How to Make Chocolate Dessert Bread

The inspiration for this recipe came as I was sifting through the pantry one Saturday afternoon, seeking a jar of marinara for the pasta I planned to make in the evening. As fate would have it, there was no marinara to be found—but as I scanned the shelves my eye fell upon something arguably better: an unopened bag of chocolate chips. Within seconds, I'd compiled a mental list of recipes I might use them in. Perhaps I'd make chocolate chip cookies or chocolate protein pancakes. Or how about brownies or braided bread with chocolate sauce?

Yet none of those seemed... right. Chocolate chip cookies, while classic, required brown sugar—of which I had recently run out—and I couldn’t imagine eating pancakes in the middle of the afternoon. Brownies were too sticky for my taste; bread too plain to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Then it hit me. If regular bread was too bland for my purposes, I could make it less so with a couple of well-placed tweaks. Sugar here. Sour cream there. Some cocoa powder for a bit of pizzaz. And, of course, chocolate chips.

Before I knew it, I‘d created the perfect, most desserty loaf of bread I’d ever had the pleasure of baking.

Chocolate and bread, it seemed to me, was a match made in heaven.