#cocoa bread

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

10g rapid rise yeast

2 tbsp water

2/3 cup unflavored/unsweetened yogurt

1 egg

1/3 cup melted butter 

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

For Glaze:

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp soymilk (or regular milk)

Instructions:

Either use bread machine dough cycle to mix all ingredients EXCEPT the cocoa powder, OR mix water, yogurt, egg, and butter in a mixing bowl. Add the salt, sugar, yeast. Mix until homogenous. Add the flour slowly until combined. Kneed for 15 to 20 minutes. Let rise until doubled in size.

Punch down and divide the dough into 3 equal portions (by weight). Add the half of the cocoa powder to each of the first two portions and mix until integrated. Leave the third portions as vanilla. The amount of cocoa powder can be varied to taste.

Roll each of the portions into a 24 inch (60 cm) strand. Line the three strands up and braid into a single long braid.

On the baking surface, curl the braid into the desired shape, in my case, a circle. Allow to grow until doubled in size.

Bake at 350F or 175C until vanilla strand is golden. Take out of oven and glaze. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before enjoying so that the glaze can set.