Our Southern Odyssey
Delicious Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Chocolate (Carob) Bread
I must admit I (Valancie) am not a huge chocolate fan. I like chocolate. However, I could live without it, and I would be fine. Vanessa on the other hand has to have her chocolate fix. She will start craving it so much so that she cannot think about anything else. She just wants that chocolatey taste. However, when we decided to change our diet, caffeine was on the chopping block. Chocolate because it contains caffeine got axed as well. I was fine without chocolate and Vanessa was ok for a little while. She finally said that she just had to have chocolate. I again, reminded her that the reason that we removed chocolate was because it contained caffeine. And being despaired, she was online one day and came across Carob Powder. Carob Powder is caffeine free and taste like chocolate. You have never see someone so happy before. She was grinning from cheek to cheek, she was so happy. However, what to put it in? hmm…? BREAD! She wanted chocolate bread. So we spend several months coming up with a chocolate bread recipe. Again, you know as I have said I could go without eating chocolate, would not bother me a bit. However, I get to wanting the chocolate (carob) bread that we made from time to time.
I love this bread and Vanessa adores this bread. It is soft and moist, it melts in your mouth when you take a bite. It’s not too rich, it’s just rich enough to make your tastebuds very happy. The bread has a great texture, very consistent and smooth. This bread is great to eat when it comes out of the oven and is still warm and also, cold the next day, after being refrigerated.
It is important to note that you cannot leave the bread out on the counter, as you would store bought breads. You will need to store the bread in the refrigerator. If you leave it out it will go bad. Therefore, when you remove the bread from the oven allow it to cool on a cooling rack. Then after it has cooled place the uneaten portion, if there is any, in the fridge to eat later. We usually wrap ours in parchment paper first with a paper towel and then stretch plastic wrap around the loaf to hold everything together.
The Chocolate (Carob) Bread recipe is pretty straight forward. If you have never baked any bread before, do not panic. We have provided step-by-step instructions with photographs to help.
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