It was cold and humid these few days. My sourdough was slow moving so the two bread did not rise as quickly as the recipe indicated. I found that the crumb of my chocolate bread was not as open as those I saw on web. May be a sign of underproof? Final rise was 3 hours and I was not patient to wait longer so just baked the bread right away. The dough size and feel seemed not ready. I adopted the recipe from this site which was originally from Michel Suas’ bread book. Taste of bread was more mellow and better on the next day. The chocolate taste can be stronger and texture was not as chewy but a bit cakey. Need more experiements on this bread…
Apple Bread is a contribution to the Mellow Bakers. I didn’t know Apple Cider before I baked this bread and almost purchased Apple Cider Vinegar as I could not see any Apple Cider in the supermakets at all. Luckily I found on Joanna’s Zebbakes.com that in the US Apple Cider is actually unfiltered and unpasteurized apple juice. Finally I just made the apple juice myself with the juicer at home. What will happen if I used the vinegar? A blogger saved my bread! lol …
Made only 4 small rolls as I did not have enough dried apples on hand. I baked one apple and only about 1/4 of the weight was left after drying. I love the addition of dried apples in the bread, yum. Could not taste the apple flavor in crumb though. The rolls were 80g each and I baked for 25mins at 220C. It seemed the bread did not darken as easily as the recipe indicated. 
Joanna @ Zeb Bakes
/ February 15, 2011It might be good with a little vinegar, maybe if one soaked the apple pieces in a little. I had the same ‘shortage’ of dried apple, mine shrank to nothing almost. I found that if I pulverised the apple pieces a little I got some fine apple ‘flour’ which is why mine went so brown, but it helped to get the taste through the crumb. Thanks for mentioning me and glad to be of help. I must try that chocolate bread one of these days too
Joanna
Nat
/ February 15, 2011What will the vinegar do to the bread? Or it’ll add taste to the apples? Nice idea for pulverising the apples. Believe the crumb will be tastier.. yumyum… your site has the most consolidated and precise info about apple cider for the bread, thanks for that!!!
Joanna @ Zeb Bakes
/ February 18, 2011I am not sure what vinegar would do… I have seen vinegar added to ‘english’ muffin recipes by Dan Lepard. See the buckwheat muffin recipe in Handmade Loaf 2 tbsp to 350 g flour, but more than that I don’t really know. I had another thought which was to put the commercial apple rings that you buy in the oven and let them brown up a bit more before adding to the bread and maybe that would make their flavour more intense…. Or you could maybe buy apple juice concentrate, and soak apple pieces in that… just random thoughts
Nat
/ February 19, 2011I see. Hehee random thoughts and experiments are fun, that’s y i like playing in the kitchen
Cathy
/ February 17, 2011Thanks for your sharing! I’ve added the apple bread to my “to bake list”.
^.^
Nat
/ February 17, 2011Do you have the book?
Cathy
/ February 22, 2011I do not have the book but I have downloaded a recipe from the website you provided. I’ve purchased more than 3 cookbooks in just 2 months..haha…but I’m sure more bread books are coming soon..:P
Nat
/ February 22, 2011So happy! Enjoy!
Cathy (breadexperience)
/ February 21, 2011Yum! Your apple bread rolls look delicious! I may make rolls instead of the bread. I also made an Italian Chocolate Bread but not the same recipe. Probably not authentic, but my boyfriend really enjoyed it.
Nat
/ February 21, 2011Thanks Cathy.
I think it’s easier to get the ears on rolls than a loaf. I am not sure whether my chocolate bread was authenic neither, but definitely delicious with the choco chips and vanilla inside… yum.. 
TC
/ February 21, 2011Do you know which part of Italy the chocolate bread originates from as it is not the sort of bread you normally see over there.
Nat
/ February 21, 2011I used the recipe from a blog which was adapted from Michel Suas’ book. I have no idea where the bread originates but have wondered why it was called Italy Chocolate Bread when I saw the recipe. Do you know how Italy Chocolate Bread should look? Please let me know!
Cheers
Nat
szanter
/ September 27, 2011Szép! Gratulálok!
http://szanter.blogspot.com/
Nat
/ September 28, 2011Cheers! Nice blog there! Love your scoring