[Dairy-free] Chocolate Marble bread

I’ve been wanting to make this Chocolate Marble bread for a long time and finally got to try it while the hubby is still in town. I used to buy Chocolate Marble bread from Johan Paris bakery but it’s quite costly and also it’s not dairy-free! so here I’m using @happygokathyy ‘s recipe to create a dairy-free version. It’s really satisfying to shape this bread. 👍🏻👍🏻

For detailed video recipe, please go to Kathy’s channel on YouTube. I will share the dairy-free recipe version below.

I’ve noticed that my chocolate sheet was crumbly after freezing for the second shaping. It’s not melted as what it meant to be. Hence you can notice from photos that chocolates are in small lumps. I will have to do it again 😅 maybe to wait for the chocolate to melt a little before second shaping or be more careful when cooking my chocolate mixture the night before. I think my pan was a tad too hot too. 🤪 So please be more careful when cooking the chocolate mixture. 

Nonetheless, kids and I still enjoy this chocolate bread a lot. ☺️👍🏻👍🏻

Poolish (one night before) :

• Bread flour 30g
• Luke warm water 30ml
• Instant yeast 0.5g
• Combine yeast with water and mix in bread flour. Mix well and keep in container and leave in fridge overnight.

Chocolate (can be made one night before):

• Dark Chocolate 75g
• Unsalted butter 27g
• Sugar 27g
• Milk 75ml
• Cocoa powder 15g
• Bread Flour 32g
• Corn Starch 10g
• Egg white from 1egg

Steps:

1. Melt dark chocolate and butter in a bowl with hot-water-bath
2. In another bowl, sift together cocoa powder, bread flour and corn starch
3. Add sugar and milk into the flour mixture
4. Mix in dark chocolate mixture, combine well.
5. Add in egg white and mix well.
6. Pour into a non-stick pan and cook for 5 to 10 minutes till thicken and rough dough
7. Let it cool down before putting into a 20cmx20cm Ziploc bag
8. Flatten the dough evenly in the Ziploc bag and allow to freeze in freezer at least 30 minutes

Main dough:

• Bread flour 250g
• Instant yeast 5.5g
• Caster sugar 40g
• Egg 1pc
• Milk 125ml
• Salt 4g
• Unsalted butter 25g

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients (except butter) and slowly drizzle the milk in.
2. Once dough is formed (about 10 minutes – can use ice pack to wrap around mixing bowl), add in butter and knead till smooth and elastic 7-10 minutes (windowpane stage)
3. Shape to a tight round ball and let proof till double about 1 hour
4. Defrost chocolate dough 5 minutes before main dough is done proofing
5. Deflate the main dough on a floured surface. Using rolling pin to flatten it about double the size of chocolate sheet. Try to get rid of as many bubbles as possible
6. Flip the dough over (smooth side at the bottom) and remove chocolate sheet from Ziploc ba. For easy removal, can cut of the edges of the bag
7. Stack chocolate sheet on the center of the main dough at a 30 deg angle and fold in the 4 corners to wrap the chocolate sheet. Remove bubbles and pinch the edges to seal.
8. Dust some flour on both sides of the dough and start flatten it with rolling pin to a wide rectangular shape and fold in the top and bottom quarter of the dough, leaving a small gap in the center. Then fold the dough top to bottom, so you will have 4 layers of dough. Wrap in cling wrap and freeze for 20 minutes for next shaping.
9. Remove from freezer and dust some flour before rolling into a long rectangular shape and do the same folding like step 8. Wrap in cling wrap and freeze for 20 minutes for next shaping.
10. Remove from freezer and dust some flour before rolling into a wider rectangular shape and do 1/3 folding to the center from the two edges. Rotate the dough and rolling it into a long rectangular that is about 10cm longer than loaf tin (my loaf tin is 20cm).
11. Use a serrated knife and cut the dough lengthwise into 4 strands, leaving the top part intact for braiding.
12. 4 Strains braiding will be 1 over 2, 3 over 2 and 3 over 4. Repeat till finished braiding the whole dough (about 3 times). Fold the end to the back of the dough. Shape the dough to fit into the loaf tin by folding the two ends to the bottom.
13. Let dough proof for another 45mins to an hour till it reaches the rim of the tin.
14. Bake at preheated oven of 170deg for 37minutes. Cover the top with aluminium foil at 20 mins if it browns.