Dark Chocolate Sourdough Bread Recipe and Baking Tips
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Mar 22, 2024 • 6 min read
Seasoned with robust cocoa powder and studded with tart dried fruits, this not-too-sweet recipe is a superb twist on artisanal sourdough bread. Here’s how to make chocolate sourdough bread at home.
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What Is Chocolate Sourdough Bread?
Chocolate sourdough bread is a naturally leavened bread flavored with cocoa powder. Many breads have a neutral flavor, but there are plenty of sweet breads worldwide: Think Japanese milk bread, Irish soda bread, Italian panettone, or comforting cinnamon raisin toast. Chocolate sourdough is a stellar addition to this list, and it’s an unexpected way to use your levain (fresh sourdough starter). The levain’s natural ferment plays off the complex, almost savory depth of dark chocolate flavor, while the crust takes on an attractive dark caramel brown color.
The loaf is as good fresh from the oven and slathered in cream cheese as it is egg-battered and butter-fried in a chocolatey twist on French toast.
4 Tips for Making Chocolate Sourdough Bread
Sourdough baking requires a bit of a time commitment, but the reward for your efforts is a thick, chewy crust and airy crumb. Here are some tips for amplifying the flavor and texture of your chocolate sourdough bread:
- 1. Use the starter when it's most active. For a refrigerated starter, plan on feeding it about three times before baking. To test your starter’s readiness, drop a spoonful in a cup of room-temperature water: If it floats, it’s ready. If you haven’t yet made a sourdough starter, budget a few extra days in your baking timeline to allow your new starter to develop a healthy community of wild yeasts.
- 2. Add fillings to your taste. Highlight the cocoa powder’s deep flavors with creative, complementary fillings. Together with the cocoa, toasted hazelnuts give the bread a smooth, gianduja-like flavor. For earthiness and crunch, try pecans—candied, plain roasted, or dusted with cinnamon. Dried cherries (or other dried fruits like currants or cranberries) lend a pleasant chew and tang. Alternatively, fold a handful of mini chocolate chips into the dough.
- 3. Control the sugar. Milk chocolate cocoa powder can make the dough overly sweet, especially if you add sugary fillings, like chocolate chips or candied nuts. Stick to one hundred percent cocoa powder. Using unsweetened cocoa powder lets you control the amount of sweetness in the bread, and you can then add brown sugar for balance.
- 4. Flour the fruits. Toss any dried-fruit filling in a light dusting of flour. Flouring the fruits will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the dough and ensure their even distribution throughout the sourdough loaf.
What Tools Do You Need to Bake Chocolate Sourdough Bread?
Investing in these five tools will make the baking process more manageable. Here is a list of the tools, in order of when you’ll need them:
- Kitchen scale: Although it’s possible to measure bread ingredients with cups, the accuracy of a scale helps keep things consistent.
- Dough scraper: The deep, wide blade of a scraper helps divide your bread dough and gently move it from one surface to another.
- Dutch oven or combo cooker: Baking bread in a Dutch oven lets you steam the bread at the beginning of the bake, getting the best rise and forming a nice crust. Some bakers prefer a cast iron “combo cooker,” which features a Dutch oven and a lid that doubles as a pan.
- Proofing or banneton baskets: Banneton baskets, made with cane, have ridges that support the dough. Their design lets the dough rise while giving loaves a consistent shape. Alternatively, use mixing bowls lined with a clean cloth for proofing bread.
- Razor blade: You’ll need a very sharp tool to successfully create a slit in the top of the dough, which will allow it to expand during baking. While you can find tools explicitly made for this purpose (called lames), a razor blade or very sharp knife will work fine. When scoring, take care not to over-manipulate your bread. Here’s how to score sourdough bread properly.
Dark Chocolate Sourdough Bread Recipe
makes
2 loavesprep time
1 hrtotal time
2 hr 30 mincook time
1 hr 30 minIngredients
Note: The total time does not include 12 hours of inactive time.
Day 1
- 1
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sourdough starter with 100 grams of whole-wheat flour, 100 grams of all-purpose flour, and 200 grams of warm water.
- 2
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm place overnight. (In bread terms, this is the autolyse method.)
- 3
In a large bowl, combine the remaining whole-wheat flour and all-purpose flour with the rye or spelt flour and 750 grams of warm water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest overnight.
Day 2
- 1
Add half of the leaven (sourdough starter) to the soaked grains.
- 2
Stir to combine them and let the mixture rest for 20 minutes.
- 3
Set aside the leftover leaven: This can become your new sourdough starter for the next time you want to bake.
- 4
Combine the salt, cocoa powder, vanilla, and brown sugar with 50 grams of warm water and add the mixture to the dough.
- 5
Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and brown sugar to the dough and gently knead to incorporate.
- 6
Allow the whole mixture to rest for 20 minutes.
- 7
Add about a ⅓ of the toasted nuts to the dough. Fold the dough over itself a few times to incorporate. Repeat this process until you have incorporated all of the nuts.
- 8
Fold (don’t knead) the dough, using a wet hand to reach under the dough, pulling the bottom of the dough up, and folding it up over itself. This technique will give your sourdough loaf a better texture than kneading with a mixer or by hand.
- 9
Rotate the bowl in four quarter turns, folding after each turn. Repeat this process every 30–45 minutes for 4–5 hours, leaving the dough seam-side down after each time. (A pen and paper can come in handy to count down each fold.)
- 10
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
- 11
Using a bench scraper, divide the dough in half.
- 12
Cover the dough with a clean towel, and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- 13
With floured hands, flip the two balls of dough over.
- 14
Starting with the first ball of dough, gently pull the dough towards you, folding it upwards over itself and folding it in half.
- 15
Pull on the non-folded side to fold it in half again.
- 16
Fold it a third time.
- 17
Rotate the ball of dough 90 degrees and fold it a fourth time.
- 18
Rotate it 45 degrees, pull the dough towards you, and fold it a fifth time.
- 19
Pull the dough towards yourself in the other direction and fold it a sixth time.
- 20
Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold it a seventh time.
- 21
Fold in the other direction, for a total of eight folds.
- 22
Repeat the folding process with the second ball of dough.
- 23
Place both dough balls in proofing baskets or cloth-lined bowls dusted with flour.
- 24
Cover them with a clean cloth or tea towel, and let the dough rest for 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.
- 25
Heat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 26
Place a Dutch oven in your oven as it heats up, and leave it inside for 15 minutes.
- 27
Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven and gently add the first ball of dough (known as a boule) to the pot.
- 28
Score the bread with a razor blade, cutting a 2–3 inch slit in the top of the bread.
- 29
Place the lid on your Dutch oven, and return it to the oven.
- 30
Reduce the temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake the bread for 20 minutes.
- 31
Remove the Dutch oven’s lid and bake the bread until the crust is golden brown, another 23–25 minutes.
- 32
Cool your loaf of bread on a wire rack.
- 33
Repeat with the remaining dough to bake your second loaf.
- 34
Store the cooled bread wrapped in parchment paper in a ziptop bag.
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