Giraffe Toast

Moist, fluffy and subtly chewy bread, swirled giraffe style! Super cute!

This week is a good week. Yesterday was a holiday and I spent my day out with friends, having some fun!! But the best part of the day for me (other than the good company) was the arrival of new baking pans! I spent about half an hour picking new loaf tins and I bought a small loaf tin (about 18 x 13cm) and a 400g Pullman tin! Can't wait to try out some beautiful square shaped sandwich bread and small pound cake loaves!

Back to this gorgeous bread. It may look difficult to make, but trust me if I can do it, so can you. The first few slices of this might not seem very giraffe-like, but the slices in the middle would look a little better! The key is to making the rolls of dough a more even thickness and to roll the white dough thin enough to encase the chocolate dough completely.

To make the giraffe pattern, you divide the chocolate dough and plain dough into 8 pieces each. Roll each chocolate piece into a log about the length of your baking tin, the roll the white dough into a thin piece and wrap the chocolate dough with the white dough. The white dough will be quite thin, but don't worry it will expand as it proves!

Then just layer the wrapped logs in your tin in the order 3 + 2 + 2, let it prove for one hour or until doubled in size, and bake! It really isn't as difficult as it looks.

Giraffe Toast

Recipe adapted from 幸福之味

300g bread flour

35g castor sugar

3g salt

3g instant yeast

190g water

30g softened unsalted butter

10g cocoa powder

2 tablespoons hot water

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar salt, yeast and the water, reserving about 30g of the water to slowly add as needed, until a soft and slightly tacky dough is formed. You may not need all the water.

Knead in the butter and knead the dough for about 15-20 minutes until a smooth, supple dough that passes the windowpane test is formed.

Remove 150g of dough from the bowl and set aside. This will be the plain dough.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder and hot water. Add this to the remaining dough in the bowl and knead it in until well combined.

Let the chocolate and plain dough rise separately in the fridge in a bowl, covered in plastic wrap, for at least 12 hours or up to 20 hours.

After rising, the dough should have doubled in size. Let the dough rest at room temperature 30 minutes before you start working with it.

After 30 minutes, punch down the dough. On a lightly floured work surface, divide the chocolate dough and plain dough into 8 portions each.

Roll the chocolate dough into a log about the length of the baking pan, the roll out a piece of white dough large enough to completely encase the chocolate dough.

Wrap the chocolate dough with the plain dough. Repeat for the rest of the dough.

Grease a 20x10x10cm loaf pan.

Place 3 logs of dough on the bottom of the pan, followed by 2 on top, then 3 right on the top.

Cover with plastic wrap and let prove at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

Bake for 40 minutes, let cool completely before slicing.