at least 2 hours.
Cover the dough, and allow to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses, about 2 hours. Refrigerate and use over the next 5 days.
On baking day, grease a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch nonstick loaf pan. Cut off a 2-pound piece of dough and shape into a ball. Generously flour your work surface, and roll the dough into a 1/4 inch rectangle, dusting with flour as needed. Brush the surface of the dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter, and sprinkle the cardamom sugar mixture evenly over the butter. Then sprinkle the chopped chocolate over the sugar mixture. Roll the dough into a cylinder, and pinch the seams shut. Place in the prepared loaf pan, and allow to rest for about an hour and 45 minutes, covered loosely with plastic wrap. (For detailed instructions on rolling out, sprinkling, and rolling up, see Zoe’s post here).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread for 45-50 minutes, until firm. Remove the bread from the pan and drizzle with the coffee icing (recipe follows). Allow to cool before slicing and eating.
Coffee Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons strong coffee
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt together. Add coffee one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
That looks great! I’m always interested in more baking books!
I will be making the master recipe for amazing artisan dinner rolls and the olive oil dough for pizza. I hope I win the giveaway so that I can regift the wonder of your books.
The bread sounds delicious!
I would love to have a set of all three of your books!
This sounds amazing! I love cardamom, but never thought to pair it with coffee!
Love your recipes……would like to add your books to my kitchen library!
I have your books on my Christmas wish list, but an autographed copy would be even better!
What a great idea and thank you for the opportunity to try and win your cookbooks. I really appreciate the creativity of your recipes.
I somehow lost my copy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and don’t have your Healthy Bread book, so this would make me so happy. Love your books! The bread looks delicious.
You keep amazing me with the variety of breads coming from your original recipe.
I’ve already used your basic white bread at Thanksgiving for my dinner rolls.
I’ll be using it again for the Christmas rolls. And probably for the stuffing as well. I may change it up a bit and use whole wheat instead of the white flour, but I have your Healthy Bread in 5 book, so I have the conversion for that. Either way, it will be delicious!
Thanks for the opportunity to win!! I’ll be making your master recipe, which is my hubby’s favorite, this holiday season.
I absolutely LOVE your stuff! Just ask any of my friends or family. I am truely your groupie!
I’m sharing the bread love with the teachers in our lives this holiday season! I want to give them the gift of learning how to make fresh bread and lots of different kinds. I often bake an extra loaf while I’m baking mine and give it to neighbors or teachers. I’m giving your books as presents this year to the kids teachers.
Love your books!
Chocolate + Cardamom sounds amazing! Great giveaway, thanks!
I’m new to the whole bread in 5 minutes a day concept but I LOVE it and would love to be able to add these books to my library.
Thanks for the contest!
I’ve never cooked with Cardamom. I just bought some and am anxious to try it! I would love a set of your books. I have checked them out from the library and love them!
… oh, I would use the gluten free recipes and apply them,as so wonderfully suggested, to your regular recipes – the oven is warming up!
I cannot wait to make this bread! last Christmas I made three loaves of the Stollen Bread and it was very delicious!
Lovely books. I already have two of them, but would love to be able to give them to our local library…thanks for sharing.
I just made a batch of your pizza dough and is sitting in the fridge waiting for me to bake tomorrow. Love your blog and books.
This site is amazing. I am a noob and loving it already. Thanks for all your good work Jeff and Zoe.
Have HB5 and love it. Made the Pumpkin Brioche with Chocolate Ganache muffins for Thanksgiving. Delicious!!
This was sounds good except I hate coffee. Can this be made without the coffee added? I sure hope so!
David
Wow this loaf sounds incredible. What’s not to love with coffee and chocolate combined and I love the sound of the glaze. Looking forward to trying this and hopefully many more of your recipes.
Looks wonderful. I am going to try this!
I made your soft pull apart rolls for Thanksgiving. Can’t wait to find another yummy option for Christmas ( or maybe do the the rolls again).
I recently read an article about commercial bread, which led me to try baking my own for my family from now on – I can’t wait to try these recipes!
That chocolate bread looks heavenly! All three books, in one collection, is a wonderful give away. I have my fingers crossed!
This sounds amazing. I’m thinking I’ll add this bread to some of my gift baskets I make for my elderly neighbors, etc.
Love your bread making methods and would love to own your books. I currently use a borrowed HBI5 to learn how to bake bread for our family of 5.
I was looking for the perfect item to take to a Christmas potluck at the library. I think this is it! I love and use all three of your cookbooks. Can’t wait for the fourth!
I love chocolate and cardamon, can’t wait to make this.
On a totally different note, yesterday I made Bradley Benn’s Beer Bread from HBin5–it was amazing!You’ve got to try it.
Love your recipes! Made brioche rolls for thanksgiving, and they were a big hit!
Oh, what a treat…the bread and the 3 signed books! I would luv to win these…
This looks fantastic! Can’t wait to try it this weekend!
I’d love these books!
Love your books–would love autographed copies!
Cardamom bread is one of my favorite Christmas baking traditions. Pair it with Espresso and Chocolate and it sounds like PERFECTION! Thanks for the recipe!
This chocolate bread looks amazing and something that would have taken a long time to put together. Yum! The books would be great, I am searching for low to no carb bread recipes and also for pizza crust.
Your gluten free bread has been a life saver for me. It is so far above any other recipes I’ve tried that there is no comparison.Thank you and please keep those GF recipes coming!
I can’t control myself around the almond brioche Bostock. It’s pretty much the best ever. I need to find something new to make, so the other books would be great. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the chance to receive your books !!
I love to cook but, with a busy life, have always shyed away from breads believing it was overly time consuming and difficult. No longer !!! I can’t wait to try these and add them to my homemade “favorite things” gift list.
I make your olive oil dough for our weekly pizza night, our new family tradition, after borrowing “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day” from a neighbor/friend. I would LOVE to actually place my own copy on my bookshelf. Love what you all do!
I have just started to bake bread using your recipes. I am looking forward to trying more of them! So far they are delicious.
I make a fresh batch of your bread every week. It is such a staple in my house, from pizza to tortillas to baquettes to loaves. I’d love to be a winner in your contest.
Yum! Yum! You win multiple brownie points with me!
That looks fantastic!
I’ve been wanting these books for a while. Thanks for having the giveaway!
Oh I just found you blog. How exciting. I cannot wait to get started. Homemade bread was a must growing. For lack time my family has stopped making bread and I miss it. Cannot wait to get started up again. Thanks a million!
Love your method and would love to win!
What to take for a hostess gift when spending Christmas in Santa Fe with a friend? Chocolate Coffee Cardamom Bread, of course! The answer to my dilemma…I can hardly wait to try it.