“Oh no she didn’t…”
Oh yes, yes I did.
I’ve had so much fun over the past year playing with different variations of the no-knead bread that when I discovered a few left over chocolate chips in my pantry, I knew *exactly* what I was going to do with them.
This recipe only takes a few hours as opposed to the long ferment time of the no-knead focaccia. I literally made it one morning while I was running around finishing errands before company came over. You can totally do this in the background of your “real life.”
I basically used the same technique as I did for this cinnamon raisin bread, except that I mixed all of the cinnamon and brown sugar right into the dough. It’s so good and so easy… it will be your new secret weapon!
Did I mention how good this is toasted with peanut butter for breakfast? But, I guess I didn’t really have to, now did I? ;)
Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Servings 12Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ($0.24)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour ($0.26)
- 1 1/4 tsp salt ($0.06)
- 1 packet 2 1/4 tsp instant or bread machine yeast ($0.18)
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon ($0.15)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 1 - 1 1/2 cups water ($0.00)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips ($0.67)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir until there are no clumps.
- Add 1 cup of water. Stir and add more water, a few tablespoons at a time, just until the dough forms one ball with no dry pieces on the bottom of the bowl. It is okay if the dough is wet and sticky. Cover the bowl loosely and let it rest for two hours at room temperature.
- After two hours, sprinkle some flour on the expanded dough and on a clean work surface. Flour your hands and transfer the dough to the work surface. Give the dough just a few quick “kneads” just to make sure it is evenly mixed (honestly only 3 or for turns/folds). Shape the dough into a long rectangle with the short end the same length as your bread pan (see photos).
- Roughly chop the chocolate chips into small pieces. Sprinkle them over the surface of the bread dough. Working from the short end, stretch and roll the dough up with the chopped chocolate inside. Stretch the dough as you roll and roll tightly so that there as much “swirl” as possible.
- Place the rolled up dough, seam side down, in a bread pan coated with non-stick spray. Cover loosely and let rise until double in size (about one hour).
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, place the risen loaf inside, and bake until deep golden brown on top (about 35 minutes). Remove the baked loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire rack before cutting open. Enjoy!
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Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, salt, yeast, cinnamon, and brown sugar).
Next, add just enough water until it forms one piece of dough. This will probably be somewhere between 1 and 1.5 cups of water. Start with one cup and work up from there. It is okay if the dough is wet and sticky, just as long as there are no dry bits on the bottom of the bowl. Let the dough sit, loosely covered, at room temp for two hours. (Sorry about the weird lighting, it was still dark out when I started the bread)
After two hours it will have expanded into something like this. It’s fluffy, sticky, and not so pretty… but it gets better, promise.
Since the dough is wet and sticky, you’ll want to dust the dough, the work surface, and your hands with flour to keep it from sticking.
Give the dough just a couple of kneads just to make sure it’s mixed evenly and then shape it into a long rectangle. Make the short side of the rectangle the same length as your bread pan and the long side as long as you can possibly make it. The dough will be pretty elastic so you’ll need a little patience.
Oh yeah, at some point chop the chocolate chips into smaller bits.
Sprinkle the chocolate on the dough. The thinner the chocolate is spread, the less the finished bread will want to “separate” at the swirl marks. Roll the dough up, stretching as you go so that it “rolls” as many times as possible before reaching the end. The more it’s rolled, the more swirl marks you’ll have.
Place the rolled up dough in a bread pan (I spray mine with non-stick spray). Let it rise until double in size, approximately one hour depending on your indoor temperature.
When it looks something like this, begin to preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Bake the bread until it is a deep golden brown on top (about 30-35 minutes).
Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing… or else the melted chocolate will smear all over the bread as you slice… like mine did! And this was about 75% cooled! If you try to slice it right out of the oven not only will the chocolate get all over but the bread will be gummy… so let it cool a good bit, at least!
Mmmmm, I’m day dreaming about breakfast tomorrow morning because I can’t wait to have this again!
Hi Beth! Would this freeze okay after baked? I’m having surgery in a couple weeks and trying to make some stuff ahead of time and freeze/store them. Thanks!
Good luck with your surgery Mandy! Yes it should freeze wonderfully.
In case anyone is curious, I made the dough then had it rise overnight in the fridge for about 10 hours and then just continued in the morning. It took a longer than an hour for the bread to rise in the pan but still worked. I used active dry yeast and only all-purpose flour.
Hey Beth, how do you measure your flour? Do you scoop directly into the flour and level, or spoon flour into the measuring cup and level?
Scoop and level. :)
I made it and it proofed in the bowl but didn’t proof again in the bread pan :( Maybe I used too much water?
Hmmm, that’s strange! I’ve never had that happen before. :( Too much water probably wouldn’t have caused that.
Hey Beth! I always “karate chop” the ends and fold them over it looks pretty and doesn’t bake over the pan. Not sure if you knew this trick or not but it’s something my mom always did when she made bread. :)
I’m really falling love with your recipe , very help full & pic step by step , make easy way for the bread , i love it
Great recipe!
The bread itself turns out great without the cinnamon/sugar/chips, just as a nice basic bread recipe. I have better results with this than the ‘no-knead bread’, as far as basic bread goes.
This looks amazing! Would it work if I only used white all purpose flour? I never buy whole wheat, thanks!
Yep, although you might need slightly less water.
Money is tight so instead of going out for breakfast with friends, we had them over for brunch instead with this being the centerpiece to the meal. It could not have been better! They all raved over it and the house has never smelled so good! All the eggs and hash browns got swept to the far end of the table the second this came out of the oven.
5 stars!
You don’t happen to know the amount of each type of flour you use in grams, do you? I know the weight of 1 cup of flour can change depending on a lot of factors, and am wondering if you knew the gram amount?
No, I’m sorry, I don’t know the gram weight. :(
I made this tonight. Smelling it bake was divine. For people that live in an higher elevation ….I took it out of the oven about 25 minutes after I put it in. I am waiting to cut into it. I know I have to wait until it cool but this is torture.
Bonjour, je suis de Belgique et je suis tombée sur votre site via pinterest… que dire si ce n’est merci pour vos recette simple et super bien expliquer… je viens de faire cette recette avec mon fils et il est super… merci
Natacha, une fan Belge