The Snuggle Loaf

The Snuggle Loaf

It's official - summer is over and autumn is in full swing. Well, not quite - autumn apparently starts in America after the Fall Equinox, which is this Saturday. 

We're not listening though (it's colder here than it is in America!), we're too busy snuggling into our duvets and refusing to move until next spring. And when the clocks go back at the end of October, it'll be even worse.

There's not much to look forward to when the season of falling leaves rolls around, but one thing we can all enjoy is the warming autumn food - plenty of hot, chocolate-filled goodness. With that in mind, here's two recipes from Kate Shirazi, founder of Cakeadoodledo, the online mail order cupcake company, to help get you into the autumn spirit.

The Snuggle Loaf

Why is this chocolatey, hazelnutty, soft, sweet hunk of loveliness called “the snuggle loaf” I hear you cry? Because, dear hearts, eating it is like being enveloped in the warmest most comforting hug you have ever had. A right, proper snuggle.

Serves 8 in need of a minor snuggle, or 4 needing a big one.

Ingredients:

  • 200g strong white bread flour
  • 40g caster sugar
  • 25g butter
  • 7g dried yeast
  • 5 tbsp milk
  • 1 large, free range egg, beaten
  • 2 tbsp hazelnuts, roasted, skinned and chopped
  • 2 tsp nutella, or other chocolate spread
  • 50g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks.
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

  1. First make the base dough by putting the flour and sugar into a large bowl followed by a pinch of salt. Rub the butter into this mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs and then stir in the yeast. Heat the milk until it is hand hot and then tip it in, followed by the egg. 
  2. Mix everything up until you get a dough and then turn it onto a floured surface and knead for at least ten minutes or until the dough is beautifully smooth, silky and elastic. Pop the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a tea towel and put it somewhere warm to prove for at least an hour, or until it has doubled in size.
  3. Knead the dough again for another five minutes and then split it into two equal parts. Roll both lumps into strips about 25cm by 10cm. Spread a spoonful of nutella down the middle of each strip followed by a sprinkling of the nuts and the chocolate. Try and keep back about half a spoonful of the nuts for sprinkling on the top of the loaf. 
  4. Roll up each rectangle like you would a swiss roll. Take each sausage and twist each round one another so you have a twisty loaf. I then like to shove both ends towards each other, so you shorten it and fatten it up a bit. Pop the loaf on a greased and floured baking tray and cover again with the tea towel. Leave it to prove and consider its fate for another hour, then bake it in a preheated oven (170C) for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown, risen and totally glorious.
  5. While the loaf is cooling, mix enough water with the icing sugar to create a thin glaze (it should be the consistency of single cream) and brush it all over the top of the loaf. Sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts over, while the glaze is still wet.
  6. Prepare your surroundings for your snuggle experience. Sofa, duvet, hotwater bottle, tea, Richard Curtis film all pretty standard.

Recipe taken from Cupcake Magic by Kate Shirazi, published by Pavilion.

Check out page 2 for Kate Shirazi's Firework Frenzy cupcakes recipe - great for making now the weather's turned colder (if you need another excuse, it's Cupcake Week now), or for having with your bonfire come November (let's be honest, you'll have them now and on Bonfire Night!)

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