My daughter learned about aestivation last year. Aestivation is the hibernation during summer months.Come April May or the Indian Summer I aestivate.. now I can give a name to my condition.Its tough to blog when exams come, school finally closes and travel plans being made.But my aestivation extends usually more than two months.. I enjoy the process sooooo much that I don't feel like coming back.. Posts line up, deadline for events come and go but I am me..
Its good to be back though once that starting trouble is over.This post was supposed to be up in April, but as usual I baked and then put it on backburner.. Blogging is something which always gets the back seat in the journey of life. We know its there but yup its the last in the list..
Anyways todays post is the leopard patch bread which I baked in between trips.This was the chosen one by Aparna for We Knead to Bake #37and is inspired by Partricia Nascimentos Pao de leite leopardo.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Warm milk: 2/3 up
Warm water: 1/2 cup
Melted butter: 4 tbsp or 50 gms
Sugar: 4 tbsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Instant yeast: 2 tsp
Dark Brown Dough:
Cocoa Powder: 3 tbsp
Milk: 1 tbsp
Lighter brown dough:
Cocoa Powder: 1.5 tsp
Milk: 1 tbsp
Preparation:
Combine all dough ingredients into a bowl and stir until it starts leaving the sides of the bowl.
Transfer to a lightly greased surface and with oiled hands knead it for 6-8 minutes till its smooth and supple.
Divide it into 2 halves.Shape one half into a ball and place it in a greased bowl and let it rise until double for about 2 hours covered loosely.
Take the other half and divid it into 2 equal portions. To one portion add the lighter cocoa milk and knead well in a processor to get a ligter cocolour dough for the leopard patches.
Repeat the same process with the other portion and darker milk to get a dark brown dough.
Shape each into a ball and let it rise until double.
Gently deflate each of the dough and divide each into 6-8 equal portions.
Roll each light brown dough piece into long ropes of 8.5 " long.
Roll each dark brown dough piece into ropes of similar length. Flatten the dark rope and place the light brown ropes within them. These need not be perfectly enclosed as imperfections create the unevenness that show up as beautiful leopard patches.
Roll out the white dough pieces into the same length, roll these to flatten them out and enclose the brown ropes cwith the white piece completely.
Gently roll the enclosed ropes gently increasing their length to about 17". Cut each rope into half to get around 14 ropes of 8.5" long
Arrange these a little unevenly in a greased loaf pan, cover and let it rise for an hour of so until doubled in volume.
Brush the top with milk.
Bake the bread at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until light golden and done. Remove from the oven and cool it on a rack before slicing.
The bread is not as sweet as you would want. It will be with a dollop of nutella or peanut butter or whatever spread you like. You can also go for savoury spread but I prefer chocolate with sweet so never tried. The loaf or remaining slices can be frozen till three months.