Chocolate sourdough bread might sound like a weird recipe, but it has interesting flavor that the people in my household are fans of.
If you don’t put chocolate chips in the dough it’s not sweet and doesn’t really taste like chocolate at all. The cocoa gives it a smoky flavor that’s hard to describe.
It slices like a sandwich bread, and it pairs well with peanut butter or Nutella.
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Variations on this recipe.
You can make this recipe with a lot of different ingredients, but I tried three for this experiment.
First was black cocoa vs. regular cocoa, and that definitely gave a different flavor, with the darker cocoa being more “smoky,” for lack of a better description.
Second was both types of cocoa with chocolate chips or without. With chips gives the bread the chocolate flavor, and without it the bread DOES NOT taste like chocolate!
Third was the black cocoa with and without the chocolate chips. Without the chips was definitely more like a dark grain bread like rye, but it did taste like chocolate with the chips in it.
You could make this with chocolate chips and other add-ins or spices (think cinnamon) if you want to give it a little bit of a different flavor profile.
Remember that unsweetened cocoa is unsweetened (duh) so this bread isn’t sweet. Don’t expect it to be sweet just because it has “chocolate” in the name!
Chocolate Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- To make the sponge, mix the ingredients in the large mixing bowl and cover, letting it sit at room temp for 12-36 hours.
- When it's time to make the bread, use the bowl the sponge is in.
- Add 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the other ingredients except the chocolate chips to the bowl, choosing one of the cocoa powders to use (don't use both.)
- Stir the ingredients in the bowl and add a little flour bit by bit until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Flour the counter and turn the dough out into it.
- Knead the dough for about 8 minutes, until it's stretchy and has a slightly blistered appearance on the surface.
- Add flour as you knead the dough to keep it from sticking. Scrape the counter to keep it from sticking as you work.
- Clean the mixing bowl and oil the inside, then put the kneaded dough into the bowl and cover to let it rise until it doubles in size, about 2 hours.
- When the dough has risen, punch it down and add the chocolate chips on top if you're going to add them.
- Stretch the dough and fold it over the chips, turning it and repeating the stretch and fold a few times to make sure that the chocolate chips are all inside the dough. Try to avoid having chips on the outside if you can.
- Oil the bottom of two loaf pans.
- Divide the dough into two equal pieces and put them into the pans.
- Cover the pans with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise until they're about doubled and fill the pans. (About 1 1/2 hours)
- Toward the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 400F.
- When the dough has risen, score the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife.
- Bake the loaves at 400F for 40 minutes, then test them to see if they're done. Use an instant read thermometer in the bottom of the loaf (remove one loaf from the pan to test it.)
- The bread will be done when it's around 180-185F internally. (See tips on this below.)
- Cool in the pans on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container or a Ziplock bag.
Click here for a sourdough starter recipe.
Tips for making this bread.
- This is a really sticky dough to begin with, so be prepared to add extra flour as you’re stirring it and kneading it.
- The type of cocoa that you use makes a difference! The black cocoa gives the bread a subtle smoky flavor, and the regular cocoa gives it a “dark” flavor but it’s more subtle.
- This bread doesn’t taste like chocolate on its own, the chocolate chips give it that flavor. Without the chips it’s more like a rye bread with that kind of dark flavor. I don’t know how else to describe it, it tastes like chocolate but it doesn’t, it’s weird.
- This bread cuts really well with a tight crumb, so you can use it for sandwiches and it will work fine.
- When I made the loaves with the black chocolate I let the sponge go for about 36 hours, and I fed it a little extra flour halfway through. That version went crazy and rose a lot, so it might be a good idea to let your sponge rest a little longer than you might.
- When I did the version with the regular cocoa the sponge developed for about 18 hours and it rose well. I find that letting the sponge develop for longer than 12 hours is the best way to make sure you have a good rise.
- When you score the loaves make the cuts deep enough that the loaf will open up if you want that look. The loaf on the left was scored a lot deeper than the one on the right, so you can see what a difference it makes in the look of the final loaf.
- If you want the chocolate chips to be really well-distributed throughout the bread, you can roll it out into a rectangle and sprinkle the chips on top, then roll it up like a jelly roll instead of folding them in. Cut the roll in half to form each loaf before putting them into the loaf pans. If you don’t do it that way the chips will be less well-distributed because when the bread rises it won’t have them evenly included.
- The black cocoa gives the bread a darker color and a deeper flavor, but not by much. Adding more of the regular cocoa increases the flavor without making it too bitter. The black cocoa has a darker flavor to begin with (read about that here) so you don’t want to add too much.
- When you test the temperature of the bread to see if it’s done, remove one loaf from the pan and use an instant-read thermometer to see how hot it is inside the loaf by inserting it into the bottom of the loaf. This bread will be done when it’s about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also leave the loaves in the pans to cool off if they’re a little under 180 when you test them. The temperature of the loaf pans and the residual heat from the hot loaves will finish the baking as they cool off.
- This is a good, dark bread, and everyone in my family likes it, but it’s NOT SWEET! I think that people who expect it to be like a brownie will be really disappointed, but if you give it a fair try you’ll like it!
For a recipe for milk and honey sourdough bread, click here.
Here’s a video where I talk about it a little!
