Best Delicious and Easy Chocolate Sourdough Noir Recipe

This chocolate sourdough bread recipe ticks all the boxes: soft, chewy, and full of incredible chocolate flavor! It uses an active sourdough starter to naturally leaven the dough, which comes together by hand in under 10 minutes.

Prep Time:	10 Minutes
Cook Time:	1 hour
Total Time	1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 150g Bubbly, active sourdough starter
• 350g Water, Preferably Filtered
• 50g Sugar (Vanilla Sugar is nice)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
• 500g Bread Flour
• 50g Cocoa Powder

• 9g Fine Sea Salt
• 65g Chopped Walnuts
• 65g Raisins
• 150g Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• Powdered Sugar For Decoration

* I used Hershey’s Special Dark, a blend of natural and Dutch process cocoas

** You will need a 6-quart Dutch oven for baking

Instructions

Make Fresh dough

In a large bowl, combine the water, sugar, and vanilla. Shake with a fork. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder and add to the bowl. Squeeze everything together with your hands until all the dough is absorbed. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour. Note: Use this time to roast the raisins in a spray of vanilla extract for added flavor (optional).

In flour, we will add salt, walnuts, raisins, and chocolate chips. Lift and fold the dough over yourself several times and squish with your hands to add. As you’re connecting The dough will crack a little. Don’t worry – this is normal. Work the dough in the best way until it comes back into a rough ball.

bulk rise

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and clean kitchen towels. Leave it in a warm place to rise. Your dough is ready at this time. This is when it no longer looks dense and its volume has increased by about 1.1 ⁄ 2-2 times its original size. It can take anywhere from 10 hours @68 F. 5-6 hours @75 F; 3-4 hours @80 F depending on the temperature of your components, the strength of your starter, and the surrounding environment. (* * See note below) Optional step: For about 30 minutes at the beginning of the bulk rise, you can spread and fold the dough.

Stretch and fold: To strengthen your dough, do a series of stretches and folds every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours of bulk fermentation. Just gather a portion of the dough, pull it upwards, and then fold it over yourself. Turn the bowl 1 ⁄ 4 and repeat until you’re in a full circle. You will have completed 4 times. Try to keep the filling in the dough and not on the outside. This will prevent it from burning.

Shape the Dough

To cut and shape the dough, divide your work surface in half; leave one side light dough (for cutting) and the other half clean (for shaping). Remove the dough from the pan and place it on the floor. You don’t have to ‘knead’ the dough; as you connect it and shape it. It will slowly fade away. Cut the dough in half to make 2 loaves, or leave it whole for one loaf. To shape, use a bench scraper to move your dough to the non-dough part (it will be difficult to shape if there is any dough – clean up any excess), collect the dough one at a time, and fold it in the middle. Roll out the dough and place it down the side of the seam.

Using your hands, gently cup the sides of the dough and rotate it using a quarter turn in a circular motion. You can also pull it towards you to equalize its shape. Repeat this process until you are happy with the result.

Second Rise

Place the dough into a cloth-lined 8-inch bowl or floured/lined proofing basket. It will need to rise again, about 30 minutes to 1 hour. It is ready when the dough is slightly puffy, but not double in size.

Towards the end of the second rise preheat your oven to 400 F. Cut a sheet of non-stick parchment paper to fit the size of your baking pot, leaving enough excess around the sides to remove the bread. 

Score Dough

Place the skins on top of the dough and turn the bowl over to release. Using a lame, small, serrated knife or razor blade tip of bread, make four shallow 4-inch long cuts around the dough at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock. Use parchment paper to transfer the dough into a baking dish.

cook the dough

Place the bread in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid, and continue to cook (uncovered) for another 40 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of baking, open the oven door. This allows the moisture to escape. And leaves your bread with a crispy crust. You can also take the internal temperature of your bread twice to check that it is done. For sourdough, it should read about 205 F.

Cool down.

Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before cutting. Wash with powdered sugar before serving.

Since sourdough does not contain commercial fermentation, it takes much longer to grow. In the summer months, it can take anywhere between 3-4 hours @85 F. Whereas in winter, about 8-12 + hours @65 F. In the winter, I make my dough in the afternoon and leave it to rise overnight at room temperature. In the warmer months, I ferment in large quantities. Put it in the fridge to reduce the time.