Chocolate Chilli Lime Bread
Fancy a loaf with a fresh and zesty zing? This chocolate chilli lime bread is just that. It’s a savoury yeasted bread recipe with little punctuations of dark chocolate to question your taste buds. The chilli provides flavour and a little heat, but not too much. Delicious spread with butter or try it as an accompaniment to a chilli san carne stew.
I’ve got my posts completely out of sync now and have rather lost the plot on what I did when. But I was so excited at having made this chocolate chilli lime bread, that I had to post about it sooner rather than later.
Sunday is usually my bread making day, as well as washing and tidying up the house day – all ready to go back to work on Monday. But this week, Monday is a bank holiday so I thought we should mark the occasion by having a leisurely breakfast for once.
And what could be more appropriate than trying out Suelle’s competition winning suggestion of chocolate chilli lime bread. So, yesterday I not only baked my normal two loaves of rye sourdough, but also the aforementioned bread from Unwrapped.
Chocolate Chilli Lime Bread: Kneading
Kneading is not my favourite pastime. It always seems to take a lot of time and creates a lot of mess in my rather small kitchen. This is the reason I don’t make wheat breads very often.
The recipe stated even more water than I used, but I still found the mixture was too wet. And it’s not because I used wholemeal spelt flour instead of strong white bread flour. I’ve adjusted the recipe now with a more realistic amount. That first time I made it, I realised that I’d forgotten to add the olive oil – oops!
As the mixture was rather on the damp side, I tried some of Andrew Whitley’s air kneading (that I learnt on his bread course). However all of the chocolate kept flying out all over the cooker and floor, so I went back to managing as best I could on the work surface. I now use a stand mixer and it’s really easy.
Instead of sticking to the ingredients and method as prescribed in the book, I decided to go my own way as usual. I ended up using a floured basket rather than baking the loaf in a tin. I haven’t got this method properly sussed and as I’ve already said, the dough was particularly wet, so it collapsed as soon as I turned it out prior to baking. The slices are thus a little thin – hey ho!
Chocolate Chilli Lime Bread: What Did We Think?
The whole house smelt wonderfully sweet and zesty as the chocolate chilli lime bread was baking. I wanted to tear into it as soon as it came out of the oven, but managed to resist. This was meant to be the morrow’s treat after all. However, as you will see from the photo I couldn’t hold out that long and CT and I just had to try a couple of slices at tea time.
It was as good as I was hoping for – fragrant and soft but with a good bite to it and oh so flavoursome. Although not a sweet bread, the chocolate chunks gave a soft chewy cocoa hit every so often. There was enough heat from the chilli to know it was there without it overpowering the whole. The lime was the best of all though, permeating the whole loaf with a fresh and zesty zing.
Breakfast was all that I hoped for, although in the end we didn’t get it until nearly midday. Wanting to take advantage of the early morning sun, we headed off to work on our plot. The bread worked well as soldiers for boiled eggs, was delicious both with and without butter and was particularly tasty with some orange curd on it.
Other Bread Recipes You Might Like
- Apple & hazelnut spelt rye bread
- Figgy bread roll made with wholemeal spelt
- Fruit loaf with prunes, walnuts & honey
- No-knead spelt bread with cocoa & molasses
- Olive garlic spelt bread with halloumi
- Sourdough banana bread with walnuts
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this chocolate chilli lime bread, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for baking with spelt?
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Choclette x
Chocolate Chilli Lime Bread
Ingredients
- 450 g wholemeal spelt flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 25 g soft brown sugar
- 10 g instant yeast / fast action / easy bake (I used 9g organic yeast mix)
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- 100 g dark chocolate roughly chopped (I used 70%)
- 1 lime
- 50 ml olive oil
Instructions
- Measure the flour and place in a bowl along with the salt, sugar and yeast. Ensure the salt and yeast aren’t touching as salt kills yeast.450 g wholemeal spelt flour, 1 tsp sea salt, 25 g soft brown sugar, 10 g instant yeast / fast action / easy bake
- Throw in the chilli flakes and chocolate pieces, then finely grate in the lime zest.½ tsp dried chilli flakes, 100 g dark chocolate, 1 lime
- Cut the zested lime into thin slices and then finely chop. Add to the mix.
- Make a well in the centre and pour in 275 ml warm water followed by the olive oil. Mix from the inside out until a dough ball starts to form. The mix should be damp, but not wet. If it’s too dry add a little more warm water.50 ml olive oil
- Knead by hand for eight minutes or in a stand mixer for five minutes. Spelt doesn’t require the same amount of kneading that strong flour does.
- Form the dough into a ball put it back into the bowl. Place inside a plastic bag or cover with a plate. Leave in a warm place to rise for about thirty minutes.
- Turn out and press into an oiled 900g (2lb) loaf tin. Place the tin back in the bag and leave to rise for a further 20-30 minutes.
- Set the oven to 220℃ (200℃ fan, 425℉, Gas 7) and when hot place loaf tin on the bottom shelf and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the tin and tap it on on the bottom with your fingers or a wooden spoon. If it sounds hollow this indicates it’s done. Leave on a wire rack to cool.
Great, used lime juice just bumped it up a little, thanks for the sharing it WAS delicious xxx
Yay, so glad you liked it Bob. You’ve inspired me to make it again – I haven’t done so in years.
Xinmei – so glad you liked it. I remember it being rather special. Just popping over to your blog to have a look.
Just thought I should let you know – I baked this just now! (well, just put the blog post up now :p) It’s so nice, I totally agree, made the house smell delicious and you really did want to tear into it. The texture is amazing 🙂
Wendy, it was pretty good?
WOW! That is a must do recipe, Choclette!
Thanks Oxslip, it was the winning suggestion.
Is this the compo winner? Looks ace
Chele – bread is such a comfort, but then so is cake – argh!
Elisabeth – if I’d read your posts about spelt before I made this, I might have tried it without kneading.
Merci Fimere
une excellente recette de pain, j’aime beaucoup
bonne journée
Hmnnn – you have given me a few ideas for today’s spelt loaf!
Thank you
Elisabeth
Great flavours and the loaves look fantastic. Think I may need to make some bread soon!
Lucie – thank you for your lovely comments. It’s not so difficult to make bread, but it is useful to start off with someone who knows what they are doing. I was ten when I had my first lesson. I made bread for a few years when I was a student, but hadn’t made any for years until I went on the bread making course in December.
Kath – thank you and look forward to hearing how yours turns out!
Mangocheeks – you’re right, I used to enjoy kneading – I think it was when I wasn’t so pressured for time. The lime was the making of this bread, although the chocolate was of course an integral part.
Annmarie – you do wonderful things with chocolate, don’t be afraid of bread.
Nicisme – it was indeed a great combination.
Celia – I defy you to try this with eggs and then say you don’t like it – not a serious challenge, I can see it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste!
Astra Libris – thank you for saying such nice things
Cityhippy – you are right of course and dreaming of a large, warm, happy, comfortable kitchen is what keeps me going.
Bridgett – look forward to hearing how you got on if you do get around to making this – it’s well worth it.
Hopeeternal – oh go on, be won over.
Sushma – thank you for your nice comments.
Suelle – I’m sure a cake with these flavours would be great and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Would still suggest you gave the bread a try though – it was your idea!
Joanna – thank you for this. I didn’t know that wholemeal shouldn’t be kneaded for too long, so that makes me feel heaps better. I shall look at the panibois – never heard of them before.
Jacqueline – the sourdough seems to keep for ever. It keeps me in sandwiches all week and then (if there is any left) days 7, 8, 9 and 10 happily do toast. I’ll post the recipe on my blog if you like, but it could take some time as I’m rather behind with my posts.
nope, cannot find a post. May I have the recipe?
I am in awe of that chocolate loaf and must see if you have posted your sourdough loaf too. How long does the sourdough loaf keep for?
You are a brave bread maker indeed! That must have smelled wonderful and tasted great! I think that wholemeal anything doesn’t lend itself to prolonged kneading, the bran tears the gluten so why bother? And spelt proves so fast too. I saw some panibois containers which might do the trick for this sort of bread though I don’t know where you would get hold of them here. If you email Patrick at Baker Bits he might get some in to see if they would work. So you can have a different shape but still let the bread prove in it and bake in it too, sounds like a good idea in theory doesn’t it?
Well done for trying this. I’ve looked at the recipe several times since suggesting it, but the time never seems right for baking bread. I have so many failures with bread too, which makes me more reluctant. I was thinking of making a cake with the same flavours instead, so I’m pleased to hear the combination was successful.
wow what a lovely combo, full of flavours, am sure must be really delicious..perfectly done too..
This sounds wonderful. Another recipe to put on my ‘to do’ list, I think! I can imagine it was delicious with curd, but not sure about soldiers – egg, lime and chocolate?! …but I’m willing to be won over!
Wow, the flavors here are so interesting and unique. I can’t wait to try this some day soon.
Those combinations sound amazing. I can almost smell it. Chilli, chocolate, lime- 3 ingredients that I love.
I know what you mean about a small kitchen, sometimes I think, is it really worth the mess?..yep! One day I will have a great big kitchen with so much bench space I won’t know what to do with it.
Ohhh, this looks SO delicious!! As do your gorgeous rye sourdough loaves…
Now that is an interesting combination! I can believe it was absolutely delicious, but I can’t believe it worked dipped in soft boiled eggs! 😀
Oh wonderful – all my favourite ingredients! I can just imagine how fab the smell of baking was.
Kneading bread is meant to be therapeutic, but I understand what you mean when you say its not a favourite pastime. I still admire you for your wonderful culinary efforts. I can just imagine the taste of your bread, except for the lime, which has got me curious – zesty zing you say. Sounds delicious!
Ooh I love the sound of this bread, lime and chocolate. I will have to give this one a go. Your breads all look absolutely delicious.
This bread sounds completely amazing. Chocolate has quite literally become my life. I have always been afraid to make bread. I think I have to get over my fear now that I have this recipe! Thanks!
What a wonderful combination of flavours. I am sure the smell from the kitchen was divine when this was cooking. I am very jealous of your bread making abilities! Lucie x