Bake Along #89 Mocha Panettone

I never bake this famous Italian Christmas bread before. This is my first try and instead of doing the traditional kind, I followed Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, baking this yummy mocha panettone
Yes, it's seriously yummy with the texture I always prefer in sweet bread of any kind - soft, fluffy and can last for a few days
This panettone is considered huge for my family to finish in a day, so I managed to see how it was until the third day. In room temperature, the bread stayed soft on the second day. It turned slightly harder on the third day but after microwaving for 15secs, it's back to the original texture.
Very pleased with this recipe. It's a keeper for my family
Like Joyce, I also added chocolate chips and dried cranberries into the bread
One problem when I kneaded the chocolate chips into the dough, it melted rather quickly. So in the end, not all chocolate chips could be mixed and those melted ones were blended into the dough, that's why my bread looked more brownish
No complain though, it still tasted delicious. I just wonder how is the perfect way to mix in the chocolate chips into the dough without making any chips to melt.. Any advice?

I baked this bread in the late afternoon, by the time it's ready it was in the evening already
These pics below were taken in that very evening once the bread was out from the oven

With my 15cm round pan, I got this over 14cm tall bread :)

I like to see the deep cross cut on top - looked great after baked (except for some burnt dried cranberries LOL)

 

 

 

After half an hour on the cooling rack, I had no more patience to tear the bread apart haha...

As usual, I never like taking pic of my bake in the evening, so I took more pics the next morning before I had it for my breakfast. See how different they are, so much more alive, nicer, clearer and appetizing :)

With my morning little angel posing LOL

 

I love tearing my bread apart and taking pics of it :)

 

 

 

Okay, here is the amazing recipe...

 

What you need:

 

2 tbsp instant coffee powder (I used Nescafe Gold)

2 tbsp hot water

140ml fresh milk

1 egg and 2 egg yolks

400g unbleached white bread flour

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

75g caster sugar

75g butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp dried instant yeast

115g chocolate chips (I used Hershey's)

1/3 cup dried cranberries

melted butter for glazing

 

Method:

1. In a small bowl, mix coffee powder with hot water til dissolved. Pour into the bread maker pan and add in milk and eggs
2. Sift bread flour and cocoa powder, and sprinkle over the liquid until it's covered completely. Add in cinnamon, followed by salt, sugar and butter. Place them in different corner of the bread pan. Make a small indent at the center of the flour mixture (not until touching the liquid) and add in yeast
3. Set the bread machine to "Dough" function. Press start and let the machine do its job (kneading and first proofing about 1hr 30mins)
4. Grease 6inch round deep pan and line with baking paper, making sure the paper is about 3inch higher than the pan height
5. When the dough is done in the bread machine, remove it and put on a lightly floured surface. Punch lightly and knead in the chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Shape into a ball and leave for about 5mins covered with lightly oiled cling wrap
6. Shape again the dough into ball that can fit into the pan. Place it into the base of the pan and cover with lightly oiled cling wrap. Proof in slightly warm place for 45-60mins or until you can see the dough has risen and almost touch the top of the baking paper
7. Preheat oven to 200degC, brush the top with melted butter and cut a deep cross on top. Bake for 10mins
8. Reduce the temperature to 180degC and bake for another 30mins until the skewer comes out clean and the bread is evenly browned all over (mine was shielded with aluminum foil after 20mins of baking and I removed 5mins before the baking ended)
9. Remove from oven and leave it in the pan for about 5mins and transfer to cooling rack. Let cool before slicing (which I couldn't abide haha..)
10. Store in an airtight container

 

This post is for Bake Along, an event organised by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids

 

 

 

This post is also linked at Cook and Celebrate: Christmas 2015 hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids at here.