Chocolate sourdough enhanced bread
This is the Balthazar's Bakery's chocolate bread. I first ate it in 2007 at $9 a loaf. When I got home I searched and found the recipe online. It is a fantastic bread...but I took it up a huge notch with my starter instead of theirs. Wow..what a shreddable fantastic crumb. I also added dried cherries to 3 of the loaves. An amazing bread. You will need a mixer to fully realize this dough. It needs 5 min and then 10 min and then about 2 min . It has the butter beaten in like a brioche but there are no eggs...lots of chocolate. Here are some pics...sorry I can't share the fragrance...or taste:)
starter 100% white with apple yeast water to feed: before adding the butter...lovely gluten: after the butter and salt added : ready to rise: risen: topped with cream/egg yolk/turbinado sugar : out of the oven: shreddable crumb:
Comments
These look yummy. How can you go wrong with chocolate and cherries in one loaf!
Have you tried txfarmer's Orange Chocolate sd bread? It is really good too and one I bake quite frequently for a friend….her kids LOVE it.
Somewhere here there is a formula for making a braided loaf…one is chocolate and the other a pan de mix with vanilla added. The contrasting colors make a wonderful looking bread that doesn't last long once cooled!
Thanks for the post and photos.
Janet
I will have to look up her recipe. Here is the one I followed...It is available on the net and I posted it in 2008 on TFL. Only difference is I used my own starter not the one in the recipe. I think it makes a big difference. I doubled the recipe and made 2 batches.
1. Use Turbinado sugar for the top...lots not regular
2. Use the bittersweet not unsweet chocolate
CHOCOLATE BREAD STARTER
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour ( you can use bread flour)
CHOCOLATE YEAST BREAD
5 cups bread flour ( 1 c or so extra for kneading)
1/2 cup good-quality cocoa powder
2/3 cup sugar, plus
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast dissolved in 2 c warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature,plus more for pans
6 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
vegetable oil, for lightly oiling bowl
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon heavy cream
4 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Directions
1)Chocolate Bread Starter: Dissolve yeast in water for 10 minutes; stir in flour until completely mixed; cover loosely and leave to proof at room temperature 6 hours.
2) Chocolate Yeast Bread: KA with dough hook for 5 min. on low or till completely smooth- mix 5c flour, cocoa, 2/3 cup sugar, yeast water and 1/2 cup Chocolate Bread Starter (freeze the remainder for later use); scrape sides often let rest in bowl 15 minutes.
3)Turn on KA to med. and add soft butter and salt, cont for 10 min till it is smooth and shiny. After the 10 min add in about 1/2c-3/4 c flour now , just enough so dough cleans bowl and cont a couple minutes. Should be very soft but kneadable. Place on counter with a light dusting of flour and knead in chopped chocolate thoroughly.
4)Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours; leaving dough in bowl, fold dough into thirds as if folding a letter for an envelope, recover with plastic wrap; let rest 30 minutes.
5)Butter three 8"x4"x2" loaf pans and coat with remaining 4 T granulated sugar; divide dough in thirds ( will have 4# of dough approx) and then divide each third into 4 even pieces; roll and form each piece of dough into a tight ball; place four pieces, smooth side up, side-by-side in each loaf pan; cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.
6)Preheat oven to 375°;right before placing in oven combine egg yolk and cream and brush on loaves; sprinkle with lots of turbinado sugar; place in oven, reduce temperature to 350° and bake for 40-45 minutes or until loaves have a slightly hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.
7)Let rest in loaf pans for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack.
Wow...this looks fantastic. I love chocolate as does my wife so I will have to give this one a try for sure.
Thanks for sharing.
Ian
nothing not to love about chocolate. I added the cherries as I thought they would make a great addition...and boy did they. I drank the soaking water :) c
So you converted it over to SD and used your YW for the water in the levain? I would have been tempted to make this a YW bread too. I'm guessing with the SD/YW levain that the levain and proofing times were about twice as long? To make 1 loaf you would cut this recipe in half?
I bought some dried cherries for some kind of holiday bread and this is it! I'll use the cherry re-hydration water for the liquid in the dough too. What a great recipe and thanks for sharing it.
Happy baking trailrunner!
dab,,,if you look at the original formula it has you making a starter of yeast/flour/water and let it ferment for 6 hrs. I simply subbed my own starter for theirs. My starter is usually fed with my YW so that is how the recipe came to be made with YW in the starter . As to the rising times they were the same as listed in the recipe since there are 2 tsp of yeast in regular water in the recipe...I used regular filtered water not YW in the main recipe. This formula is for 3 loaves total about 1800 grams. I doubled it !! 6 loaves of about 650 -680 grams each. So you will need to 1/3 the original recipe as written above to get to the amount you want to make.
Trail!
This is just up your alley with lots of slap and folds to get that butter incorporated !! c
extremely attractive and enticing chocolate bread, Trailrunner!
-Khalid
How much water goes in with the 5 C of Bread flour for the dough? 3 C? My dough is pretty stiff with only 1 C of water in the mix....Help:-) I see it .....its with the yeast which i am not using - Lucy needs to read mire closely!
Looks like 2 cups based on his recipe. It's mentioned with the yeast.
and washed roasted peanuts & toasted sesame seeds into the dough? Think I could come anywhere near a Reese's Bread?