Chocolate Aceto Balsamico Bread

 

Chocolate Aceto Balsamico Bread is chocolate bread with aceto balsamico di Modena aka balsamic vinegar. Interesting flavours releasing, it is great to enjoy for breakfast, and even in the evening with a glass of red wine and some pecans aside.

 

This interesting chocolate chips balsamic bread is not my idea. I found the recipe in German food magazine but it really needed some changes since, once prepared for cooking, it was too runny. So, during second trial I added baking powder, and much more cake flour to make it work.

However, I tagged it as Italian just because of balsamic vinegar being the main ingredient of the recipe.

What is balsamic vinegar ?

Balsamic vinegar comes from an Italian vinegar making process dating back to the Middle ages. There are two main types.

Traditional balsamic vinegar is made only with one ingredient — “grape must” (in Italian, “mosto”), the sweet juice of freshly pressed grapes — that is boiled to a concentrate, fermented, and acidified, and aged for 12 to 25 years or longer in wood barrels.

A highly crafted product, traditional balsamic vinegar is produced in small batches. It is sweet, tart, dark, syrupy, and expensive. You will only find this seriously pricey vinegar in a specialty store or online.

Modern commercial balsamic vinegars (what you will likely find at your local grocery store) combine concentrated grape must with wine vinegar to speed up the acidification process. This vinegar is typically aged from 2 months to 3 years in large oak barrels.

For more, please go to Simply Recipes .

 

Can we make balsamic vinegar at home?

Red wine vinegar is easy to make from red wine. But balsamic vinegar is made from a syrup that’s fermented and aged very slowly. If you want to make balsamic at home, you’ll need to get some Italian grapes like Trebbiano, Ancellotta or Lambrusco—which, interestingly, are all white wine grapes. You’ll need to ripen them, crush them, and then simmer the must in an open pot for a day or two, until you have an intensely sweet syrup that’s reduced to about half its original volume. Cool it down, then put it in a barrel and don’t touch it for six months or a year, minimum. You can either add a vinegar “mother,” or let the yeasts occur naturally. First the concoction will need to turn into alcohol, and then it converts to vinegar.

However, aceto balsamico price is affordable one, so I suggest you buy your bottle at supermarket!

If you think about making this bread with some kind of substitute, here’s the tip what to do:

For every 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, substitute 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar or red wine vinegar plus ½ tsp. sugar.