Chocolate Sourdough Discard Bread
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This simple chocolate sourdough discard bread can be made in just a few hours.
It's a great way to use up some discard while you're waiting for a sourdough starter to mature.
There are also lots of flavor variations to explore.
This simple chocolate sourdough discard bread is an easy sourdough recipe to make while waiting for your sourdough starter to mature.
It is also a delicious way to use the discard from making a Chocolate Sourdough Starter. It's a sourdough bread that my kids ask for over and over! And the leftovers make the most amazing sourdough bread pudding.
If you're looking for a different chocolate recipes, this Sourdough Chocolate Star Bread can be made using discard too, along with these chocolate sourdough brownies, sourdough chocolate cookie sandwiches and these chocolate chunk sourdough muffins. And if you want to use active sourdough starter, try this sourdough chocolate bread.
How To Enjoy Chocolate Sourdough Discard Bread
This bread is quite sweet. It is lovely for breakfast, toasted and served with butter and or maple syrup. It also makes a delicious dessert or supper.
My son is absolutely in love with it! He's even eaten it with whipped cream and strawberries! Spoiled much?
You could substitute the sugar with honey or even maple syrup if you want to. I find that sugar is the easiest way to sweeten it, but as always, there are lots of alternatives you could try.
Here are a few ways you can use this chocolate sourdough discard bread, other than just enjoying it as it is:
- Toasted and topped with strawberry jam and whipped cream;
- Toasted and topped with cream cheese and fresh raspberries (you can even drizzle with maple syrup);
- Toasted and topped with fresh ricotta and drizzled in raw honey;
- Use it to make French Toast;
- Use it to make bread and butter pudding;
- Slice thinly, toast and top with good quality vanilla ice cream - chocolate sourdough ice cream sandwich!
Flavor Variations For Chocolate Sourdough Discard Bread
While this delicious chocolate sourdough discard bread is perfect the way it is, there are lots of ways you can vary the flavors to make something truly special. Here are some ideas:
- Add a shot of coffee to your water to create an Espresso Chocolate Discard Bread.
- Mix up the chocolate chips - use white chocolate chips or even butterscotch bits.
- Add some dried fruit like cherries or apricots. Add up to 100g of dried fruit in addition to the 100g of chocolate chips.
- Top your bread with shredded coconut before you bake it for a toasted coconut topping.
- Add your 100g of your favorite nuts to the mixture along with the chocolate chips. You could try pecans, walnuts or even pistachios!
Want More Chocolate Sourdough?
If you're looking for a true sourdough bread using cocoa, try this Chocolate and Walnut Sourdough Bread.
Want to know how you can create your very own Chocolate Sourdough Starter? You'll find the instructions here.
Check out this Chocolate Sourdough Star Bread!
Chocolate Sourdough Discard Loaf Recipe
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
I made a loaf with Einkorn flour and Enjoy Life mini chips. I think it taste better than normal flour and nestle chips. Wow, so good and easy.
I wonder if this would be good with Maraschino cherries minus the chocolate chips?? I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I can so see this combination.
Can this be baked ahead and frozen for Christmas gifts and taken out of the freezer on Christmas morning? It's absolutely delicious with butter and honestly just as a snack by itself
This looks incredible!! Think I could sub honey for the sugar? If so, how much would you recommend? Thank you for all of your amazing recipes; they are always reliable and my go-tos! xoxo
Awwhhh so glad you love all the recipes 🙂 That's awesome! Yes you can sub honey for the sugar - I'd add up to 50g 🙂 Enjoy xo
How much maple syrup would I use to sweeten it instead of sugar?
This recipe is sooo good, but I've made it a few times and each time my loaf is flat. It still tastes great! The dough rises beautifully, but when I transfer it to the dutch oven it flattens out and doesn't rise back up while baking. I've never had this issue with sourdough, but this is the only sweet one I've ever made. Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if it's a climate issue.
Quick question, I don’t like artesano bread, so can I bake this recipe as sandwich loaf 🍞 bread?
You are the GODDESS of sourdough discard recipes. This chocolate sourdough loaf is unbelievably delicious. I made it with discard from a very vigorous sourdough starter so I didn’t use yeast. Let it rise for 4 hours at room temp and overnight in the fridge. Just finished baking it and usually I can resist the temptation of cutting into it before it cools down but NOT THIS TIME! It is absolutely perfect. Crusty, chewy, a powerful punch of dark cocoa, fait sour taste, delicious chocolate chips. It is the perfect loaf. I anticipate it will be gone before the weekend.
My house smells amazing. I used old discard and regular yeast as I didn't have what the recipe called for. It rose in a couple of hours. Baked beautifully. I can't wait to try it.
What temp does this need to be when done?
I am getting ready to try this right now. Can I open bake this on a cookie sheet with some water in a pan underneath?
Wow! I am not the type of person to leave reviews and have tried and loved a few of your recipes now, but this one I just had to review! This was insanely easy to put together and turned out perfect. I didn’t even use bread flour, just all purpose, and I also baked it in a sandwich tin. It’s incredible, thank you! This is going to be a hit at Mother’s Day lunch this weekend 🥰
Oh my goodness! This recipe is AMAZING! Love love love the chocolate bread! I’ve made it twice (both times with less yeast than what’s called for as my discard is somewhat active and bubbly) and I can’t wait for my boule to cool down fully before slicing it (it just came out of the oven 😅).
Thank you so much for sharing this treasure! I just can’t get enough of this bread…sooooo yummy 🤤
Absolutely love this recipe and it always gets eaten up very quickly! I am curious, each time I’ve made it the crust doesn’t really get as hard and crispy as my other sourdough loaves. Am I doing something wrong? I follow the recipe exactly.
This time I'm making it with some chopped dried cranberries and a tad of cinnamon. I also used Special Dark 100% cocoa. Toast slices with cream cheese with strawberries. It is so good. This will be the neighbor gift exchange this year since I have to make quite a few! Thank you!
I love hearing that, Lori! That sounds so delicious!
Easy AND delicious. SOLD
We loved it!! I made it the first time as in the recipe. The second time I made it, I replaced half the water with leftover coffee. Both times were huge hits with the family. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you so much for sharing!
Great idea, Misty! That sounds delicious.
Well, I was planning on making myself some dinner tonight. But then I pulled this out of the oven and have been munching on it all afternoon! I've got to save the rest, so I can take it to work and make my co-workers fat! 😀 Really, super delicious! I didn't have enough discard, but I did have a levain I made Friday night that I didn't get to use, so I used that instead. The next time I make this (and I will!), I'm going to use dark cocoa, chocolate starter, and dark chocolate chips. Maybe some dried cherries too. The possibilities are endless. Thank you for a fantastic recipe, Kate!!!
This was SO good. I discovered partway through measuring the ingredients that my daughter has been using all my baking cocoa for mug cakes and I was considerably short. I made up the difference with my husband's favorite Mexican hot cocoa mix and hoped for the best. It was not a poor decision and I would do it again.
I found this recipe to be a bit difficult to work with because it is VERY loose. I mixed in my stand mixer and even with a bit of extra flour, it is still really free form after resting. I would likely add even more flour just to get it manageable. Scoring seemed a bit pointless and it did end up popping kind of wherever it pleased as a result. Not a pretty loaf, but dang did it taste good!
Mexican hot cocoa sounds delicious in this loaf! I'm glad it was delicious despite the loose dough 🙂
Easy to make and delicious. Didn’t want to use yeast so used 200g of sourdough discard. Doubled in about 3 hours. Added 100g of dried cherries. Delicious. Will make this again. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Jean. Thank you so much for your review!
I am blown away by this bread. Not only is it a dump-in-one-bowl sourdough recipe, and uses up discard, it came together so easily. I used large dark chocolate chips which I had on hand. After it was done the crust was so crunchy, the aroma amazing, and I swear it tasted just like a giant chocolate croissant. There’s no need to have those anymore when I can make a giant one at home with little effort. This will be a lifelong recipe - many thanks!!
If I choose to refrigerate the dough, what is the maximum amount of time I can leave it in the refrigerator? Thank you!
You could leave it in the fridge for up to 12 hours, it's just that this is made with some commercial yeast which rises faster than sourdough starter 🙂
Why yeast?
Because this is a discard recipe 🙂 You can use active sourdough starter and leave out the commercial yeast if you want to.
This was so incredibly delicious! I had never heard of chocolate sourdough before and decided to try it - so moist and so flavorful! I had a very active starter, so I omitted the yeast and it was perfect! I will definitely be making this regularly! Sourdough is so fun - I am enjoying learning how to use it in different ways! Thanks for sharing so many ideas on your site!