Gargantuan Chocolate Cream-Cheese Bread

Yes, another blog this week. I'm on a roll! Today's baking anomaly, a gargantuan chocolate cream-cheese loaf. I made the dough in the bread maker (how much easier does it get?!) with a little bit of cream cheese, then when that was done, I rolled it out, cut one inch strips on both sides, and braided in the cream-cheese and chocolate bits filling. I made this for my co-worker Cindy's birthday, but accidentally got my days mixed up. Instead of having her party on Thursday like I thought, it was on Tuesday, and I didn't have this special bread for her. But it all worked out because there was plenty of sweets and treats to celebrate with, and by bringing my bread today meant that it was the main focus of our snacky-breaktimes. And it's a good thing too because instead of baking the loaf at 10:30 last night, I thought I'd let it rise, covered, overnight and bring it in baked fresh in the morning. Well, I about fell over laughing when I saw what my creation had multiplied to by 6:30 a.m. The loaf about tripled in size, and oozed over the side of the cookie sheet and onto the stove! It looks like some kind of giant bug cocoon!

This is pre-baked, and pre-egg washed. I had to scrunch it to get it back on the pan before I could bake it- and a little side note here: I was surprised it didn't need longer to bake than the recipe called for, even though it was about half again as big as it was supposed to be! My house smelled heavenly! And when I pulled it out of the oven, it was a beautiful crisped golden brown, and you can see how it stretches almost all the way across my stove top.

I even got to put on display one of my huge Italian platters I rarely get to use (and even then it barely fit). And I was complaining on Saturday that I don't have any nice dishes. :) The finished product:

And one last photo to show some size perspective:

Even though it was one immense loaf of bread, there is only one small piece (about enough for 4-5 people) left...