Chocolate Sourdough Starter - How To Make One And Why You Need To!
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This simple chocolate variation on a traditional sourdough starter will provide you with new inspiration on your sourdough journey. You can use this chocolate sourdough starter for a myriad of chocolate sourdough recipes, as well as add it to non chocolate sourdough recipes for a new twist or hint of chocolate flavor.
I absolutely LOVE my chocolate sourdough starter! It lives in the fridge and I pull it out and feed it whenever I want to use it. One thing I've found is that it rises much faster than my regular sourdough starter because of the sugar and cocoa, but it doesn't rise as much as my regular sourdough starter, or get as bubbly.
What Is A Chocolate Sourdough Starter?
A chocolate sourdough starter is made by taking a portion of your regular sourdough starter and feeding it with cocoa powder and sugar, along with flour and water. You can use the cocoa starter exactly the same way you would a regular sourdough starter.
The cocoa, together with the sugar and flour, provide a food source for the yeast and bacteria. The cocoa will change the chemistry and hydration of your sourdough starter - but it will still behave in the same way.
You'll find that using the chocolate starter in chocolate sourdough recipes will give you a much richer flavor than using your normal liquid starter. You can also use the discard from feeding the chocolate starter in a variety of discard recipes for a hint of chocolatey goodness and fermentation.
How To Make A Chocolate Sourdough Starter
In order to make a chocolate sourdough starter, you first need to have an established traditional sourdough starter. This makes it much easier to create a chocolate one. If you don't already have a sourdough starter, you can use these instructions for how to make a sourdough starter.
You will add cocoa, sugar, flour and water to a portion of your regular sourdough starter in order to transition it to a chocolate sourdough starter. You can either use regular cocoa powder or raw cacao powder - it's totally up to you. Either one of these will work just fine. You should however try to use the best quality cocoa powder you can.
You will find full instructions for creating a chocolate sourdough starter in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Is The Cocoa Powder You Use Important?
While it is better to use a raw cacao powder because it hasn't been roasted at high temperatures, you can also use regular cocoa powder. I've used both in my chocolate starter without harming it. You just need to decide whether it's important to have the nutrients retained in your chocolate starter or whether you're happy just to have the chocolatey flavor and fermentation. Using regular cocoa powder doesn't inhibit fermentation in any way.
How To Feed and Maintain A Chocolate Sourdough Starter
It's up to you how you maintain this type of starter.
Build It When You Need It - You can just build it whenever you need it. This would mean just using your mother starter and creating the chocolate one whenever you want to use it in a recipe. This is a great option if you only use it every so often.
Maintain It In The Fridge - You could of course keep this starter in the fridge and take it out and feed it when you want to bake with it.
Whether you keep the starter in the fridge or on the counter at room temperature, you need to feed it. Feeding it is like any other regular starter.
- Discard all but a portion - let's say 25g in this case.
- Add 25g of the starter to a jar and then feed it with the ingredients listed in the recipe below (so you'd need to add flour, cocoa, sugar and water every time).
The basic feed ratio for this starter is:
1 part starter : 2 parts flour : 2 parts water : 0.6 parts cocoa : 0.6 parts sugar.
So if you have 25g of starter (1 part) you'd feed it with 50g of flour (2 parts) : 50g of water (2 parts) : 15g of cocoa (0.6 parts) : 15g of sugar (0.6 parts).
Tips For Success
- I always recommend keeping a back up of your sourdough starter, so only use a portion of your actual sourdough starter to create a chocolate sourdough starter.
- When building this type of starter, I chose to use a blend of All Purpose Flour and Rye Flour. You can basically use whatever flour your starter prefers - or you can choose to use something different. I like using a little rye to give the starter a boost.
- You want to keep your cocoa starter fairly stiff - it seems to be happier that way. You can still use it in recipes that ask for a 1:1:1 starter - it won't make any noticeable difference.
How To Use a Chocolate Sourdough Starter
Adding cocoa to your sourdough starter creates the most amazing, rich jar of yeasty goodness! You can use your chocolate sourdough starter in many different recipes. I've listed a few here:
- Use it as the base of these sourdough pancakes or sourdough chocolate waffles.
- It increases the rich chocolate flavors of this chocolate sourdough bread.
- Use it as the rising agent for this coffee and maple infused date sourdough bread.
- Give your favorite fruit bread a chocolate twist with this Sourdough Fruit Bread recipe.
- Use the discard from this starter to make a batch of chocolate sourdough discard Bread or this chocolate sourdough star bread or sourdough brownies.
- Try using the chocolate sourdough starter in this sourdough granola - you'll find the chocolate coconut variation there too!
How To Store Chocolate Sourdough Starter
I find keeping the chocolate starter in the fridge the best solution. It's not a starter I use every day and I don't want to feed it once or twice a day. I keep the jar of cocoa starter in the refrigerator with the lid on and just take it out and feed it as I require it.
As my starter is well established, it only takes one feed to get it doubling. It's up to you how you build or store your starter - you can certainly just build the chocolate starter as you need it for a recipe, this method will work just fine.
Depending on how established your starter is (and how well your first mixture doubles) you might want to do two or three feedings before you use it in a bake. If your starter is well established, you will find it doesn't take much to get a chocolate one going.
You could also dehydrate a portion of this chocolate sourdough starter and pop it in the pantry as a backup or give to friends as a gift. Use these instructions for how to dehydrate a sourdough starter.
Frequently Asked Questions
It's perfectly fine to use white bread flour or all purpose flour for your chocolate sourdough starter. You can however use rye flour or even whole wheat flour to create this decadent starter if you prefer.
In my experience, a chocolate sourdough starter will be much faster to peak than a regular sourdough starter. Even though it's an "enriched sourdough starter", the sugar and cocoa seem to speed up rise times and it peaks much faster than the 4-6 hours it would normally take for your regular starter to peak. I do like to keep my chocolate sourdough starter nice and warm, so this would help rise times too.
Technically a chocolate sourdough starter is a bit lower in hydration than a regular sourdough starter. So if you fed your flour and water starter at 1:1:1 it's considered 100% hydration. Your chocolate starter is fed at 1 part starter : 2 parts flour : 2 parts water : 0.6 parts cocoa : 0.6 parts sugar which, if you thought of the cocoa as flour, is well under 50%. That being said, once it's at peak it does loosen up. You may need to add slightly more liquid to recipes when using your chocolate sourdough starter, just use your judgement here.
Chocolate Sourdough Starter Recipe
Equipment
- Clean Jar
- Digital Scales
Ingredients
- 15 g Cocoa Powder
- 15 g Granulated Sugar
- 50 g All Purpose Flour
- 25 g Sourdough Starter
- 50 g Water
Instructions
- Use a scale for accuracy. Combine all ingredients into a clean, wide mouth jar. Stir vigorously until it forms a smooth, chocolatey paste. You will find the mixture is quite stiff due to the cocoa. This is totally fine, it will loosen up as it ferments.
- Cover your chocolate starter with a paper towel secured with an elastic band or a loose fitting lid and set aside to allow fermentation to occur. If it seems slow, give it a stir after a few hours. It should double within 10 hours (as long as you've used an established sourdough starter).
- Use your chocolate sourdough starter in your favorite chocolate sourdough recipe. You can continue to feed your chocolate sourdough starter using the measurements above. It's up to you whether you just build this starter when you require it - or double the mixture and use half and put half in the fridge. You can then just take it out and feed it as you need it.
Nutrition
Can you use a sugar like allouse or a gentle sweet or Monk fruit?
I have not tried, however I would say no, it needs to be regular sugar in this case xo
Do i feed it w just normal flour and water OR cocoa poeder and water?
Typo: Cocoa powder
The instructions for feeding the cocoa starter are in the post above - before the recipe 🙂
Hey Kate - so…if I want to do this as a one-off and not keep a choc starter in the fridge…pull discard from my mother and feed it with the ingredients you’ve stated above. Then once it doubles just cook with it? I assume if it doesn’t double within about 10 hours I’d need to re-feed and see how it goes. Am I on the right track!? Also - thank you SO MUCH for this amazing trove of sourdough knowledge. I am learning so much and feeling more confident with my sourdough adventures every day thanks to your blog!!
Do you have to add active starter every time? Even if you have some of the chocolate starter left to add to?
No, you just feed this starter like you would a regular starter, meaning, if you have 120g of starter, you'd use 100g and then feed the 20g leftover 🙂
Absolutely love this! I used cacao instead of cocoa , but it turned out beautifully 🙂 I've made several loaves now with it and they've been perfect each time. Thank you so much for sharing! ❤
Do you have a marble rye recipe using this starter and regular starter for the light dough
Do you have recommendations for a high quality cocoa powder? I’ve only ever used Hersheys.
I generally use organic raw cacao powder, but you can use what you have on hand 🙂
Should the starter be active and bubbly or does that not matter?
As long as your sourdough starter is mature, it doesn't matter too much as you're essentially feeding it by making the chocolate starter 🙂
I'm intrigued to try this recipe what what type of sugar do you recommend?
I used this recipe to start my cocoa starter from my established starter. To keep feeding the cocoa starter, do I continue to include more established starter in every feed? Or just flour/water/cocoa/sugar?
What do you mean by "regular" cocoa?
Is "regular" cocoa Dutch processed? I prefer the less bitter flavor of Dutch process, but does the starter need the extra acidity of "natural" cocoa.
What happens if I skip the sugar altogether?
Thank you Kate for the amazing recipe!
Very cool! I am excited to try this. French toast with choc sourdough bread, cream cheese and berries...drool. Thanks : )
I made this chocolate starter and fed it about a week ago and put it in the fridge. I took it out for a few hours today then changed my mind about baking and went to put it away. I noticed a few white spots on the top and throughout. They were not fuzzy more like spots of regular starter. Could it be mold? Seems questionable. I'll probably just toss it. Is this more like to mold because of the coco and sugar?
Hi there could you use carbo instead?
Can I use the discard right away? I made it this morning and it doubled
I made my chocolate starter (from my established regular starter) and holy cow does it smell like straight up alcohol! So strong! Is this normal? Is it ok to use or should I feed it a few times before using it?
Any way to convert the grams to cups? I'm visiting family and they don't have a food scale. 😣😣
Hi Erin, You can try using an online converter. Just keep in mind, the cups won't be as accurate.
Made this bread. Came out great with a Chocolate Sourdough Starter.
sounds amazing! Can't wait to make this and have the best sourdough brownies!!!!
My chocolate starter is crazy, even in the refrigerator it will crawl out over the top and make a mess. I have not fed it for days and keep discarding the mess but it still keeps expanding.
Thank you for all the recipes and guidance here! I have shared your site with many coworkers, friends, and family. I've loved this chocolate sourdough starter and my fam can't get enough of the chocolate sourdough bread. My starter has been great for almost 3 weeks now. However, last night I fed it to use this morning and it is extremely stiff. It was also stiff when removed from the refrigerator last night. I still fed it as instructed above and as I have been doing. There was some growth overnight, but still STIFF, like thick laffy taffy. Do you have any idea why this would happen and any suggestions on how to restore it to its previous texture?
Why does this starter require sugar ? Can you just use cocoa, flour and water ? What happens if you leave the sugar out ?
I haven't tried it without the sugar ... but if you do, please let us know how it went! xo
I have bypassed the making a starter every time from chocolate. I have a chocolate fireball starter. I would like recipes that gear towards having the starter already in a chocolate form. And I'm having trouble finding one that deals with just a chocolate starter. Already made, can you help me please?
Hi Monty - I'm not sure I understand what you mean? You can use a chocolate sourdough starter in lots of recipes on The Pantry Mama site - try some of the recipes in this collection of sourdough chocolate recipes 🙂
Thinking about using the chocolate starter to make cinnamon rolls, any changes you would suggest. Love your recipes.
Great idea and no, just swap regular starter for chocolate sourdough starter 🙂