Chocolate Lavender Bread

Chocolate Lavender Bread

Since I made the blueberry lavender jam, I have been wanting to do more baking and cooking with lavender.  Fortunately, my mother is helping me in this endeavor (though she didn’t realize it at the time).  My mom found a recipe in Southern Living magazine for a very yummy-looking chocolate bread with lavender glaze.  Of course, we made it our own (mostly to add lavender).  It was so delicious.  I hope you try it and let me know what your thoughts are.

Bread Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

½ cup butter, melted

2 eggs

3 Tbsp milk

1 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted and cooled

¼ c semisweet mini chocolate chips

Lavender Glaze Ingredients:

½ cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp milk

½ tsp culinary lavender

Directions:

Bread

• Preheat oven to 350 F.  Coat an 8 ½ X 4 ½ inch loaf pan with cooking spray or butter
• In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside
• In a large bowl, beat the sugar and melted butter until well combined.  
• Mix in the eggs.
• Stir in the milk.
• Stir in the cooled, melted chocolate until the batter is a consistent milk chocolate color with no more streaks.
• Gradually fold in the dry ingredients until everything is just combined. Do not overmix.
• Fold in the chocolate chips.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Baked for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let bread cool for 15 minutes in pan.  Remove loaf from pan allow to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Glaze

• In a medium bowl, add the milk to the powdered sugar 1 Tbsp at a time until it is a thick but pourable glaze.
• Crush the lavender with your fingers and add them to the glaze.
• Combine well.
• Pour the glaze over the bread, and let it sit for about 15 minutes before slicing