Let me first say that I have been using my Williams Sonoma bread machine successfully for about 4 years.  Recently, my wife has been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel so I wanted to try and make her a treat - a chocolate challah from Beth Hensperger’s Bread Machine cookbook.  However, I had to substitute out the semisweet chocolate bits and using the formula in the book substituted cocoa and oil (in proportions given - 3 tbsp cocoa and 1 tbsp veg oil per oz. of bakers chocolate.  In addition, since baker’s choc. is unsweetened I added 1 tbsp of sugar / tbsp of cocoa for sweetness.

Well… disaster.  The bread didn’t rise at all (yeast is new and has worked as recently as yesterday).  All I have is a chocolate colored paper weight.  Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?  How could I swap out the semisweet bits my wife can’t eat and still make a chocolate bread?

TIA

Mark

If you could post the recipe, we might be able to analyze a bit and come up with some ideas for you. 

MrsM

Just a couple of comments Mark.  Sugar is one of those additions in bread that acts funny.  In a small amount, it will actually increase yeast activity, but in a larger amount it slows it down dramatically.  Same thing for fat, and I would guess probably also cocoa powder.  Some of the sweet breads in the bread bible take 3 hours for the first rise and they aren’t even that sweet.  So it might be possible that your additions created an environment that required an extra long first rise—how long did you let rise before you decided it wasn’t working?

Secondly, are the chocolate chips the only chocolate in the bread, or are they merely an addition to a chocolate dough?  You might substitute nuts or omit them all together instead of adding the extra oil and sugar.