Breadmaker Giraffe Bread 面包机长颈鹿吐司

When I saw the beautiful giraffe bread from Sharon's blog (幸福之味), I knew I have to try to bake it. 

During the process of preparing the dough, I then realized this was like a bread architecture that needs good precision in order to obtain an uniform trimming round the cocoa patches. I have to keep my finger crossed when I was about to slice the bread. The almost uniform giraffe patch pattern within the loaf was the best reward for the almost one hour spent on hand kneading, calculating and shaping the cocoa and milk doughs, after the dough left the breadmaker ^^

Besides the nice pattern, the bread also has a very soft texture despite being baked in the breadmaker. It tasted great with a thin layer of butter applied to it :)

Yield: one 14Lx12Wx14H cm loaf

Appliances: Whirlpool BM1000

Raw bread weight: ~ 516 g

Bread weight: 496g

Ingredients

150g whole milk 全脂牛奶 
20g condensed milk 炼乳

30g unsalted butter 无盐奶油

40g raw sugar 黄砂糖
25g beaten egg 蛋液
1/4 tsp salt 盐

225g bread flour 高筋面粉
25g top/cake flour 低筋面粉

3/4 tsp instant dry yeast 即发干酵母

12g cocoa powder 无糖可可粉

2 tsp hot water 热水

Egg wash

些许蛋液撒做表面装饰

Direction 

1. Pour fresh milk, condensed milk and unsalted butter in a heat resistant bowl.

Keep warm in a rice cooker for about 10~15 minutes, or till the butter melted.

This step is optional. I prefer to work with warm ingredients :)

2. Pour the warm ingredients from (1) into the bread pan.

3. Add in the sugar and salt.

4. Pour in the beaten egg.

5. Add in the bread and cake/top flour.

6. Dig a hole and pour in the instant dry yeast.

7. Place the bread pan into the bread maker. Select "dough" function and start the process.

8. The dough is ready.

9. Sprinkle some bread flour over both the work top and dough before inverting it out.

10. Flatten the dough to remove the trapped air. Cut out 2/3 of the dough, about 374g, and set aside for adding cocoa powder later.

Dough ratio*

1/3 as milk dough     2/3 as cocoa dough

One Bigger patch ratio : 2/5 x dough weight

Three Smaller patch ratio: 1/5 x dough weight

* this is a rough guide

The dough maybe quite sticky, so wear a pair of disposable gloves to handle it.

11. Further divide the 1/3 portion of the dough into 4 portions, about one 50g and three 33 to 34g doughs.

12. Shape the doughs into 4 balls by pulling down the sides and seal at the base. Lightly coat the individual dough ball with flour and place in a covered plate. Let them rest for about 15 minutes, or till you finish preparing the cocoa balls later.

13. Mix cocoa powder with 2 tsp of hot water into some crumbs. Take the 2/3 portion of the dough and knead in the cocoa powder crumbs.

14. Similarly, divide the cocoa dough into 4 portions, one bigger dough of about 150g, and 3 smaller doughs of about 75g each.  Shape the doughs into balls. Cover and rest for about 10 minutes.

While resting, clean up the work top so the remaining cocoa on the work top will not stain the milk dough later.

15. After the 10 minutes rest, roll out the cocoa dough balls from (14). The width of the dough should correspond to the length of the bread pan.

roll up the dough

pinch to seal

Cover and set aside.

16. Prepare the milk dough similar to the cocoa dough. After rolling out the bigger milk dough, place the bigger cocoa dough on top of it. Wrap up and pinch the joining edge.

Cover and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

17. After the rest, roll and stretch the dough with both your hands. The length of the dough should double the length of the pan.

Cut into halves and set aside. 

18. Place the doughs into the greased bread pan following the order of 

Bottom layer - 3 smaller doughs

Middle layer - 2 bigger doughs, and

Top layer -3 smaller doughS

19. Spray a few pumps of water over the dough. Transfer back to the breadmaker to proof for 40 minutes.

20. After the second proofing, apply some egg wash over the dough.

21. Select "baking" function and choose light browning crust. Bake till the baking cycle stop. 

Cover the window with a aluminum foil to prevent the dough from getting a pale top.

End of baking :)

22. Transfer to a wire rack to cool down. 

23. Slice and enjoy :)

Shaping method adapted from the wonderful sharing of 

http://www.lamashania.com/2015/06/2.html?m=1

with appreciation :)