Every time I start making bread dough, my six-year-old takes some of the dough and puts chocolate chips in it. We bake it and it turns into a small colorful rock. One day, I asked him to let me give it a try. This recipe is the result. It is delicious sliced and served with a little bit of butter.
Ingredients
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
4 tsp sugar
3 tbs olive oil plus 1 tbs extra
1 1/4 cups warm water (at about body temperature – stick your finger in it, it shouldn’t feel too warm or too cold)
1/4 warm water extra, if needed
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chip
Unsalted butter for brushing and serving
Directions
Place a pizza stone on the lowest rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 500 F. If you do not have a pizza stone, you can use the middle rack of the oven and preheat it to 350 F. The pizza stone provides more consistent results but it is not a deal-breaker.
In a big bowl, mix the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the yeast and mix it in. Mix in half the oil and then add the water gradually, mixing and folding with your hand to collect all the flour. The dough should be a bit sticky. Lightly knead the dough in the bowl for about 2 minutes. The point is to make sure it’s homogeneous and free from big clumps of flour, small clumps are ok! Use the extra oil to coat the outside of the dough with your hand.
Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour. It should at Kraft double in size.
Punch down the dough and cut it in half. For each half, do the following: on a piece of parchment paper, roll out the dough into a rectangle that is about 1/3 inch (1 cm) thick. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the dough and roll it on the long edge to form a loaf with the chocolate chips folded into it. The parchment paper makes it easier to move the dough into the oven and really serves no other purpose. If you don’t have parchment paper, you can skip it but be prepared for some difficulty handling the dough.
Cover the loaf with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
Using a sharp knife, score the top of the loaf. I like to make shallow diagonal parallel lines.
Place the loaf in the oven until it takes a light golden brown color and sounds somewhat hollow when you knock on it.
Remove the loaf from the oven, brush it with the butter, and let it cool down covered with a clean kitchen towel.
To serve, slice the loaf and provide butter (salted or unsalted) and your favorite sweet toppings.
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