Chocolate Walnut Bread

Frozen bread dough does the heavy lifting here. Thaw it, let it rise, roll it out, then stuff it with chopped semi-sweet chocolate and walnuts. Fold the dough around the filling, seam side down, and bake until golden with a honey glaze on top. That’s it.

The chocolate melts into gooey pockets inside the bread while the walnuts toast and turn crunchy. When you slice into the cooled loaf, you get swirls of dark chocolate running through soft, yeasted bread. The honey brushed on before baking caramelizes into a glossy, slightly sticky crust.

Leave an inch of bare dough around the edges when you add the filling. This gives you enough clean dough to seal the seam tightly so the chocolate doesn’t leak out during baking.

Pro Tips

• Let the frozen dough thaw completely and double in size before rolling. Underproofed dough bakes up dense.
• Chop the chocolate coarsely into irregular chunks. They melt at different rates, giving you both pools and pockets of chocolate.
• Press the seam firmly and place it face down. An unsealed seam splits open and the filling oozes out.
• Cool the loaf slightly before removing from the pan. The melted chocolate needs a few minutes to set or it smears everywhere when you slice.

Variations

• Use milk chocolate or white chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet for a sweeter loaf.
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the filling for a chocolate-cinnamon swirl.
• Swap walnuts for hazelnuts for a Nutella-inspired flavor combination.