Va’era Recipe – Hazelnut and Chocolate Bread

Denise Phillips

This deeply indulgent loaf with juicy prunes and melted chocolate is delicious served warm and cut into thick slices. It is a sweet treat to be enjoyed with a cup of coffee for a gourmet breakfast, celebration brunch or afternoon tea. The dough can also be made into individual rolls, weighing 55g each (bake for 20 minutes) at the same temperature. As an added bonus, it freezes beautifully!

Preparation Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour 50 minutes rising

Cooking Times: 45 minutes Makes 1 very large loaf

Ingredients

500g strong plain white flour

350ml warm water

2 sachets dried fast action yeast – 2 tablespoons

1 ½ teaspoons salt

150g prunes – roughly chopped

100g roasted hazelnuts

100g plain chocolate –roughly chopped

1 egg – beaten

Method

1) 1) Sprinkle the yeast with 100ml warm water and leave for 5 minutes to dissolve.

2) 2) Using an electric mixer, combine the flour, salt, egg and yeast together. Stir in the remaining water as needed to form a soft sticky dough. Continue to mix until the dough is smooth and elastic; this will take about 5 minutes.

3) 3) Grease a clean bowl with a little vegetable oil. Transfer the dough and cover with cling film. Leave to rise until double in size,( about 1 hour.)

4) 4) Line and grease a 1 kg loaf tin.

5) 5) Knock back the dough, then leave to rise for 10 minutes.

6) 6) Add the chopped prunes, chocolate and hazelnuts. Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface until just firm.

7) 7) Shape the dough and place in the prepared tin.

8) 8) Cover and leave to prove for about 30 minutes.

9) 9) Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350F / Gas mark 4.

10) 10) Bake for 45 minutes until slightly browned and hollow sounding when tapped underneath.

11) 11) Turn out on a wire rack and leave to cool.

This recipe is from Denise’s Jewish Cookery Recipe Collection Smartphone App.

Denise Phillips is a professional chef, who trained with renowned restaurateur Prue Leith before setting up a successful catering business. Her quest to improve the quality of Jewish cooking led to a number of highly successful ‘hands-on’ cookery demonstrations all over the country and a commission to write four different books to date that have established her as a leading name in modern Jewish cooking with style. Her books include Modern Jewish Cooking, The Book of Jewish Cooking, Jewish Mamas Kitchen, and New Flavours of the Jewish Table. She writes regular food columns for the UK’s Jewish News, the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Recorder, Jewish Vegetarian Society, and for US publications including the Jewish Press in New York and the Jewish Advocate in Boston. Denise makes frequent media appearances and maintains a blog: http://www.jewishcookery.com