Chocolate Challah

I made a recipe for chocolate challah from Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook.

This was the first time in a long, long time that I baked bread in the bread machine (instead of using it to knead and then baking in the oven). I’m sorry, but bread tastes better baked in the oven. (I’m sorry, this is a slightly grumpy posting.)

The flavor was ok, but more like pumpernickel than chocolate. But, this is what always happens when I bake chocolate bread–it always tastes like pumpernickel bread to me. (I have always suspected that my favorite bakery raisin pump is heavily loaded with cocoa and pretty light on the rye.) 

A compounding factor, perhaps, was that I used mostly whole wheat flour. The texture and flavor, btw, were indistinguishable from other chocolate breads I have made with all white flour. This is a bread where it really pays to use whole wheat and get that extra fiber. I didn’t even use white whole wheat, but actually used regular whole wheat.

All the same, next time I bake my bread in the oven. I hate the weird square loaves from the bread machine with their flabby crusts. It was a fun project to make with my son, though.

Tags: beth hensperger, bread, bread machine, challah, chocolate, dairy-free, kosher