This is an ideal bread for breakfast with jam, or marmalade, or honey or – my current favourite – toasted then topped with kvarg or quark plus raspberries. It’s bread with a lovely soft texture due to the milk and butter. It’s only slightly sweet so you could even top it with a poached egg. Or, maybe have it later in the day – afternoon tea with chocolate spread sounds good.

Makes: 2 medium loaves

Time: 45 minutes plus proving time and then up to 30 minutes baking

Level: Quite easy

Equipment: 2 x 2lb/900g loaf tins (approx. 21 x 11 x 7cm). A stand mixer is very useful but not essential.

Ingredients

500g strong white flour
10g fine salt
50g caster sugar
75g – 100g desiccated coconut
215ml milk
100ml water
10g instant yeast (7g on a warm day)
60g softened or melted butter

Method

1. Put the flour, salt, sugar and desiccated coconut into a (stand mixer) bowl and mix. Warm the milk and water together then stir in the instant yeast. Leave it for a few minutes. Meanwhile, soften or melt the butter.

2. Pour the liquid and the butter into the dry mix and mix into a dough.

3. Knead the dough until smooth and stretchy. (About 9 minutes in a stand mixer, using the dough hook; at least 15 minutes by hand.)

4. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.

5. Line the two loaf tins with baking parchment.

6. Tip out the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and knock it back (i.e. punch out the air).

7. Divide it into two pieces. Shape each piece into a loaf shape and place in the prepared tins, seam down.

8. Place tins in a proving bag (a kitchen bin liner) and seal. Leave to prove again – until the dough has risen level with the sides of the tin.

9. Heat the oven to 220°C / Fan 200°C / 425°F / gas 7. Place a shallow tin at the bottom.

10. When the doughs have risen, cut slashes and dust with flour. Pour some boiled water into the shallow tin and bake the bread for 25 – 30 minutes. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

A later adaption

By simply adding a small amount of cocoa powder you can easily change this into a very nice Chocolate and Coconut Milk Loaf. I used 25g of cocoa powder. You could use more, but I wouldn’t advise it as cocoa powder can dry a mixture.

I wish you every success with your bread making. I hope you have a go at this one and enjoy making and eating a lovely loaf. If you want to see more of my bread recipes click this link.

Here are some quite different types of bread that you might want to try:

Dark Rye,Wholemeal and Wheat flour seeded Cob