Chocolate Turtle Bread!

That's right. I've finally gathered enough confidence with bread to create my first character based bread. Not only that, in one fell swoop I think I've finally perfected a chocolate bread I love. Its got a deep cocoa flavor, the perfect balance of sweetness with savory so its not dessert you're eating but real bread, a fluffy interior, and a decently crisp thick crust without too heavy. If you haven't already guessed by now, my bread is a turtle shape! It seemed well within my limited artistic abilities while still being a shape near and dear to my heart as the proud owner of two (no you can NOT eat them!) turtles.

Turtle Face

Turtle Butt

Chocolate Turtle Bread

2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (you can use all bread flour but I try to be a wee bit healthy here)
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk + a little extra for wash
120 g tangzhong
3 tsp softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (bit more if you want it sweeter but not over 3/4 cup)

Whisk together the flours, sugar, salt, yeast, and cocoa powder. Make a little well in the middle. Add the egg, milk, and tangzhong into the middle of the well. Mix on low speed with dough hook for about 15 minutes to get a well incorporated dough. Add butter. Mix on medium speed with hook for another 20 minutes. You should now have a tacky ball of dough. Shape into a round and put into a lightly oiled bowl. Allow to rise for 60-90 minutes.

Spread a parchment paper onto a half sheet pan. You will build the turtle on this paper.

Set aside one 2 inch ball of dough, four 1 inch balls, and one 3/4 inch ball. Take the remaining dough and roll it out as thinly as possible. Spread the chocolate chips out on the dough and press quickly and lightly on top of them to adhere into the dough. Fold top of the dough down to about the middle, fold up the bottom of the dough to meet that middle, fold in the left and right sides to meet in the middle too so you should have a roughly rectangular packet now. Flip the packet over so the seams are down and roll it out into a long rectangular strip. Roll the strip back up into a big fat roll. Pull and tucks the sides of the roll under until you get a nice dome-y ball. Put this ball on your pan. Roll the 2 inch ball of dough into a smooth ball and tuck under the front end of the dome. This is the turtle head. Shape the 3/4 inch ball into a thick triangle and tuck under the opposite end of the dome so the point stick out. This is your tail. Roll the other 4 pieces of dough into fat tubby sausages and tuck 2 on each side under the dome for legs. Get a nice sharp knife make two little cuts into the end of each sausage to form 3 toes per foot. Press but do not cut through the tail dough to form a little X on it. Slice a smile into the head. Slice a round circle then cross hatch the middle of the circle into the dome to form the shell. Cover and let rise for another hour.

Press two mini chocolate chips into the head into they are deeply sunken in for the eyes. Apply milk over the top of the dough with a pastry brush as the wash. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes. Let cool completely before biting a foot off.