Chocolate Sourdough Discard Loaf Recipe

This simple chocolate sourdough discard bread is a great recipe to have in your repertoire. It can be made with regular sourdough discard or a chocolate sourdough discard starter.

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Keyword Sourdough Discard

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Fermentation Time 1

Total Time 2

Servings Loaf

Calories 1870kcal

Equipment

Mixing Bowl
Dutch Oven

Ingredients

450 g Bread Flour
100 g Sourdough Discard Can be regular discard or chocolate starter discard
360 g Water Warm
40 g Sugar
30 g Cocoa Powder
100 g Chocolate Chips
10 g Salt
7 g Instant Yeast

Instructions

Take a clean ceramic or glass bowl and add all ingredients to the bowl (including the chocolate chips and any other additions you'd like).
Use a wooden chopstick or end of a wooden spoon to gently bring all the ingredients together into a shaggy dough. I also find a silicon dough scraper is really good for this stage - it allows you to clean the sides of the bowl as you mix. You don't need to it be fully smooth, just ensure that all of the flour & cocoa powder is wet.
Cover the bowl in cling film and set it somewhere warm for 1 - 2 hours. It really depends on the temperature of your house with this one. If your house is warm, 1 hour will be plenty. In the depths of winter or with air con, you may need more than 2 hours. You just want it to double in size, no more or it won't rise in the oven.
Around 45 minutes before you want to put your bread into the oven, you'll need to put a dutch oven into the oven and preheat it to around 220C/430F. A round Dutch Oven is perfect for this recipe.
Once your dough has doubled in size, grab a piece of parchment paper and lay it out on your counter. Sprinkle on a few tablespoons of rice flour or fine semolina flour (this is just so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands). Pop this aside for now - you'll need it once your dough is shaped.
NOTE - If you are wanting to put your bread in the refrigerator to bake another time (usually within 24 hours) then just pop the cling film over the bowl of doubled dough and put in the fridge. You don't need to do anything to the dough before it goes in.
Use a silicone dough scraper to scrape the dough out of the bowl and flip it onto a floured surface (the counter is fine).
If it's not too wet, use the flour and your finger tips to gently bring it into a round shape - you will need to pull each side over each other to do this. If your dough is too wet - don't fret, just try and bring it into some kind of shape without getting too messy. Use a metal dough scraper to move the dough to the parchment paper. Don't stress too much - this bread is a rustic loaf.
Using a lame or razor, score the top of the dough - a cross or single line is perfectly fine.
Carefully take your dutch oven out of the oven and remove the lid. Use the parchment or baking paper as a handle to gently place your discard bread inside the pot and put the lid back on.
Bake in the oven, with the lid on for 30 minutes at 220C/430F. Then remove the lid of the pot and bake for a further 10 minutes at 200C/390F. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Try to let it cool for at least an hour before cutting it. It will still taste great if you cut it hot, but it's so much easier to cut if you let it cool!

Nutrition