Text : Virginie Dupont / Photography : Benjamin Leveaux

Coffee bread

A baker with big dreams and a passion for natural sourdough, Catherine from @dupainunefois has developed a pain au café recipe especially for us.

  • Make some bread dough (either home-made or using a bread mix).
  • Prepare the praline. In a frying pan, roast 300g of whole almonds with 170g of Charles Liégeois Roastery coffee beans. Then let them cool.
  • Make a dry caramel. Pour 400 g of cane sugar in a pan. Once the sugar is melted and has developed a nice amber colour, mix it with the almonds and coffee beans. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper and let it harden. Then mix everything to finish making the praline.
  • Make the coffee syrup. Prepare 100g of espresso and boil it with 100g of cane sugar. Reduce until it has a syrupy texture.
  • Incorporate the praline and the coffee syrup into the bread dough.
  • Add 100 g of dark chocolate chips. Knead the dough by hand with all the ingredients and form a ball.
  • Preheat the oven. Turn the banneton over onto the drip pan and flour the top of the dough. Make a cut across the top of the bread just before placing it in the oven.
  • Bake at 240°C for 30 min., then incrementally lower the heat over 20 mins. to get a nice thick crust (10 min. at 220°C then 10 min. at 200°C). Suggestion: “pain cocotte”. Place the dough in a casserole dish and close with the lid before placing in the oven and following the same instructions.
  • Slice, eat, enjoy.