Darkness in the morning. Darkness in the early evening. Sun is on vacation. Temperature descending. Shirt-time is over. Fog and rain retaking over the reins. Our mood? We are going straight through a low patch. STOP IT!
Damn it! What cheers up a real breadaholic? A new recipe!
Sweet Dreams
Let’s go further…what is the best soulfood against late fall – and early winter depression? Chocolate! And… as we don’t set any creative borders here on #brotokoll, we combine a real „breadolate“ pleasure and name it: Sweet Dreams!
Whenever chocolate is the answer – the question is not important (from: unknown)
Incorporating chocolate into a beautiful bread loaf isn’t something new. There are plenty recipes, covering this idea. So what’s so special about it?
Sweet Dreams is part of our #brotokoll Open crumb Sourdough Series. Hence: Sweet & Sour (but don’t even think about chinese food now).
The highlight of the recipe is the sourdough itself. This one is more than extraordinary: because it is a chocolate sourdough! You haven’t ever heard about it? Well, now the time has come…

Schoko-Sauerteig bei der Fütterung
Vanessa Kimbell
The credits for building the chocolate sourdough go straight to the amazing Vanessa Kimbell, who is featuring the whole procedure in her book „The Sourdough School: The Ground-breaking Guide to Making Gut-friendly Bread“.
Watch out for this great literature – I fully recommend it to any sourdough lover out there (and I do this without any affiliate cooperation with Vanessa Kimbell).
Interested in learning more about Vanessa’s sourdough knowledge base, her courses and books? Check out the Sourdough Club and her Instagram profiles (@vanessakimbell or @sourdoughclub).
A big thank you to Vanessa for her permission to integrate the chocolate-sourdough preparation into my Sweet Dreams recipe.
Chocolate Sourdough
* The very special thing about chocolate sourdough is that the starter is fed with chocolate (more precisely: with raw cocoa) and sugar. Last one is used for the development of osmotolerant yeast, which has enough power to ferment even in sweeter doughs.
The used water has a temperature of 36 degrees Celsius, simulating the „tropical“ surroundings for our raw cocoa’s fermentation, which ends up with an enhanced and amazing flavor. (* compare: Vanessa Kimbell | The Sourdough School: The Groudbreaking Guide to Making Gut-friendly Bread)
Superfood for super mood
* While talking about health (raw cocoa is full of a great range of homofermentative LAB), you can even get more out of this so called super food. How? Combining it with ingredients, featuring a high portion of antioxidants (compare: study- John Finley | Louisiana State University | runnersworld.de). Searched & Found!
Foodstar Bilberry
So here we go: Bilberries are building a perfect harmony with our Sweet Dreams’ touch of chocolate. On top: highly addictive hazelnuts from Piedmont, Italy. And last but not least: cocoa nibs, chocolate, chili and cinnamon flower. Are you dreaming already?
Sweet Dreams & Happy Baking
Tutorial
Starting with the right flour choice until the final shaping of your dough: don’t miss my Open crumb sourdough tutorial. HERE is everything you need to know for your personal Open crumb ride.
Sourdough
It is extremely important that your chocolate sourdough (after having been initially built according to the recipe) is fed 3-4 times, before builidng the levain (the last feeding). Have a look at the Tutorial-Video.
For the first 3 feedings, work just with very small quantities of flour and the according ratios of starter, flour, water, cocoa and sugar. All produced discards can be perfectly used for making flavorful Fleur de Levain. HERE is the instruction guide.
Observe your sourdough – and try to estimate the time it needs to rise until it’s peak at a certain feeding ratio. On your baking day, you’ll use your levain on the young side (4-4,5 hours young). This favors both, open crumb and ovenspring.
Go for it!
Ready, set crumb! Enjoy your Open Crumb adventure!
- 234 g Breadflour available at bongu.de
- 22 g Swiss dark flour available at bongu.de
- 30 g Einkorn whole grain flour
- 46 g Chocolate-levain see recipe instructions
- 183 g Water cold
- 48 g Bilberries mashed
- 1 tsp Cinnamon flower milled
- 1 tsp Cocoa nibs chopped
- 1 tsp Honey
- 1 pinch Chili milled
- 35 g Piedmond hazelnuts, milled available at bongu.de
- 35 g Chocolate with high cocoa % chopped
- 6,5 g Salt
TA (Hydration) 182 (82%) Ingredients
|
37,5g Wheat flour
12,5g Raw cocoa, milled
5g Coconut blossom sugar
50g Water, 36 degrees Celsius
Mix all ingredients and let the sourdough ferment in a high bin or container until it reaches it's peak (at this first transformation, this step may take 6-10 hours). After this step your sourdough has to be fed and refreshed 3-4 times - for the last feeding (to build your levain) apply a ratio of 1:2:2 (Starter: Flour : Water) and skip both sugar and cocoa.
Use your levain at an age of 4 to max. 4,5 hours (let it rise at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees Celsius). I highly recommend using the same flour for building the levain, as you are using it for your usual sourdough feeding.
Exceeding amount of the levain building process can be stored in your fridge. Make sure to feed it 1-2 times a week (as described above for the first transformation with cocoa and sugar) in order to maintain your chocolate sourdough. It is really worth doing that!
22g Swiss dark flour
30g Einkorn whole grain flour
183g Water (cold)
48g Bilberries (mashed)
1ts Cinnamon flower, milled
1ts Honey
Mix all the flour with the indicated amount of water, mashed bilberries, cinnamon flower and honey and let the dough rest well covered for 2-3 hours at room-temperature (Autolyse).
46g Chocolate-Levain
6,5g Salt
Add your levain to the autolyse dough and mix it by hand for 5-10 minutes (follow the instruction-video in the basics-section: Basics | Open Crumb - Sourdough Series | Kneading). Cover the dough and let it rest for 20-30 minutes. Now add the salt and knead another 2-3 minutes. Put the dough into a greased container and let it rest well covered for 1 hour at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees (the temperature should stay at that level during the whole bulk fermentation).
35g Chocolate with high cocoa %, grated
1ts Cocoa nibs, chopped
1 pinch of chili, milled
Moisten your working surface with water, release the dough onto the surface and laminate (follow the instruction-video in the basics-section: Basics | Open Crumb - Sourdough Series | Lamination). Before you fold the dough during the lamination, sprinkle the dough with the mixture of chocolate, cocoa nibs, hazelnuts and chili. Return the dough into the greased container and let it rest for 45 minutes. Perform a light set of stretch & folds and let it rest again for 45-60 minutes. Lightly stretch and fold again and let the dough ferment until it achieves a volume increase of approximately 30-50%.
The indicated recipe quantities are for 1 loaf of 645g.
Do you have specific questions or issues? Contact me via the contact form. I am happy to help you.