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This sourdough chocolate star bread combines a soft and buttery brioche dough with layers of rich chocolate spread, twisted into a beautiful pull-apart star shape that’s perfect for sharing. It looks impressive, but is surprisingly very beginner-friendly!
Why you’ll love this show stopping recipe!
Whether you’re baking for Christmas morning, Easter brunch, Valentine’s Day breakfast, or simply want a special weekend bake, this chocolate-filled sourdough star bread delivers maximum wow factor with minimal effort. I love using my homemade nutella recipe for the filling!
Each piece tears away into soft layers of buttery bread and melted chocolate that everyone will be reaching for. It’s perfect for taking along to a shared brunch, potluck dinner or picnic, no matter what the occasion!
Best of all, despite it looking incredibly fancy, it’s actually very easy to make and achievable, even if you’re a beginner baker.
Ingredients
- All-purpose Flour
- Sourdough Starter – You can use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard with some instant yeast to speed things along. It’s really up to you!
- Whole Milk – I recommend warming the milk a little bit to ensure the yeast in your sourdough starter are happy from the initial mix.
- Eggs – Large, room temperature eggs are best.
- Butter – I’ve used salted butter, softened at room temperature.
- Granulated Sugar
- Salt
- Nutella – I love using homemade nutella, but of course, store-bought hazelnut spread is perfectly fine too!
- Powdered Sugar – For dusting once baked.
How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Star Bread
This sourdough chocolate star bread is really easy to make, particularly if you make the dough using a stand mixer. This enriched dough is full of eggs, milk and butter which is easily kneaded using a stand mixer.
I have chosen to use sourdough discard and yeast when making this to take to a celebration as it makes the timing a little easier (you’ll find a true sourdough brioche dough here).
However, it works just as well as a true sourdough star bread – you’ll just need to allow for extended rising/fermentation times (you’ll find a suggested timeline for this further down).
Make The Dough
Add milk, sugar and yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until the sugar dissolves and the yeast is foamy. Now add your sourdough starter (or discard), flour and 2 eggs. Mix this into a rough dough. Allow this to sit for around 15 minutes.
Next, add the butter and salt and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. This shouldn’t take too long using the dough hook of your stand mixer. Try not to let the dough get too hot during this time. Once the dough is pulling away from the bowl, set it aside to double.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Texture of the Dough
The dough might appear quite dry before you add the butter, but don’t be tempted to add more liquid, it will soften up once the butter is added (just make sure the butter is at room temperature). The dough should not be sticky once it’s been kneaded. It should be silky and elastic. It’s beginner friendly and really easy to handle!
Cutting the Discs of Dough
Shaping this sourdough chocolate star bread might look complicated, but it’s actually really simple! You just need a small jar, a sharp knife and some patience! The best thing about this sourdough star bread is that it really doesn’t have to be perfect. You won’t see any mistakes because of all the twirls of chocolate!
Once the dough has doubled, divide it into 4 equal pieces and then roll those out into circles. Place the first circle onto a piece of parchment paper and spread it with 1/3 of the nutella. Place the next disc on top and spread that with nutella. Repeat for the third piece of dough. Then place the fourth disc of dough on top creating a stack. Press it down gently with a rolling pin and then place a jam jar at the centre of the dough.
Shape The Sourdough Chocolate Star Bread
Once you’ve layered the discs of dough with the nutella spread between, place a small jar in the centre of the dough stack. Using a knife, carefully make four cuts to divide the dough into quarters. Now make a cut in the centre of those four cuts so you have 8 pieces of dough. Now carefully make a cut between each of those so that you end up with 16 pieces. Take two pieces of dough and twist them outwards away from each other. They should go around twice and then join them back together to form a point. Repeat this 7 more times to create the points of the star.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Cold Fermentation
Once shaped, the sourdough chocolate star can be placed into the fridge to pause it prior to baking (make sure your fridge is 4ºC or colder). If you’re using commercial yeast with your discard, you could leave it in the fridge for around 12 hours. If using active starter sourdough 24 hours would be ok.
Baking Timeline
If you are making this sourdough star bread as a true sourdough bread (that is without any commercial yeast) you’ll need to create a timeline to manage it.
Here’s a suggested timeline that works for me when making it. Just remember that your bulk ferment time will depend on the strength of your starter and the temperature of your home. Enriched dough with butter, milk and eggs will take longer to rise.
| 8.00am | Mix and knead brioche dough for sourdough star bread. |
| 9.00am | Cover dough and allow to bulk ferment. |
| 5.30pm | Roll out dough, spread filling and cut/shape into star. |
| 6.00pm | Allow start to sit for around an hour before covering in plastic wrap and placing into fridge for the night. |
| 6.30am | Take star out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. |
| 8.00am | Bake bread for 25 – 30 mins. |
What Other Fillings Work Best?
If you’re not a fan of nutella, or just don’t have any on hand, here are some different ideas for filling your sourdough star bread:
- Your favorite fruit jam (raspberry or strawberry jam, apricot, cranberry orange jam and blueberry work really well). You might also like to try this sourdough brioche braided wreath with fresh raspberries orange glaze. It’s made from the same dough as this sourdough star.
- Lemon curd or lemon butter
- Spread the dough with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or you could also use the filling from these sourdough cinnamon rolls.
- You could add the filling from these sourdough gingerbread rolls.
- For an extra decadence, you could sprinkle the baked sourdough star bread with powdered sugar and crushed and roasted hazelnuts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely you can make this ahead of time. You can either shape the sourdough chocolate star bread and then place it into the fridge overnight before baking the next day. Or you can bake the star bread, allow it to cool and freeze it until you need it.
Yes, you can refrigerate the sourdough chocolate star bread overnight. I recommend refrigerating for around 12 hours if you’re using commercial yeast or up to 24 hours if you’re using active starter.
You can freeze this sourdough chocolate star bread. Bake as per instructions and then allow it cool fully before placing into a large resealable plastic bag or wrapping in aluminum foil and freezing for up to 3 months.
Yes, you can use sweet or savory fillings for this sourdough star bread. Sweet fillings like strawberry jam, lemon curd or cinnamon-sugar mixture. Savory inclusions like pesto, butter and parmesan cheese, fresh or dried herbs or garlic butter.
Just like making a sourdough loaf, your sourdough star bread needs either an active sourdough starter that’s fed and bubbly. If you’re using sourdough discard, you’ll need a little commercial yeast to help things along. Keeping your dough warm during fermentation and rise time is important for this loaf.
More Sourdough Chocolate Recipes
Sourdough Chocolate Star Bread
Ingredients
- 540 g All-purpose Flour
- 100 g Sourdough Starter, can use discard
- 7 g Instant Yeast, optional
- 200 g Whole Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 100 g Butter, room temp
- 50 g Sugar
- 10 g Salt
- 200 g Nutella
- 1 Egg + 1 Tbsp water, For egg wash
- Powdered Sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Add the sugar, yeast and milk together and mix until the sugar has dissolved into the milk. Make sure that the milk is room temp.
- Add the sourdough starter, flour and eggs to the bowl and mix into a rough dough. Allow it to sit for 15 minutes.Don't worry if the mix appears dry, it will soften up once you add the butter.
- Now add the room temperature butter and salt and knead it into the dough until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Once the dough is smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, set it aside to rise. You want the dough to double in size.
- Once the dough has doubled, divide it into four equal pieces. The easiest way to do this is to weigh the dough and divide it by four – weighing will give you a better end result. I divided my dough into 4 equal portions of 270g.
- Form each quarter of dough into a ball. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before rolling each ball out into a disc. If the dough resists at any stage, just let it rest for 10 minutes so the gluten can relax.I found that it is easy to stretch the dough over a dinner plate to shape it. The dough is elastic and should not be sticky so this is possible.Each disc should be around 25 to 30 cm across (10 – 11-inches).
- Once you have four discs, lay out a sheet of parchment paper on a round pizza tray or flat cookie sheet and place one of the discs of dough in the middle.It's really important that the tray you use has no lip or it can cause the star to become misshapen.
- Spread this with ⅓ of the nutella.
- Lay the second disc on top and spread that with another ⅓ of nutella.
- Now lay the third disc on top and spread it with the remaining nutella and place the forth disc on top.So you should have 4 layers of dough with 3 layers of nutella in between.
- Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes and then roll it out slightly using a rolling pin to ensure that all of the filling is spread evenly and the dough is cohesive.
- Now, place a small glass jar at the centre of the dough.
- Using a knife, you want to make 16 cuts in the dough to form 16 pieces of dough to twist. To do this easily, use your knife to cut the dough into 4 even quarters, making sure that you only cut up to the jar edge. Now cut make a cut in the middle of each quarter and then a cut between each of those – making 16 cuts in total.I've put a full color pictorial in the blog post above.
- Take two pieces of dough and twist them away from each other, joining the back together at the top. Repeat this 7 more times to create 8 twists of dough revealing the nutella and making a pretty star.
- Allow the star to proof for around 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
- Apply egg wash to the entire star using a pastry brush and bake at 180ºC/350ºF for around 25 – 30 minutes. The dough has a lot of butter, milk and sugar so you will need to keep an eye on it as it will burn easily (see cooking notes below as cooking time can vary depending on your oven).
- The star is cooked when the dough is golden brown.
- Take the star out of the oven and allow it to cool slightly before dusting with icing sugar. Best eaten warm!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
This looks amazing! Is there a way to veganize the recipe? I am allergic to milk and eggs. I could sub a different milk. Just not positive it would turn out with an egg substitute?
Hi Amanda, Many readers have said they used plant based milk, plant based butter, an egg substitute, and a vegan chocolate cream substitute for the Nutella with great results. 🙂
Incredible!!! I use several Pantry Mama recipes as my baking staples, but this one is insanely good. I tried it last week as written, and wow. My husband asked if I could make it again but with a cinnamon filling. I subbed the Nutella for a cinnamon roll filling and drizzled with vanilla glaze… OMG. Absolutely incredible!!! Best thing I have eaten, I think, truly.
Thank you Pantry Mama for such amazing, fool-proof recipes! 😁🫶
Thanks again for another great recipe, first time baking this, came out perfectly, so pleased, will bake again trying a savoury version.
Kept dough in fridge overnight and brought back to room temperature before shaping etc
So glad you enjoyed this one, Paul! Thank you so much for your review.
Hi! I am from SE Florida. We love this recipe. Although I find the dough very soft and sometimes difficult to cut through and twist. I follow the discard option. Any tips?
You might need to adjust the hydration to suit your flour, try reducing the liquid just a little 🙂
I am planning to make this for Christmas. Can I make this a day ahead and heat it up the day of? What’s the best way to make this ahead?
You can shape it and then hold it in the fridge overnight 🙂 Or bake and then reheat the next day, that’s fine too 🙂 Either way works for this dough 🙂
Great recipe! I made it last year and again today. My kid asked for it so many times leading up to Christmas! Haha
Anyway, our Christmas plans abruptly changed so now instead of serving the bread tomorrow (Thursday) it has to wait until Saturday! Should I freeze it? Has anyone tried that? My plans weren’t changed until after I’d finished making this. 😩
I’m so glad you love the recipe, yes just freeze it and then thaw at room temperature before warming in the oven 🙂
It was absolutely gorgeous.
I only give it 4 stars because it was only very good when warm out of the oven, which she states in the recipe too