Chocolate Easter Bread

A very tasty chocolate Easter bread with a citrus note - an insanely rich, chocolatey sweet bread. The dough has a full 200 grams of dark chocolate, orange zest, and tangerine essence: a beautifully rich Easter bread. I recommend it!

Chocolate Easter Bread

A mega-chocolatey Easter sweet bread made with a yeast starter: dark chocolate melted into the dough and in chunks, orange zest, a hint of tangerine, and an orange glaze.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Starter and rising time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Servings: 4 loaves

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Starter

• 1.5 tsp dry yeast
• 100 ml milk warm
• 200 g flour
• 35 g sugar

Dough

• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 3 egg yolks
• 70 g margarine room temperature
• 35 ml milk warm
• 200 g flour
• 70 g sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tbsp orange zest from half an orange
• 200 g dark chocolate 100 g melted, 100 g chopped
• 2 ml tangerine essence
• 1 pinch vanillin

Glaze and decoration

• 50 g sprinkles
• 80 g powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp orange juice

Method

 

Starter

1. Mix the dry ingredients for the starter in a deep bowl. Pour in the warm milk and knead into a dough. Gather it into a ball and leave in a warm place for about two hours.

Dough

1. Prepare the ingredients for the second stage: zest half an orange, chop 100 g of chocolate into pieces, and measure out the essence so you don't forget to add it at the end of kneading.
2. In another deep bowl, place the well-risen starter. Add the flour, warm milk, dry yeast, egg yolks, a pinch each of salt and vanillin, sugar, room-temperature margarine, and 100 g of melted chocolate.
3. Knead the dough by hand until smooth. The dough is easy to work with and comes together quickly; add more flour if needed - I didn't need to.
4. Gather the dough into a ball and add the chopped chocolate, orange zest, and tangerine essence. Leave the dough in the bowl for another 10 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into pieces, roll into balls, and divide among the pans - I got enough for 4 medium loaves. Leave for at least 1.5-2 hours in a warm place: the dough is very heavy and rises slowly.
6. Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 30-35 minutes. Remove the finished loaves and let them cool in the pans.

Glaze

1. Gradually pour orange juice into the powdered sugar, stirring with a spoon until you reach the desired consistency.
2. Pour the glaze over the cooled loaves and decorate with sprinkles. Bon appetit!
   

Notes

This amount of dough makes 4 medium loaves. The chocolate dough rises slowly - don't rush it.

Tips

• The dough is very heavy because of the chocolate, so it rises slowly - give it a minimum of 1.5-2 hours in the pans in a warm place.
• Measure out the essence in advance and keep it in sight, so you don't forget to add it at the end of kneading.
• The dough is easy to work with and comes together quickly; if it's sticky, add a bit more flour - I didn't need to.