Leopard Patch / Spots Bread – We Knead to Bake#36

    This month’s bread was Leopard Patch (spots) bread which I had first seen on a chinese website and thought of making. I was happy when I saw this bread has to be made. I enjoyed the whole process with my sister Anu.

    Pao de Leite Leopardo which translates a Leopard Patterned Milk Bread.

   If you want to add more flavour to your bread you can add vanilla to the dough, add more sugar for a sweeter bread, and I’ve even seen someone cover the top of the bread with melted chocolate.

As a variation on this if you just colour one half of the bread with enough cocoa to make it dark and then follow the recipe with just two different colors of dough, one white and one dark, you can make A Giraffe Patch Bread!

Recipe inspired by http://www.cocoebaunilha.com/2015/12/pao-de-leite-leopardo.html

Ingredients :

 2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup warm milk

½ cup warm water

50 g butter , melted

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp Instant Yeast

For the darker brown coloured dough:
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder ( Cadburys cocoa )
1 tbsp milk
For the lighter brown coloured dough:
1 ½  tsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder ( Another brand cocoa which was lighter in colour )

1 tbsp milk

A little milk for brushing while baking

Method :

To make the dough

  In a large bowl , combine the all purpose flour and whole wheat flour along with the sugar , salt and instant yeast .

 Mix in the  butter , warm water and milk and stir well until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl .

 Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple.

 Divide the dough into two halves. Shape one half into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover loosely and let it rise till double (about 2 hours). This is the white coloured dough.

   Take the other half and divide it into two equal portions. To one portion, add the 3 tbsp cocoa powder dissolved in the 1 tbsp of milk and knead well until uniform in colour. This is the dark coloured dough for the leopard’s patches. Shape it into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover loosely and let it rise till double.

Add the 1 1/2 tsp of cocoa powder dissolved in the 1 tbsp of milk to the other half of dough an knead well till the colour is uniform. This is the light coloured dough for the leopard’s patches. Shape it into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover loosely and let it rise till double.

   Gently deflate the dough and then divide each of the coloured dough into 6 equal portions. Roll each of the light brown portions into long ropes about 8 1/2“ long. Now also roll each of the dark brown portions to ropes of similar length. Flatten the dark brown ropes a little so they can enclose the light brown ropes. All the enclosures don’t have to be complete or perfect as the imperfections create the unevenness that will show up as beautiful “leopard patches”.

Now roll out the white dough into ropes of similar length, roll to flatten them out and enclose the brown ropes making sure they’re completely covered. Now gently roll the completely enclosed ropes gently increasing their length to about 17”. Cut each of the 7 ropes exactly in half to make 14 ropes about 8 1/2" long.  I didn’t do this step , I arranged six ropes evenly .

  Now arrange them a little unevenly in a greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, cover and let it rise for about an hour until it has almost doubled in volume. A finger pressed into the dough should leave a mark that refills slowly. Brush the top with milk.

  Bake the bread at 180C (350F) for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's light golden brown and done. Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack before slicing. Store the bread in a plastic bag at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Leopard Patch bread is ready to be served.

Note :

I added extra sugar , the original recipe calls for 2 tbs , but I added ½ cup sugar.

I used cadburys cocoa for darker patch and a local brand cocoa for the inner patch. You can increase the amount of cocoa powder to get the darker shade. Make sure to increase the sugar accordingly.

 For the darker patch some use activated charcoal powder , if you get that can use in the bread.



Sending  to here.