Chocolate Sourdough Bread

5 from 16 votes

Chocolate Sourdough Bread is dangerously delicious! Bloomed cocoa powder and chocolate chips make this bread rich and full chocolatey goodness. I love the addition of the melty chocolate chips with the tender crumb. This is no ordinary chocolate sourdough - it's a chocolate lover's dream come true.

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Rest/Rise Time1

Total Time1 1 15

Course: Artisan Bread

Cuisine: American

Servings: slices (1 loaf)

Author: Amy Coyne

Equipment

Ingredients

Levain (1:1:1, about 3-4 hours at 78-80ºF)

35 grams ripe sourdough starter bubbly/active/doubled in size, about 2 Tablespoons
35 grams flour about 1/4 cup
35 grams water about 2 Tablespoons

Chocolate Sourdough Bread

20 grams coconut oil about 2 Tablespoons
20 grams cocoa powder about 3 Tablespoons
450 grams bread flour about 3 1/4 cups
300 grams water about 1 1/4 cups
100 grams levain scant 1/2 cup
20 grams granulated sugar about 4 teaspoons
7 grams salt about 1 teaspoon
100 grams milk chocolate chips see recipe notes, about 2/3 cup

Instructions

Day 1: Levain/Mix/Bulk Fermentation/Shape/Cold Fermentation

Levain: Make levain by mixing together ripe sourdough starter, flour and water. Set aside for 3-4 hours at 78-80ºF.
Autolyse: About an hour before the levain is ready, mix together the bread flour and water. Let rest for about an hour.
Bloom Cocoa Powder: About an hour before mixing the dough, warm the coconut oil and cocoa powder together over the stove or in the microwave. Let cool completely before using in the recipe.
Mixing: Add ripe levain, sugar, salt and bloomed cocoa mixture to the top of the dough. Pinch chunks of dough and reincorporate them together gently. Pick up one side of the dough and fold it over on itself. The dough will be sticky. Wet your hands as needed and continue to work with the dough until it is smooth and all the ingredients are mixed and the dough is smooth. Transfer the dough to a plastic container or a glass bowl if desired.
Bulk Fermentation: Over a total of 3.5-4 hours, perform 3 sets of stretch and folds every half hour and a resting period. This schedule assumes the temperature of the dough is 78-80ºF. If it's colder than this, bulk fermentation will take longer. Warmer dough will move faster.
To “stretch and fold,” wet your hand (so it doesn’t stick to the dough). Reach down to the bottom of the bowl of dough and pull the dough up and over the top of the dough. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn and repeat the stretch and fold. Turn another 1/4 turn and repeat. Perform one more 1/4 turn with stretching and folding the dough. Cover and set aside. Watch a video of the process here.
Stretch and Fold #1: 1 hour into bulk fermentation
Stretch and Fold #2: 30 minutes later, stretch and fold again
Stretch and Fold #3: 30 minutes later, stretch and fold again. You should notice the dough feeling more cohesive and strong during this stretch and fold, and not needing very much folding to come together.
Lamination: 30 minutes later, on a clean counter top, stretch the dough as thin as you can without tearing it. When the dough is fully stretched, sprinkle 3/4 of the milk chocolate chips over the dough. Fold the dough up and sprinkle the rest of the milk chocolate as you fold the dough up into a little package and place back in the bowl. Cover and set aside. See post for pictures.
Finish Bulk Fermentation: Finish the last 1.5 hours of bulk fermentation with the dough covered at 78ºF. You will notice the dough puff up and rising about 30-40% before proceeding with shaping.
If your dough is cooler, this will take longer and you will want to look for a larger percentage rise before shaping the dough.
Pre-Shape: Tip the bowl upside down, allowing the dough to fall onto a clean counter surface. Be gentle to avoid degassing the dough as much as possible. Wet your hands and the bench knife if needed and push the bench knife under the dough on one side and your free hand on the other side to tuck the dough under itself. The goal is to introduce some tension into the dough. Repeat this process, going around in a circle until you have a ball of dough, tucking the chocolate chips that pop out back under the dough if possible.
Bench Rest: Let the dough rest uncovered for about 30 minutes at room temperature. The dough will flatten a bit during this period of time. This allows the gluten in the dough to relax and prepares the dough to be shaped.
Shaping: Prepare a bowl or banneton. Place a kitchen towel or hair net in the bowl and liberally flour as needed. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough if desired. Using a bench knife, lift the dough up off the counter and place it on top of the countertop – floured side down. This ensures that the flour is staying mainly on the outside of the dough.
Going around in a circle, pull the dough sideways towards you and then fold up to the top of the round. Move 90 degrees and repeat the same process pulling the dough sideways and then folding up to the top. As you continue this process around the dough, increase the tension as you pull. Gather the bread into a circle and place into a lined bowl. If any of the chocolate chips pop out of the dough, remove them or stick them on the bottom side of the bread dough.
Note: It is possible to shape the dough without any extra flour. The dough can stick to the kitchen towel but doesn't stick to the hair nets if cold proofed.
Cold Fermentation: Cover the dough with the tea towel/shower cap/plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 14-20 hours. If you want to bake the same day, you can let the dough rise for about 2-3 hours until puffed up and risen. Then bake according to recipe directions.

Day 2: Bake the Bread

Preheat the oven: Put a Dutch oven (top and all) into the oven and preheat to 450°F for 20 minutes. You are working with very high temperatures, so make sure you have some good hot pads. Once preheated for 20 minutes, pull the loaf out of the refrigerator. Remove the covering. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough. Flip the dough over so it is now sitting on the parchment paper. Take off the bowl/banneton and the kitchen towel.
Scoring: Smooth the flour over the top of the dough (add a little extra for more contrast if desired) or leave the flour off completely for no contrast. Use a bread lame or very sharp knife to score the dough. Take the bread lame and score an X into the center of the dough, about 1/2 to 1 inch deep. Score straight from the refrigerator on the cold dough for best results. This is not a loaf for intricate scoring.
Bake: Carefully remove the dutch oven from the 450ºF oven with hot pads. Take the top off and place your bread into the dutch oven (including parchment paper – this helps with the transfer). Be very careful not to touch the sides of the dutch oven. Put your hot pads back on before you pick up the lid of the dutch oven and place it on top of the bread. Put the whole dutch oven back into your oven. Bake at 450ºF for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, take the lid off the Dutch oven and reduce the temperature to 400ºF. Continue baking for 20 minutes until the bread is baked through and reaches 195-200ºF temperature. Remove the Dutch oven and let the bread cool on a baking rack. Enjoy!

Notes

Levain: Equal weights of ripe, bubbly, active sourdough starter can be substituted for levain in this recipe.

Milk Chocolate Chips: Using milk chocolate chips makes this chocolate bread fairly sweet. The milk chocolate complements the rich cocoa powder and enhances the chocolate flavor. For a less sweet loaf, use semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips.

Coconut Oil: Coconut oil can be substituted for any neutral-flavored oil.

Sourdough Tools: You can find all the tools I used for making this chocolate sourdough artisan bread on my Amazon storefront.

Nutrition