This Pan de Café Coffee Bread is made with a naturally leavened, enriched dough and flavored with brewed coffee. After a cold ferment in the refrigerator, the dough is rolled out and then swirled around a blend of ground coffee granules, cinnamon, and sugar.
I fell in love with this bread last year and baked it quite frequently throughout the year. It was my go-to bread for giving as gifts to my sons and anyone else who would receive it.
When I shipped a loaf to my youngest son, he used it for dunking because he didn’t realize I meant it had coffee in it. He thought coffee bread meant it was supposed to be dipped in coffee like biscotti.
Dunking the bread in coffee is a creative way to enjoy this bread, but my favorite way is to spread thick slices with peanut butter and jelly or apple butter. It also works well as cinnamon toast; however, for a truly unique experience, try it toasted with cheese.
This bread is adapted from the Pan de Café from New World Sourdough by Bryan Ford. I love what he says about why he created this bread. My sentiments exactly.
The two things in this world I cannot live without are coffee and bread … So, I thought why not get the best of both worlds? The goal of this loaf is to make something that is versatile yet not too sweet.
Bryan Ford, New World Sourdough
Using different fats and flour
The version in the book, made with butter and bread flour, is wonderful, but almost too much of a good thing, so I decided to experiment using different types of fat and flour.
I’ve made this dough with butter, olive oil, and coconut oil. The version in the photo above is made with butter.
After making the first loaf with butter, I reduced the amount of fat from 50 grams to 30 grams (per loaf). Decreasing the amount of fat used is something I had been trying with other breads so I decided to continue the trend.
I also tested using stone-ground all-purpose flour versus bread flour and a 50/50 mix of stone ground to regular all-purpose flour (KAF). Sometimes, I used Georgia stone-ground all-purpose, a sifted whole wheat flour, and other times, Main Grains sifted whole wheat flour. All of the flours worked well.
My favorite version is made with unflavored coconut oil. The olive oil version tasted good, but it was a little bit slack when rolling the dough into a loaf.
Timing
The timing presented in the book didn’t quite work for me so I experimented with the ferment schedule. The dough seemed to perform fairly well even after a long cold ferment, but as with any bread, if you let it ferment too long, it doesn’t perform as well.
For the last bake, which is featured in the photos of this post, I let the final dough bulk ferment in the refrigerator for two days, which was a bit too long. As a result, I had a little trouble rolling the dough into a tight log and getting an even swirl. The bread tasted fabulous even though the swirl wasn’t as tight as I would’ve liked.
My version makes enough dough for two loaves that fit nicely in 9×5-inch loaf pans. However, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pans should also work.
The levain makes enough for two batches so rather than have leftover levain, I recommend making two loaves and freezing one or better yet, giving one loaf away. The recipient will thank you.
Pan de Café {Coffee Bread}
- Yield: 2 Loaves 1x
Description
This Pan de Café Coffee Bread is made with a naturally leavened enriched dough flavored with brewed coffee. After a cold ferment in the refrigerator, the dough is rolled out, then swirled around a blend of ground coffee granules, cinnamon, and sugar.
Ingredients
Levain
- 50 grams sourdough (fresh or discard)
- 50 grams all-purpose flour
- 50 grams whole wheat flour (any type)
- 90 grams warm water
Final Dough
- 1000 grams flour (all-purpose, sifted whole grain, 50/50 mix of AP/sifted whole grain, or bread flour)
- 200 grams brewed coffee, chilled (brew extra with your morning coffee and chill for later)
- 430–475 grams water (depends on the coarseness of the whole grain used)
- 60 grams unflavored coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
- 120 grams light brown sugar
- 16 grams sea salt + 25-50 grams water
- 200 grams levain
Filling
- 20 grams ground cinnamon
- 20 grams fresh coffee granules (I used a flavored coffee with coconut notes)
- 20 grams sugar
Instructions
Day 1 – Start the Levain
- Mix sourdough starter, flours and water in a tall jar or bowl until fully combined. Cover with a kitchen towel, plate, or bees wrap and let rest at warm room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, until doubled in size.
- At this point, you can use the levain or place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours or the next day, depending on your schedule.
Day 2 – Prepare the Final Dough
- Mix wet ingredients (levain, chilled coffee, coconut oil, 400 grams of water) in a liquid measuring cup or medium bowl until thoroughly combined.
- In separate large bowl, whisk together the flour(s) and brown sugar. Reserve the salt.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add more water as needed until there are no dry bits of flour. Form the dough into a ball, cover and let rest at room temperature 20-30 minutes.
- Sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough and pour in 25-30 grams of water to dissolve the salt. Work the salt completely into the dough. If the dough begins to tear, gradually add more water, about 10 grams at a time, until you have a workable dough.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 4-6 hours at warm room temperature. Perform two stretch and folds every 30 minutes for the first hour. Then let the dough rest for the remaining 3-5 hours. Cover the bowl tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight, 8 to 12 hours, or longer, depending on your schedule.
Day 3 – Form and Bake the Loaves
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place in on a floured work surface. Divide into 2 equal pieces and let rest for 30 minutes. It’s easier to roll out the chilled dough so don’t let it relax too long or it could get too sticky. Do it quicky.
- While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. Stir together the sugar, coffee granules and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.
- Coat two 9×5-inch loaf pans with butter or oil and set aside.
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, pat or roll into a rectangle. The width of the shortest side should fit the loaf pan. Placing the loaf pan at the top of the dough can serve as a guide.
- Sprinkle the top of the dough evenly with the coffee/cinnamon sugar mixture leaving space on all sides to keep from smudging it while rolling. Roll the dough into a tight log and place in a greased loaf pan.
- Prepare the second loaf in the same manner. Cover both loaf pans with a kitchen towel or bees wrap and let rest at warm room temperature for 2-4 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C). Sprinkle the tops of the loaves with more of the coffee/cinnamon sugar mixture and score the loaves using quick, decisive scores. I found that dipping the edge of the blade in the coffee/sugar mixture helped to keep the blade from dragging through the dough.
- Bake the loaves for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. Rotate the pans partway through for even baking.
- Remove the loaves to a wire rack and let rest in the pan for 5 minutes before removing. Then let cool completely before serving.
- Category: Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Happy Baking!
Cathy
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