Chocolate Sourdough Bread

Chocolate sourdough bread is one of the most satisfying loaves you can make with an active starter. It leans savory as much as sweet, with deep cocoa, coffee, and dark chocolate woven through every slice.

“I was nervous this would taste like dessert bread, but it is much more complex than that. The coffee really deepens the chocolate flavor without making it sweet, and the crust was beautiful to score and it puffed and baked so beautifully, not what I was expecting from a chocolate sourdough!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Margot

Testing this bread was one of the more obsessive recipe development stretches I have had in a while. This chocolate sourdough bread is robust, tangy, and deeply chocolatey—without ever tipping into bitterness. The secret is using cocoa powder in the dough (never in the preferment!) and a splash of coffee to amplify all that chocolate flavor.

With a crackly crust and chewy, soft interior, this loaf walks the line between savory and treat, especially when you fold in chocolate chips and toasted pecans. It is a loaf that earns a place at the cheese board or the breakfast table with equal confidence, and it also happens to make a spectacular sourdough bread bowl or this cinnamon raisin sourdough if you want to take it somewhere unexpected.

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Active Sourdough Starter: This is the natural leavening agent for the entire loaf, providing rise and the characteristic tang that makes this bread complex rather than one-dimensional. Your starter needs to be active and recently fed, not discard. If you are still building a consistent starter routine, my same day sourdough bread recipe walks through how to read starter activity before mixing.
• Warm Coffee: Coffee blooms the cocoa powder and deepens the chocolate flavor in a way that water simply cannot replicate. If you cannot use coffee, a combination of water and high-quality coffee extract or instant espresso can work.
• Bread Flour: Bread flour provides the higher protein content this loaf needs for gluten development, giving the crumb its chewy, open structure. Substituting all-purpose flour will produce a softer, less chewy result and may affect how much the loaf rises.
• Cocoa Powder: This is what gives the loaf its deep color and rich, savory chocolate flavor. Standard (not Dutch-processed) cocoa works with no change to process, but the loaf will bake up lighter in color, slightly more bitter, and less richly chocolatey just like when making this chocolate bread. Do not add cocoa to the preferment the night before. Testing showed that fermenting the cocoa in the biga produced a tighter crumb and, counterintuitively, a weaker chocolate flavor. Adding it to the final dough mixes more easily and delivers a noticeably richer result.
• Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds a gentle sweetness that keeps the loaf from tasting purely bitter or savory. It is not enough to push this toward dessert territory, which is exactly the point.
• Dark Chocolate, Chopped or Chips:These add pockets of melted chocolate throughout the crumb and reinforce the cocoa flavor. If you love chocolate bread, make sure you try this chocolate chip bread next! Do not increase the amount.
• Pecans, Lightly Toasted: Toasted pecans add texture and a nutty bitterness that balances the chocolate. Toasting them before mixing is worth the extra step since raw pecans taste flat by comparison.

Variations for Chocolate Sourdough Bread

• Nuts Swapped for Dried Cherries: Replace the pecans with an equal weight of dried tart cherries for a classic chocolate-cherry flavor profile. The cherries add a fruity acidity that cuts through the cocoa, complementing the sourdough tang.
• Sweet Chocolate Version: Use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chips instead of dark chocolate to pull the loaf toward dessert territory. This pairs well with a spread of mascarpone or cream cheese rather than savory toppings.
• No Mix-Ins. Omit both the pecans and chocolate chips entirely and bake the loaf as a pure cocoa-and-coffee sourdough, which is how I tested it at first. The base loaf holds its own beautifully and has a cleaner, more savory chocolate flavor.
• Change the mix-ins! Maybe if you want to go in more dessert territory. You could swap the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips and add roasted peanuts for a chocolate and peanut butter loaf, and if you love chocolate and peanut butter, be sure to check out these Revel bars!

Professional Tips for Perfect Chocolate Sourdough Bread

• Proof at room temperature, not in a warm oven. I normally use my oven’s proof box setting for efficiency, but this dough needs to stay cool enough that the chocolate chips hold their shape. A warm environment will melt the chips into the dough during bulk fermentation, weakening the structure and muddying the crumb. Room temperature, ideally between 70 and 75°F, is the right environment here.
• Do not rush fermentation because of the cocoa. Cocoa powder noticeably slows fermentation, so the bulk proof will take longer than you might expect in other sourdough recipes. Wait until the dough has visibly doubled and feels light and slightly domed before moving on, and use essential sourdough tools for baking like a clear, straight-sided container to track the rise accurately.
• Score at a 45-degree angle with overlapping edges. A straight down score traps the rise and produces a tight loaf. Cutting a square pattern at 45 degrees, with the blade angled rather than vertical, gives the dough room to bloom upward and outward as it bakes in the Dutch oven.
• Keep the cocoa out of the preferment, no matter what. Fermenting the cocoa powder in the overnight biga produced a tighter crumb and a weaker chocolate flavor in testing. If you have sourdough discard on hand and are curious about other ways to use your starter, my ultimate sourdough discard recipes roundup covers a wide range of options, but for this loaf, the cocoa belongs in the final dough only.
• Do not increase the chocolate beyond the listed amount. Testing with 200g of chocolate caused it to work into the dough, break down gluten structure, and produce a gummy, dense crumb, especially as the dough warmed during bulk fermentation.

How to Make Chocolate Sourdough Bread

Use these instructions to make a deeply chocolatey, crackly-crusted sourdough loaf with a soft and chewy interior. Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Build the sourdough starter the night before you plan to mix your dough. Set a clean jar or container on a kitchen scale and zero it out, then add the water, active sourdough starter, and all-purpose flour. Stir well until no dry spots remain. The mixture will look thin and a little lumpy at first, which is completely normal. Cover loosely and let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours. By morning, it should have more than doubled in volume and look bubbly and active.

Step 2: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the sourdough build, warm coffee, bread flour, cocoa powder, light brown sugar, and salt. Mix on low speed until everything comes together into a shaggy mass. (photos 1 & 2)

The dough will look dark, rough, and a little mottled at this stage. Do not panic — that is just the cocoa powder distributing unevenly at first.

Step 3: Increase to medium speed and mix for about 5 minutes to develop the gluten. The surface of the dough will transform from mottled and rough to smooth and elastic, though the cocoa powder means you will not get a perfect windowpane (when the dough stretches thin without tearing) the way you would with a plain loaf. A smooth, stretchy surface that springs back when poked is your cue that the gluten is developed. The dough will still feel slightly sticky, and that is fine. (photo 3)

Step 4: Add the pecans and chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips. Mix on low speed until just incorporated, about 1 to 2 minutes. You can do this step by hand if you prefer, but this dough is sticky enough that the mixer genuinely makes it easier. (photo 4)

Step 5: Lightly oil a medium mixing bowl. Scrape the dough into the bowl using a bowl scraper or stiff spatula, clean as much dough from your hands as you can, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set the bowl in a cool spot in your kitchen for the bulk fermentation. (photo 5)

Do not proof this dough in a warm place. I normally use my oven’s proof box setting for efficiency, but with this dough I proof at room temperature so the chocolate chips do not melt into the dough and compromise the structure. A spot around 70-75°F is ideal.

Step 6: After about 1 hour, fold the dough using lightly oiled hands. Slide your fingers under one side of the dough, stretch it up gently, and fold it over itself toward the center. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat, working your way around all four sides. The dough will feel a little slack and extensible at this stage — that is exactly right. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and continue the bulk fermentation. (photos 6 & 7)

The cocoa powder slows fermentation, so do not rush this phase. The dough needs the full bulk fermentation time to develop properly. Watch for the dough to visibly double in volume, which will take roughly 3 to 4 hours total from when you first mixed it, depending on your kitchen temperature. Trust the visual cue over the clock.

Step 7: Shape and Cold Proof. Once the dough has visibly doubled, remove the plastic wrap and dust the top generously with bread flour — this is the stickiest part of the whole process, and the flour helps you manage it. Lightly flour your countertop and use a bowl scraper to turn the dough out. (photo 8)

Step 8: With floured hands, fold each corner of the dough into the center, flipping it seam-side down. Rotate the dough between each fold so you are always folding toward yourself — this builds a tighter, more even shape. The dough will still want to stick to the counter, so use a bench scraper in your right hand and your left hand as a guide to coax it into a round. (photos 9-12) Flip the dough upside down, seam-side up, into a generously rice-floured banneton (proof basket). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or for 16 to 18 hours.

Step 9: Preheat and Score. When you are ready to bake, place your Dutch oven with its lid inside the oven and preheat to 425°F. The Dutch oven needs to preheat fully alongside the oven — do not add it after the oven comes to temperature.

Step 10: Cut a piece of parchment just larger than the base of your Dutch oven. Remove the plastic wrap from your dough and gently loosen the edges with floured fingers. Turn the dough out onto the parchment. Score the top with a razor blade in a square pattern, with overlapping edges angled at about 45 degrees. (photo 13)

Score decisively and quickly. Hesitant cuts drag through the dough and close back up rather than opening during the bake. One firm motion per cut is all you need. This specific cut encourages the bread to rise upward and outward rather than splitting unpredictably along the sides.

Step 11: Bake. Working quickly and carefully, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and take off the lid. Using the parchment as a sling, lower the dough into the Dutch oven without letting it touch the sides. Replace the lid and bake for 20 minutes. (photo 14)

Step 12: After 20 minutes, remove the lid and lower the oven temperature to 400°F. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. The loaf is done when the crust is deeply crackly and set, with a rich, dark color across the surface — remember the cocoa means this bread bakes darker than a plain sourdough, so color alone is not your only cue. The finished loaf will have a crackly crust, a soft and chewy interior, and a deep, dark chocolate flavor that reads as savory and complex rather than sweet.

Step 13: Remove the bread from the Dutch oven using tongs or your hands and transfer it to a wire rack. Let it cool completely before slicing with a serrated knife. Slicing too early releases the steam that keeps the crumb soft, resulting in a gummy interior, so resist the urge. (photo 15)

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

If Chocolate Sourdough Bread has you hooked on baking with an active starter, there is so much more waiting for you. Browse our Sourdough Recipes or make this whole wheat sourdough next!