Valentine's Day Chocolate Bread

Pictures of this bread can be found at:

Rapide au Chocolat This recipe comes from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I made a few adjustments to it, but those were based more on what ingredients I had around the house than any desire to modify the recipe.

Ingredients:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate or 12 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (or a mixture of both) 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter 4 eggs 2/3 cup honey 2 cups mashed potatoes 1/2 cup brandy, rum, orange juice, or a mixture (I did 1/4 cup OJ and 1/4 cup Grand Marnier) 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I omitted this, figuring the Grand Marnier was flavorful enough) 2 teaspoons orange zest (I had no oranges in the house, so I omitted this too) 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave and mix together.

In another bowl, beat the eggs until they start to get frothy. Add honey, mashed potatoes, the alcohol and/or juice, vanilla extra, and orange zest. Stir in the chocolate-butter mixture.

In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir 2 cups of it into the wet mixture. The mixture should be a heavy batter. If it is still fairly thin, add the rest of the flour mixture to it and stir until everything is moistened.

Pour the batter into greased baking pans (I baked it in three small 7" x 3" loaf pans).

Bake at 350 degrees on the middle shelf of the oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. In my small loaf pans it took about 40 minutes. In a full-sized pan it will take closer to 1 hour.

That's it. It is very good, not too sweet, quite moist and rich (but not too rich). Your sweetheart should love it.