Chocolate Orange Raisin Bread – A Favorite Homemade Bread

Perfecting this Chocolate Orange Raisin Bread was exhilarating for me. I have been fascinated with chocolate bread for more years than I care to remember.  Almost every recipe I read mentioned the denseness of the bread. Every chocolate bread I made was dense. In fact, I have a Chocolate Cherry Bread on my blog that is also dense.  Good, but dense. There had to be a way to lighten up the dough and make a moist, light and flavorful loaf.

I was reminded of this quest when I saw a Chocolate Bread recipe by David Lebovitz.  Again, he mentioned the dense word.  After giving the problem some thought I came up with the answer – and it was right in front of me all the time – a sponge. Continue reading →