How To Add Chocolate To Your Sourdough

Once you have gotten the hang of making homemade sourdough bread, the next question is how to customize a basic loaf and infuse it with other flavors. Your brain might immediately skew to savory ingredients like jalapenos, cheese, or herbs, but sourdough also makes a fantastic sweet loaf, and specifically, a chocolate one.

Making chocolate sourdough bread only requires minor changes to the basic recipe. It will not be as rich as a pastry or chocolate brioche, which is fortified with butter and eggs, but a bread with a sweet profile. To make the entire loaf chocolate, add unsweetened cocoa powder to the flour. Because cocoa is acidic and sharp, a little goes a long way. Too much can inhibit the yeast from growing or make the bread unpalatable. To counter the intensity, add a small amount of sugar to keep the flavors balanced. For little nuggets of chocolate throughout, add chocolate chips (these are our recommendations) or chopped chocolate to the dough. Chocolate can be added either before the bread begins its first rise, called bulk fermentation, or later in the process when the bread is shaped.

To add from the beginning, knead the chips into the dough after working in the sourdough starter. To add during shaping, stretch the dough into rectangles and top with chocolate. Fold in thirds, add more chocolate and then roll it up. Tighten into a ball for a boule or pinch the ends for a rectangular loaf.

If infusing the entire loaf with chocolate, make sure to whisk the cocoa into the flour thoroughly to eliminate any lumps, or sift it in. Both natural unsweetened and unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa can be used, depending on personal preference. When adding chocolate chips, consider whether you are making one loaf or a large batch. Adding chocolate during shaping allows you to split the neutral base dough and flavor each loaf differently. If including chocolate from the beginning, before the dough rises, mix it in well so the chocolate disperses evenly and doesn't clump into only one or two areas in the bread.

When it comes time to bake, watch the time and technique because burnt chocolate is not the end goal. Placing an empty baking sheet on the oven rack under your bread will help diffuse the direct heat of the oven and prevent a dark bottom. And to ensure your bread is well baked but not in the oven longer than necessary, use a thermometer to take its internal temperature, aiming for around 205 degrees F.