Sourdough Chocolate Bread From Scratch
This sourdough chocolate bread tastes like a fudgy brownie and cake combined, deliciously moist with depths of chocolate in every bite. The fermentation process gives the bread a great flavor depth heightening the chocolate with the perfect balance of sweet that had my kids devouring it one day, you might want to double the recipe! Don't have a sourdough starter yet, snag my free series on How to Make a Homemade Sourdough Starter Here
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 cup fresh ground Spelt flour
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup raw cocoa powder
- 1 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup brewed coffee or espresso *
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Mix together sourdough starter and flour (*if using fresh ground spelt increase to 3/4 cup). For fully fermented allow to soak for 8 to 12 hours.
- Grease your 9x5 loaf pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a separate bowl, cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add in cocoa powder, applesauce, salt, sourdough and flour. Mix until fully combined.
- *If dough is stiff, add in brewed coffee/espresso.
- Add baking powder, baking soda and 3/4 cup of your chocolate chips (reserve a 1/4 to sprinkle on top of loaf), fold in until just combined, don't overmix.
- Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes in pan, then remove to cooling rack.
Notes
- Don't over bake. Each oven bakes slightly different, check your bread at 45 minutes. The two ways to tell if it's done, one is when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, the second is when the bread begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Full fermentation. If you want a fully fermented bread, mix the starter and flour 8 to 12 hours before you want to bake the bread (if you want to bake in the morning, do it the night before, if you want to bake it warm for supper, then mix the starter and flour in the morning).
- Don't add the baking powder and soda with other dry ingredients. When working with sourdough remember it is acidic so DON'T add your baking powder or soda until right before pouring into pan so the bread rises in the oven as it's baking, not while you're incorporating other ingredients into the dough.
- If experiencing unincorporated bits of dough from full ferment, add more water to starter and flour so it's wetter and easier to incorporate into liquids when making up the full recipe to avoid any flour spots inside the baked bread.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!