An unlikely but delicious duo, the slightly tangy taste of sourdough goes perfectly with cocoa and chocolate chips. We love eating this with cream cheese on top for breakfast, and so will you. Really. Try it.
If you’ve never made sourdough bread before, I recommend you start with something a little more simple. Unless you’re ambitious. I am too. Read about sourdough bread for beginners and then come back.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and Tools You’ll Need
If you can’t find vanilla bean powder, I’ve left a link below. Or you can also use double the amount of vanilla extract. If you don’t have a Dutch oven, you can use a baking sheet for the bread and another one with water in it to create steam.
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This will make 1 loaf of bread. If you’d like to double or triple this recipe, or use metric measurements, you can make adjustments in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup active and bubbly sourdough starter
- 1 ½ cups water warmed to 90℉
- 3 cups + 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder (can sub with 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract)
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or whatever kind you want – dark, milk, etc.)
How to Make
Step One: Feed Starter Night Before
Feed your starter so you have ½ cup of bubbly starter ready tomorrow. Mix 30g starter + 40g flour + 30g water. Done.
Step Two: Mix Starter and Flour
Mix your active starter with 1½ cups warm water in a big bowl.
Add 3 cups plus 1 tablespoon flour, stir it up, and let it sit for 10 minutes. This autolyze step matters – don’t skip it.
Step Three: Prepare Dry Ingredients
In a small bowl, combine your whole wheat flour, salt, sugar, vanilla powder, and cocoa powder.
Step Four: Make the Dough
Add this cocoa mixture to your flour bowl and mix with a spatula until it gets too thick to stir. Then dump it on your counter and knead until everything’s combined. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
Step Five: Rest and Stretch
Cover and rest for 30 minutes. Then do stretch and folds – wet hands, grab one side, stretch up, and fold over. Do this 3-4 times, flip the dough, cover. Wait 30 minutes and repeat two more times. This dough is drier so it won’t stretch as much as regular sourdough.
Step Six: First Rise
After your last stretch and fold, let it rise 6-8 hours at room temperature until doubled.
Step Seven: Add Chocolate Chips
Turn dough out and fold in chocolate chips – about a third at a time. Be gentle so you don’t deflate it.
Step Eight: Shape and Cold Rise
Shape into a ball, put in a floured banneton, cover with plastic, and refrigerate 10-12 hours.
Step Nine: Preheat and Score
Preheat Dutch oven to 425°F for 30 minutes minimum. Turn dough onto parchment paper, score in a cross pattern with a razor.
Step Ten: Bake
Bake covered 20 minutes at 425°F. Remove lid, drop temp to 375°F, bake another 20 minutes.
Step Eleven: Cool Completely
Cool completely on a wire rack – at least an hour before slicing. I know it’s hard to wait, but cutting too early ruins the texture.
Serving & Storing
Have a slice with coffee or tea, spread some butter over it (or Nutella for an extra treat for the kids), or have some fresh berries on the side.
Wrap the bread in a clean kitchen towel or place it in a paper bag and keep it at room temperature. Don’t use plastic bags that can make the crust soft.
You can also freeze it. Sliced it first, then wrap each slice individually and place them in a freezer-safe bag or container. To thaw, let them sit at room temperature for about an hour. You can also reheat the slices in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 10 minutes.
Questions and Troubleshooting
Give it a bit more time and place it in a warm spot to help speed it up. You want it doubled in size, even if it takes a bit longer.
A Dutch oven helps create a great crust, but if you don’t have one, you can use a baking sheet. Just add a pan of water to the oven to create steam.
Your starter should be bubbly and active. A good test is to drop a small spoonful into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s ready to go!
Yes, you can speed it up by adding a teaspoon of instant yeast. This can reduce the rise time to around 6 hours in total.
More Delicious Sourdough Breads You’ll Love
It’s so fun to add in different mix-ins.
- This blueberry lemon sourdough bread will replace all those expensive prepared breakfast foods, and your kids will love it.
- Jalapeno cheddar sourdough bread makes the BEST grilled cheese.
- White chocolate raspberry sourdough bread is so sweet to make for Valentine’s Day.
- Have a slice of this sourdough bread with gruyere and caramelized onions with a bowl of soup.
Printable Recipe
Chocolate Sourdough Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup active and bubbly sourdough starter
- 1 ½ cups water warmed to 90℉
- 3 cups + 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder can sub with 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or whatever kind you want – dark, milk, etc.)
Instructions
- Feed starter. The night before, feed your sourdough starter so you have 100 grams of active and bubbly starter the next day. Combine 30 grams of starter with 40 grams of unbleached all-purpose flour and 30 grams of filtered water.
- Autolyze. In a large bowl, add the active sourdough starter and water. Stir to combine. Next, add the all-purpose flour, stir to combine, and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a small bowl, add the whole wheat flour, salt, sugar, vanilla bean powder, and cocoa powder. Stir until fully combined.
- Make dough. Add the cocoa powder mixture to the flour/sourdough mixture, using a spatula to mix everything together. Once it gets too hard to use the spatula, turn the dough out onto a clean, dry surface and knead it to make sure everything is mixed in.
- Rest. Cover the bowl and let it sit covered for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold. Wet your hands with warm water, pick up one side of the dough, stretch, and fold it over. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times. Flip the dough over. Cover the dough and let it sit for 30 minutes. Repeat the stretch and folds 2 more times. (This dough is dryer, so it may not stretch out very far.)
- First rise. After the last stretch and fold session, cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature for 6-8 hours or until it has doubled in size.
- Add chocolate chips. Turn the dough out onto a clean, dry surface. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough by adding about a third at a time, gently folding the dough each time. (Try to avoid pressing too hard when folding so you don’t remove all of the air inside the dough.)
- Second rise. Shape the dough into a ball, then place it in a well-floured banneton and cover with plastic. Place it in the fridge for 10-12 hours (overnight is best).
- Preheat oven. Preheat the Dutch oven to 425℉ for a minimum of 30 minutes. (This helps make sure that the Dutch oven is at temperature.)
- Prep loaf. Take the dough out of the fridge and turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper or a silicone bread mat. Using a bread razor, score the dough down the center, shift the dough 90 degrees and score the dough again making a + sign or an X.
- Bake. Place the dough into the hot Dutch oven. Cover and bake at 425℉ for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and reduce the heat of the oven to 375℉. Bake for another 20 minutes.
- Cool and slice. Remove the bread from the oven and place it on a wire cooling rack. Let it cool completely (at least 1 hour) before cutting into it.
Notes
Nutrition
Love,
