Maybe because it's my birthday week... or because I'm a girl... or because I have a love-love relationship with it... whatever the reason, I have been craving chocolate. I am swimming in sourdough starter (haven't figured out how to tame it yet) so I went looking for something chocolate-y. I decided to try the Sourdough Noir from The Clever Carrot.
I didn't take a lot of pictures this time - call it part of my lazy birthday week attitude. ;)
The Clever Carrot's Sourdough Noir
Ingredients:
- 150g active fed starter
- 350g water, preferably filtered
- 50g sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
- 500g bread flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 8g fine sea salt
- 150g semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Mise en place
- Get your stuff together. You'll use almost all the ingredients in the first 10 minutes.
- Autolyse
- Combine the starter, water, sugar, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- It will be wet.
- I used strong coffee in place of most of the water. Coffee tends to enhance the chocolate flavor and I'm wanting a chocolatel-y bread here.
- Sift in the bread flour and cocoa powder.
- Mix to combine.
- I used my stand mixer with the dough hook. Don't knead it to death, just get it to combine into a slightly sticky dough.
- Cover and let rest (autolyse) for 2 hours.
***Note: This time I decided to use my mixer to help with the dough. My last few I've been trying to be a "purist" and hand mix only. The mixer worked out much much better for me. I'm giving up the "purist ideal" and going with what actually works for me. No one is going to come into my kitchen and tell me I'm doing it wrong; if it tastes good and Scott and I like it.... it's good. Done. No stressing about what I'm supposed to do or what it's supposed to be. If it's edible and I'm happy with it.... then it's perfect... for us. - Dough
- After the autolyse, add the salt and any other add-ins you would like.
- Knead gently until combined.
- The original calls for walnuts and raisins (65g each) along with the chocolate chips, but if you know me you know I don't like nuts or raisins in anything. It's a texture thing.
- I realized partway in that I didn't have any chocolate chips. Ooops. I do have a chocolate bar. It's not quite enough, but it's better than nothing.
- Bulk Proof
- Once the salt and add-ins are mixed in, cover and let rise.
- The original calls for 4-12 hours at room temperature, depending on the temperature of your home.
- I'm choosing to do a refrigerated retard for this bulk proof. This will buy me some time, since I don't want to bake for 24 hours and should intensify the flavors as well.
- Divide, form, and second rise
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. This recipe will make 2 smaller loaves than the recipes I've been doing previously.
- Gently form into 2 rounds.
- Line 2 bowls or bannetons with clean towels and dust generously with rice flour.
- Rice flour doesn't mix with the moisture from the dough and make a paste. It stays dry and becomes like ball-bearings to keep the dough from sticking. It's a HUGE difference and really worth having on hand.
- Invert the dough into the bowls so the bottom is now the top.
- Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
- Let rise for another hour.
- Prepare
- While the dough is resting and rising the last time, place your pans in the oven and preheat to 400°F.
- When the dough finishes rising, invert it out of the bowls onto parchment.
- PARCHMENT!! Do not forget this step like I did once before...
- Slash the top of the loaves with a sharp knife or bread lame.
- Using the parchment, lift and lower the dough into a pan and cover.
- Bake
- Place the covered pans into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
- Cool
- Using the parchment, carefully lift the breads out of the pans and put on a rack to cool.
- Let it cool completely before cutting into it!!
- Yeah.... good luck with that... it smells SO chocolate-y!!
The bread is chewy and the crust is crisp but not super-crunchy (so I'm a happy girl). It tastes like chocolate, but isn't overly sweet either. I would definitely make this again... and I'm sending one of the loaves to Scott's daughters so they can enjoy this treat!
