Club Med White Chocolate Bread

is in the chocolate.  If you look at most of the stuff in the supermarket, they say things like "wonderful white morsels" or "traditional white thingees" and, unfortunately, noticeably absent are the words "white chocolate"  Go to your health food store and ask them to get you the real thing. Last time I made Club Med white chocolate bread, I used a relatively high hydration dough, with a full helping of instant yeast plus a hit of one of my sourdough starters. The key ingredient you need is gluten, which Club Med uses (at least in Guadeloupe and Punta Cana, where I've been and witnessed its making.) They use a relatively short first rise, then punch down and knead in a ton of white chocolate chips (easy to come by in the caribbean) and let the thing rise about 50 minutes. The small loafs are put into a very hot oven where they pop, cook, and the whole thing is over very quickly. I think that the very very hot oven is a key to the overall success because the chips melt into the otherwise sugar-free pate. I've done best at about 550 degrees. I proof on parchment, slide onto a baking sheet atop my stone and spritz once just before the oven and about 2 minutes in. Fabulous.

Christopher

Just saw the post; not to be a nit-picker but if you've ever been to Club Med and actually sampled their white chocolate bread, you would know that a white-chocolate flavoured bread, while tasty (in fact, I tried something like this in my long quest to first, find the recipe and second, to perfect it) isn't what those of us avid Club Med fans know as their archetype.  The Club Med kind is characterized by these pockets of intense white chocolate-caramel flavour, which comes from their use of white chocolate chips interspersed in the dough after the first rise. If you use a sweet dough, it is just too sweet.  I'll freely admit that in our annual trip four years ago, they actually handed out their own recipe for the bread but when I went home and tried it, it didn't work nearly as well. The next year, I went into the kitchen to complain and was shown what they do. Remember, this was in Punta Cana, dominican republic, where they use half french ingredients and half Dominican, so I'm not sure about the flour. They did use, at the time, this "mystery' ingredient which my father-in-law told me was a commercial flavour-enhancer akin to a powdered sourdough. KAF sells something like it now. That is why I suggested using a hit of fresh sourdough starter. (I can't imagine Club Med having to keep THAT much starter alive and kicking) The other thing they added was gluten, presumably to make up for the short rises and lack of handling. Remember, these are high-volume, commercial kitchens where they can't wait around for things very long. If they did, it would be lunchtime already. So, just like in my personal quest for a good sourdough recipe that I could start at bedtime and finish in time for the kids' lunch box, you do what is necessary to get the job done. For Club Med, that means, mix it, short rise, punch and fold in the chips while giving a short knead, rise on parchment or silpat right in front of the oven while waiting for the previous batch to finish. Their product starts like a kind-of flattened baguette shape and ends up like a risen, though slightly squat, baguette shape. If you've ever been at the bread table at a Club Med, they could shape the dough like a fat lady's behind and people would still line up for it. Really.

I'll pull my recipe and post when I return from playing chauffeur to the kids.

Christopher

BTW, if you google 'club med white chocolate bread," there are a whole slew of variations.  To my mind, this is pretty close:

2 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon gluten

3/4 cup warm water

1.25 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast

3 tablespoons sourdough starter (or 1/4 teaspoon starter powder)

8 oz white chocolate chips (make sure it is 'real' white chocolate:cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids. Trader Joe's makes a good one, or sunspire organic)

Club Med's recipe says to mix it all together, chips and all, rest 20 minutes, shape, proof 45 minutes to an hour, bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

I prefer:

Mix all ingredients except chips in mixer with hook. rest 20 minutes. Mix again 5 seconds; 20 minute rest. mix 5 minutes then into a ceramic bowl, cover and put in fridge overnight. Pull out of fridge first thing in AM, onto floured board.

Spread out dough to about the size of a legal pad, spread the chips all over and roll it up. Knead a few minutes, rest 20 minutes. Form two loaves onto parchment paper, about 9-12 inches long, fatter in the middle. Try to push any visible chips into the dough. Leave them to proof up to 1.5 times size. Depending on heat, this may be 1-2 hours. I keep a stone in the oven, which I preheat to 450. I put a cookie sheet on a rack just above the stone.  I spritz the surface of the loaf with water just before it hits the oven  and slide the parchment onto the hot cookie sheet and immediately lower to 425 as soon as the loaf goes in. 20 minutes is usually enough; if the white chocolate is close to the surface, it will boil out and get dark pretty quickly, but who cares?  Nobody will complain, I assure you.  They will only ask you why you only made 2 loaves.

Note: understand that where I was, in Guadeloupe and the DR, it is very warm all year round and they use enough yeast to have this bread rise quickly. They have a hard time keeping it around and it is really best eaten while still a bit warm. You really have to see the lines at Club Med-all walks of life, all lifestyles, all countries: they can't get enough of this stuff.

Me neither. I've got a batch I just made in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow.

cheers,

christopher