This double chocolate espresso sourdough bread hits the spot in every way, for every occasion, even for those of us who *gasp* don’t like chocolate!
Double Chocolate Espresso Sourdough Bread Recipe
- 100g room temperature espresso (brewed either as espresso or as regular coffee)
- 230g water
- 100g active sourdough starter
- 10g salt
- 15g 100% dark unsweetened cacao powder
- 500g organic unbleached AP flour (or bread flour)
- 1 C or 4 handfulls of semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
This recipe makes one loaf of heaven, I mean, bread…
- Combine water and espresso.
- Add active starter to your espresso water, and swish until dissolved.
- Add salt, cacao, and flour, and combine into a shaggy dough. Then allow to sit for 15-30 minutes covered at room temperature.
- With wet hands, do a stretch and fold every 15 minutes for an hour. If you don’t time it or forget to do enough of these, don’t sweat it.
- With wet hands to 2-4 sets of coil folds ever 15 minutes for up to an hour. Then cover loosely and rest on the counter for the rest of the bulk ferment, until the dough has almost doubled.
- When dough has risen sufficiently, turn dough out onto the counter and gently spread it out into a rectangle.
- Sprinkle chocolate chips or chunks evenly across the dough.
- Fold over the dough from both sides into the middle like a trifold brochure. Then sprinkle some more chocolate on the top.
- Roll the dough down lengthwise until it forms a ball with all the chocolate chips on the inside. Use the countertop and your hands to pull some tension into the dough. Do this VERY gently as the chocolate chunks will begin to poke through the bread. If they begin to pop out, let the dough rest for a few minutes and then build a little more tension. (Chocolate that pokes out becomes extra delicious during baking so don’t sweat it!)
- When enough tension is built, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour (or more cocoa powder if you want it dark) and then turn top down into a banneton basket. Cover, and refrigerate for at least three hours, but preferably up to 12. I have gone as far as 24 hours with delicious results.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat your dutch oven inside the oven to 500F until an oven thermometer reads that the oven is 500F. No need to heat for a whole hour.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and turn it out onto a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking sling, score it with whatever pattern or expansion score you like, and place it into the preheated dutch oven.
- Bake at 500F for 27 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes at 450F. I also place an empty baking sheet on the rack below my dutch oven to prevent the bottom from getting too dark too fast.
- Remove from the oven and place on a baking rack to cool for at least 2 hours before cutting.
This bread is BEST enjoyed sliced thickly and toasted with copious amounts of butter slathered into the chocolate. Alternatively, toast it and dip it into a hot cup of black coffee for a semisweet kick of chocolate.
There is no wrong way to enjoy this bread, but “too soon” and “too cold” do take away from it’s perfection.
