Leopard Bread

I stumbled across a photo of leopard bread on line somewhere and I knew I just had to make it. I didn't even care if it tasted terrible, as long as it looked as adorable as it did in the photo. Now that I've made it, I will say that it is not only adorable, it is also delicious! It does take quite some time to make, and there are quite a few steps, but none of the steps is especially difficult. Scroll to the bottom for the summary recipe.

The ingredients are pretty basic: Cornstarch, milk, yeast, sugar, flour, unsweetened cocoa, butter, vanilla, and orange zest (I substituted lemon, because I don't like orange and didn't have one hand).

Warm 1 cup of milk to 110 degrees ("handwashing warm"). My milk was straight from the fridge and I gave it 1 minute in the microwave at full power.

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the milk.

A wire whisk works well, but be sure to use a spoon to scoop the cornstarch out of the corners of the measuring cup.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter and allow to cool to room temperature.

 

Pour the milk into a large mixing bowl, and stir in 2 tablespoons of yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Allow to sit for 8-10 minutes until foamy. 

Whisk in the melted butter, a generous 1/2 cup sugar (2/3 cup less the 2 tablespoons already added to the yeast), a teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of orange zest (I used a scant tablespoon of lemon zest instead).

Using an electric beater with a dough hook on medium speed, gradually add 3 cups of flour, frequently scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high until the dough forms. I found it easiest to knead by hand in the bowl for a bit to pick up the last bit of flour.

Allow the dough to set for about 10 minutes.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board. Knead for 6-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Form dough into an even ball.

Using a sharp knife coated with flour, cut the dough ball in half.

 Set one half aside, and cut the other half into two even pieces and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa and 1 tablespoon milk. (Warm milk will combine more easily.)

In a second small bowl, combine 2 teaspoons cocoa and 1 teaspoon milk.

Stir both bowls thoroughly to form a paste. I found that mashing with the back of the spoon worked better than simply stirring.

 Place the two smaller pieces of dough into the two bowls.

Using your hands, knead the chocolate paste into the dough. The chocolate didn't work its way into the dough as thoroughly as I expected, and the two doughs were not noticeably different in color, but I didn't want to overwork the dough, so I left it as is. (The final result was just fine.) Dust all three balls of dough lightly with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 60-90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide each ball into 7 roughly equal pieces. I found it easiest to form each ball into a cylinder and score it before cutting.

Begin with the lighter of the two chocolate doughs, and form each piece into a cigar shape.

With a rolling pin, roll each piece of darker chocolate dough into an oblong about the same length as the "cigars." Using your finger or a pastry brush, dampen the edge of the oblong with milk.

 Wrap each cigar with the darker pastry and seal tightly.

You should now have 7 fat cigar-shaped pieces of dough.
 

Roll each piece of white dough into an oblong about the same length as the larger cigars and wrap as above.

You now have 7 three-layered cigars.

Line your loaf pan with parchment paper, with excess over each side to aid in lifting the baked bread from the pan. 

Roll each dough "cigar" between your hands and/or on the floured board until you have formed a rope about twice the length of your loaf pan (conveniently, my wooden bread board is exactly twice the length of my loaf pan).

Cut each rope in half, roll to smooth the cut end, and stack in the bread pan. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled, at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When ready to bake, reduce heat to 350 and place bread in oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until inner temperature reaches 190 degrees. (My loaf took about 40 minutes.) If top begins to brown too early, cover with foil.  

Remove from oven and cool in pan on a wire rack for 5-8 minutes. Lift bread from pan using parchment paper and cool on wire rack for an additional 10 minutes.

Slice, admire, and enjoy!

Leopard Bread (original recipe here)

For the dough:
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Cup  Warm Milk plus more for brushing on dough
2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast
2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar, divided
4 Tbsp Butter, melted
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Orange Zest (I substituted 1 Tbsp lemon zest)
3 Cups Bread Flour (I used all purpose flour)

For the dark chocolate paste: 
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp Milk

For the light chocolate paste:
2 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Milk

Stir cornstarch in cup of warm milk until dissolved. In a large mixing bowl, combine milk mixture, yeast, and 2 Tbsp of the sugar. Gently stir together and let sit for 8-10 minutes until frothy. Add melted butter (cooled to room temperature), the rest of the sugar, vanilla and orange zest to yeast mixture using the dough hook attachment mix on medium low speed. Slowly spoon in flour on medium speed, and then turn up to medium high until dough has formed. The dough should be very slightly tacky, with a soft and smooth texture. Once formed, let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
Turn out on floured board and knead for 6-8 minutes. Divide into two halves. Lightly dust one half with flour, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Take the second half and evenly divide it into two halves.

In two separate bowls, stir cocoa powder and milk for each paste together with a spoon. Place one of the remaining halves of dough in each bowl of paste. Work the chocolate into the dough with your hands, kneading to incorporate all the chocolate into each dough. Lightly flour each ball, cover in plastic wrap and set in the fridge. Let all three dough balls chill for about 60-90 minutes.

Remove all three dough balls from the fridge. Divide each ball into 7 equal pieces. Roll each of the light brown pieces into a small hot dog shape. Then using a rolling pin roll each of the dark chocolate hunks into flat oval. Place the light chocolate sausage onto the flat dark chocolate oval. Using a pastry brush lightly coat the edges of the dark chocolate with milk. Then fold the dark chocolate over the light chocolate as if you were wrapping a hot dog bun around a hot dog. The result should look like a chocolate cigar. Now take the white dough and toll into an oval with the rolling pin. Repeat the process by placing the dark chocolate wrapped ‘sausage’ onto the white dough oval. Paint the edges of the white dough with milk and then fold it over the dark chocolate, closing the seams. The result should now look like a log with a light chocolate center, a wrapping of dark chocolate, and then a final wrapping of white dough. Repeat this process with the remaining dough until you have 7 logs.
Now, roll each log lengthwise with your hands, until it becomes doubled in length. Like a long snake.
Slice in half. You should now have 14 skinny logs.

Prepare loaf pan with parchment paper. Stack dough logs into the pan. Cover with a light tea towel and place in a draft free warm location to puff and double in size, at least an hour. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C), then turn down to 350 F (176 C) and place loaf into the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until inner temperature reaches 190 F. Place pan on a cooling rack for 5-8 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. Let bread cool another 10 minutes.