Love Me, Love Me Knots - #TwelveLoaves

It is February and love is in the air, cupid decorations are in the store, and Chocolate is the theme for this months #TwelveLoaves. There were so many options I considered for this theme but I decided to stick with a yeast bread, and found this recipe for Chocolate Love Knots at the Fleischmann site Breadworld.com.




The original recipe called for nuts in the bread, and as a topping but I thought that hearts would be a more appropriate decoration given that Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Other than that I made the recipe as written, because as a relative newby to baking with yeast I just feel more comfortable doing this for now. I learned a lot last month when our theme was Keep it Simple, and I made Crumpets, and I hope to keep learning and gain more confidence.

Did I love, love, love this recipe?  Well in all honesty no.  To be fair I did make an error with the initial proofing and let it rest for a bit longer than the recipe called for, so I am not sure if this contributed to critique of the them. The flavor and the texture was good, but I just found them a little dry.  My family thought I was being too critical, and they did enjoyed the rolls, so I guess I will be making them again.



Love Me, Love Me Knots
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 3½ to 4 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup sugar
• ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 envelopes yeast (2¼ teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup butter
• 2 large eggs
• 3 (1-ounce) squares white chocolate, melted

Preparation

1. In the bowl, of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add 1 cup flour, sugar, cocoa, undissolved yeast, and salt, mix briefly to combine.
2. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm (120℉ to 130℉), and gradually add to flour mixture. 
3. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed scraping bowl occasionally. 
4. Add 1 egg and 1 cup flour, and beat 2 minutes at high speed. 
5. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. 
6. Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. 
7. Cover, and let rest 10 minutes.
8. Divide dough in half, and divide each half into 12 pieces. 
9. Roll each piece to 9-inch rope, and tie into a loose knot, placing them on 2 greased large baking sheets. 
10. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
11. Beat remaining egg, and brush on knots. 
12. Bake at 375℉ for 15 to 20 minutes or until done, switching positions of sheets halfway through baking. Remove from sheets, and cool on wire racks. 
13. Drizzle with melted chocolate.

Recipe from Breadworld.com


We eased into the New Year with our January with our Keep it Simple theme, now it's time to get a little decadent. February #TwelveLoaves is all about Chocolate! Choose a recipe featuring chocolate. (It could be a bread accented with chocolate chips, baked with cocoa powder, chocolate spreads, whatever you love!). Whatever you bake (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, grissini, braids, flatbreads, etc) have fun and let's have a delicious month of bread with chocolate. Let's get baking!

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess. #TwelveLoaves runs so smoothly thanks to the help of the lovely Renee from Magnolia Days.


Need some inspiration to get you started?  Check out the links below for some great Chocolate-themed recipes baked by my fellow #TwelveLoaves bakers.

• Buttermilk Chocolate Quick Bread by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Brownie Quick Bread by Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
• Chocolate Chip Challah Bread by Lora at Cake Duchess
• Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls by Dionne at Try Anything Once Culinary
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Braid by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Swirl Bread by Holly at A Baker's House
• Dark Chocolate and Prune Bread by Deepti at Bakingyummies
• Dates and Chocolate Brioche by Rossella at Ma che ti sei mangiato
• Love Me, Love Me Knots by Felice at All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Marbled Rye Bread by Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins by Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake

If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do!

• When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
• Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme
• Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this February, 2014, and posted on your blog by February 28, 2014.