Chocolate Sourdough Bread

This chocolate sourdough bread is rich, airy, and absolutely delicious. With a few ingredients and 2 quick folds, this bread is an easy treat to practice baking with sourdough starter. After you’ve made it once, you’ll be addicted!

At a neighborhood grocery store, we love to buy chocolate sourdough bread. When we were little, it made the perfect snack to serve at tea parties, especially when topped with cream cheese! Now that we bake our own sourdough bread though, I’ve wanted to try making my own chocolate sourdough loaf. The results were incredibly yummy!

Using my Overnight Sourdough Bread recipe as a base, I added in cocoa powder and chocolate chips to create a double chocolate loaf. The folding and shaping processes are exactly the same, so if you’ve made the original bread, you’ll be great at making this version. Read on to make some for yourself!

Is sourdough bread very healthy?

Sourdough starter breaks down the effectively breaks down gluten in flour, which makes it easier for our bodies to digest. In fact, people with gluten-sensitivities often find that sourdough bread doesn’t bother their stomachs the way traditional bread does. 

Furthermore, because the bacteria in sourdough starter breaks down the sugars in flour, sourdough bread has a lower glycemic index. This means that it doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar the way regular bread does. Overall, sourdough bread is a healthier choice for your digestive system.

Tips for making Chocolate Sourdough Bread:

• To find videos of how to fold this bread, check out the Overnight Sourdough Bread recipe. I fold the bread exactly the same.
• Try to keep the chocolate chunks on the inside of the bread dough when you fold and shape it. If the chocolate chunks are on the outside of the bread when it bakes, they will get slightly burnt.
• Proofing times will vary based on the season. In the summer, 12 hours can sometimes be too much for the first proof whereas in the winter your bread may need longer. To make sure it has proofed properly, poke the dough with your index finger. If it springs back, your dough is ready.
• This bread is best if eaten within 3 days of baking. To keep it fresh, wrap it in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
• Of course, you can eat this bread plain and it will taste amazing, but it also is great with cream cheese, jam, butter, or peanut butter.

Tools you will need

You will need two bowls, a dutch oven, parchment paper, a food scale, and a knife to score your bread. A rack would also be helpful to let your bread cool on.

Ingredients you will need

To make this chocolate sourdough bread, you only need a few ingredients:

• 3 cups flour – All-purpose flour works well for this.
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder – You can use regular or black unsweetened cocoa powder. The black cocoa powder will make your bread really dark though!
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter – Make sure it’s bubbly!
• 1 cup dark chocolate chunks – Or chocolate chips! If you need to make this recipe dairy-free, use vegan chocolate chips.
• 1 tbsp honey – Or maple syrup.
• 1 tsp vanilla – You can’t bake something chocolatey without adding a little vanilla. 🙂
• 1/2 tsp salt – Just a little bit makes a huge difference!
• 2 cups water

How to make Chocolate Sourdough Bread:

The night before: Mix the flour, cocoa powder, sourdough starter, salt, and water in a bowl. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Uncover the bread dough and wet your hands. Starting at the edges of the bowl, grab the dough and bring to the middle. Repeat this, working your way around the edges of the bowl to fold it to the center. Stop once it forms a ball. Cover and let rest another 15 minutes.

Repeat the folding process and then cover the bread dough. Let rise overnight.

In the morning: Line a bowl with parchment paper and sprinkle some cocoa powder in the bottom of the bowl.

Wet your hands and loosen the dough from the sides of the bowl. Lift the dough out of the bowl and fold the ends underneath to form a square.

Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat this folding process. Rotate again and repeat one more time. Lift the bread dough into the bowl with parchment paper or a banneton basket and sprinkle a bit of flour on top.

Refrigerate the bread dough for at least 1 hour. I’ve found that refrigerating the bread for 4 hours before baking it gives it the perfect oven spring, but you can do more or less time as you like.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a dutch oven in the oven as it preheats.

Once the oven is heated, remove the bread from the fridge and score it using a knife or small blade. If you used a banneton basket, first transfer the loaf to a sheet of parchment paper, then score it. Grab the edges of the parchment paper and lift the bread into the dutch oven. Place the lid on top and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the lid from the dutch oven, turn the temperature down to 450 degrees, and bake for another 12 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Place on a rack to cool the rest of the way. Try to wait 1 hour before cutting it! (If you can’t, I totally understand though!) Enjoy your chocolate sourdough bread!

Looking for more sourdough recipes?

If so, check out the Kitchen Counter for a variety of yummy sourdough treats. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Sourdough English Muffins
• Sourdough Chocolate Babka
• Sourdough Donuts
• Sourdough Bagel Bites