White bread loaf with orange zest and chocolate chips
In my endless search for a breakfast treat, I came across a simple recipe by Christophe Felder: a sweet white bread loaf, or as it is called in French, a “Pain de mie“.
This recipe has all the requirements for perfection:
- It doesn’t contain a lot of sugar
- It is ideal for the start of the day, since it is not too fat (my chocolate pound cake was delicious, but definitely not as light as this white bread loaf)
- It is big and can feed me for several days
- It contains CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! (You could give me anything, even plastic, with chocolate chips and I would love it!)
The white bread is an enriched yeast dough, not a cake, and thus requires some time before baking. Don’t get me wrong: kneading time is very short, but you need to take into account the time for the dough to sit and rise at room temperature (you can definitely watch the TV in the meantime). I usually start making the loaf after dinner and take it out of the oven before going to bed, so that it’s ready for breakfast the next day.
So here it is, the recipe of my white bread loaf with orange zest and chocolate chips:
White bread loaf with orange zest and chocolate chips
Print recipeIngredients
| 370g | Pastry flour |
| 15g | Granulated sugar |
| 1 pinch | Salt |
| 15g | Yeast |
| 200g | Water (room temperature) |
| 20 | Milk powder |
| 50g | Butter (softened) |
| 70g | Chocolate chips |
| 1 | Orange zest (or 60g of candied orange zest) |
Directions
1
Put the flour in a mixing bowl: then add the yeast in the middle, the sugar on one side, and the salt on the opposite side
2
Melt the milk powder in the water in a bowl or cup, then pour it on the flour
3
Mix at slow speed with the hook attachment for 3 minutes approximately
4
When the dough forms a ball and doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl, add the soft, diced butter
5
Mix again for 2-3 minutes, then add the orange zest (or candied zest) and the chocolate chips and mix by hand. The dough should be firm and elastic.
6
Let the dough rest at room temperature (27-30° would be ideal) for about 1 hour (until it doubles in volume), covered with a linen cloth
7
When the dough has doubled in volume, punch it to let the gas escape: then shape it like a flat rectangle on a slightly floured board like in the picture above. It should have the same length of the mould and double its height
8
Fold one side towards the centre and press well with your hand...
9
...then do the same with the other side, so that the two long sides touch in the middle of the dough
10
Finally fold the dough in two and press again with your hand so that you have a nice "roll"
11
Place the roll of dough in the mould, flatten it so that it touches the border and let it rest at room temperature for about 1h30 minutes until the dough has doubled in volume. Make sure that the junction in the dough is facing down and that the mould is buttered, in case it's not made of silicone.
12
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180°.Remove the loaf from the mould as soon as it is baked and let cool down on a wire rack.
Note
- Needless to say that you can replace the zest and chocolate chips with whatever you want (almost!).
- The proofing time should not exceed the one indicated above, otherwise the final product will be to dry, especially on the top.
- Bread loaves like this can be frozen for up to 2 weeks after baking or stored in the refrigerator inside plastic wrap for one day before proofing
