Chocolate Sourdough Bread

Chocolate sourdough bread combines cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips with a naturally leavened, long-fermented dough, giving you a rich, not-too-sweet loaf with all the tang and chew of a proper sourdough boule. When I first started testing this recipe, I assumed it would end up firmly in dessert territory, jam on top, maybe a bit of cream cheese. It's brilliant that way, but it turns out this loaf is just as happy sitting next to a bowl of rich beef stew as it is next to a jar of jam.

Jump to:

• Why Chocolate Sourdough Bread Works So Well
• Ingredient Notes
• Variations
• Step-By-Step Method
• Tips For Best Results
• Recipe FAQs
• How To Serve Chocolate Sourdough Bread?
• More Flavoured Sourdough Bread Recipes
• Chocolate Sourdough Bread

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Why Chocolate Sourdough Bread Works So Well

Sourdough's natural tang plays off cocoa's bitterness in a way regular yeasted bread can't quite manage. The lactic and acetic acid built up over the long ferment cuts through the richness of the cocoa and dark chocolate, so instead of tasting like chocolate cake, this loaf tastes like bread first and chocolate second, with just enough sweetness to keep it interesting.

It's not trying to be a dessert. It just happens to double as one.

Fancy something chocolatey but simple? Try our Sourdough Chocolate Crinkle Cookies!

Ingredient Notes

• Strong bread flour: you can substitute up to 15% with wholemeal flour, though expect a denser crumb.
• Cocoa powder: we've tested this with both regular unsweetened cocoa and raw cocoa powder. For a darker, more intense colour, use Dutch-processed cocoa.
• Salt: we use sea salt.
• Sugar: brown sugar gives the best flavour here, though white granulated works too.
• Active sourdough starter: needs to be bubbly and active, 100% hydration.
• Water: slightly warm water speeds up bulk fermentation by giving the wild yeast a head start. Cocoa powder absorbs more water than flour alone, so the dough will feel stiffer than you might be used to.
• Chocolate chips: we use dark chocolate chips for the deepest flavour, but milk or white chocolate work just as well. Between the cocoa powder in the dough and the chips folded through it, this is properly double chocolate sourdough bread.

You can find the ingredient quantities, detailed instructions, and nutritional information on the recipe card at the bottom of the post. 

What Chocolate to Use

Dark chocolate chips give the deepest, least sweet result and are what we use most often. Milk or white chocolate chips work too if you want a sweeter loaf, and a chopped chocolate bar is fine in a pinch, though it tends to melt into the dough rather than stay in distinct pockets the way chips do.

Variations

This is a brilliant base recipe on its own, but there's plenty of room to play with it:

• Swap 60ml of the water for cooled strong double espresso. Caffeine can slow bulk fermentation slightly, but the coffee flavour it adds is worth the wait. We use coffee in our Coffee and Date Sourdough Bread recipe.
• Fold in a handful of dried cherries, raisins or pecans alongside the chocolate chips, or try our Chocolate Cherry Sourdough Bread for a version with cherries built in.
• A teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste works well here too.
• Cardamom and sourdough are a great pairing. If that sounds good to you, our Sourdough Cardamom Buns are worth a look.
• Fancy something chocolatey but simpler? Try our Sourdough Chocolate Crinkle Cookies or Sourdough Discard Brownies.

Step-By-Step Method

Before you begin, make sure your sourdough starter is fed, and becomes active and bubbly before you use it in the dough. Once it at least doubles in volume, you are ready to mix the dough. 

Day 1

1. Once your starter is active and bubbly, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Add the water and starter, then run the mixer with a dough hook for 10 minutes on medium speed. Scoop the dough into a clean bowl, cover, and leave somewhere warm for 30 minutes.

3. Perform your first set of coil folds: wet your hands, lift the dough from the sides and fold it into the centre to form a coil, then rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.

4. Repeat the coil folds twice more at 30-minute intervals, then rest the dough, covered, for 30 minutes.

5. Scatter half the chocolate chips over the dough and fold all four corners into the centre to encase them.

6. Flip the dough, scatter the rest of the chips, and fold again. Flip once more, cover, and leave to rise for 30 minutes.

7. Do two more sets of coil folds, 30 minutes apart, to distribute the chocolate chips evenly.

8. Cover and leave the dough to finish bulk fermentation for 2 to 3 hours. It should grow by about 50%, not double, since cocoa powder weakens the gluten structure slightly compared with a plain dough.

9. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and shape it into a tight ball using a dough scraper. Place it smooth side down into a well-floured banneton (rice flour works well for dusting).

10. Cover with a cloth, then a plastic bag or shower cap to stop it drying out, and refrigerate overnight, or up to 36 hours.

Day 2

1. Preheat the oven to 240°C with your Dutch oven inside.

2. Take the dough out of the fridge and invert it onto a large piece of parchment paper. Brush off any excess flour, then score the top with a sharp razor or bread lame.

3. Lower the dough into the hot Dutch oven using the parchment as a sling, cover with the lid, and bake for 35 minutes.

4. Remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes, until the crust is dark and crisp.

5. Cool completely on a wire rack before dusting with icing sugar and slicing.

Tips For Best Results

🔢 Weigh everything on a kitchen scale. Cups and spoons aren't precise enough for something like active starter, where a small difference in weight throws off the whole dough.

🍫 For a more even spread of chocolate through the loaf, try the sourdough lamination method instead of folding the chips in.

🤲 Cocoa powder reduces the gluten in the dough, so it tears more easily than a plain sourdough. Handle it gently, especially during shaping.

🧹 Brush off excess flour before baking so the crust goes properly dark rather than pale and floury in patches.

🔪 Keep the scoring simple. An intricate pattern gets lost against the dark crust anyway.

🔥 I'll admit it, I like this bread slightly warm, a few degrees above room temperature, and I slice into it before it's fully cooled. Worth trying at least once.

Recipe FAQs

 

How To Serve Chocolate Sourdough Bread?

This is best the day it's baked. Slather a slice with salted butter and you're done, though if you want to go further:

• Cherry jam and cream cheese, for a Black Forest cake sort of moment.
• Salted caramel spread.
• Biscoff or another cookie butter.

I genuinely didn't expect this, but this bread is just as good alongside rich, savoury dishes as it is with something sweet. The cocoa's bitterness works well with red meat, which is exactly why we already put cocoa powder into our Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne. Try it with venison or beef stew, our Beef Giniling or Slow Cooker Braising Steak.

Leftovers make excellent chocolate bread pudding. Just cut off the chewy crusts first.

Storage

This bread is at its best the day it's baked, but it keeps well beyond that too.

• Room temperature: wrapped in a tea towel or paper bag, it'll keep for about 2 days. Avoid sealing it in plastic, which softens the crust.
• Freezer: I always slice and freeze mine on the day it's baked rather than waiting. It genuinely tastes better thawed that way than if you freeze the whole loaf later. Double-wrap the slices to protect them from freezer burn, and they'll keep well for a couple of months.
• To thaw: leave slices at room temperature, or toast straight from frozen in the oven or under the grill. Skip the toaster, since melted chocolate chips can make a proper mess of it.

More Flavoured Sourdough Bread Recipes

Loving sourdough beyond plain loaves? Have a look at our full collection of sourdough bread recipes with inclusions.