Every once in a while, it’s nice to expand the horizons of the sourdough starter. I have yet to try sourdough croissants, a much more involved process, but when I saw a blog post joining bubbly starter with chocolate in a twisted shaping, I could not wait to try it.  It does take a little practice to get the braiding correctly, but I think this attempt turned out a little better than the one of years ago. Practice, practice, practice.

SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE TWIST BREAD
(slightly modified from My Daily Sourdough Bread)

Starter
100 g water
100 g bread flour
1 tablespoon sourdough starter

Dough
all of the above starter
180 g warm milk (water can be used instead, for a less rich dough)
370 g bread flour
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1 tablespoon of sugar
6 g salt

Filling
100 g soft butter
60 g brown sugar
50 g grated chocolate (70% cocoa)

In the evening, first prepare your sourdough starter. Mix 100 g of white wheat flour, 100 g of water, and 1 tablespoon or your base starter. Leave it to ferment until risen, puffed, active and bubbly, so you will be able to mix it into the dough next morning.

In the morning, mix the dough. First, dissolve all of your starter in 180 g of milk (or water, if desired). Add egg yolk and melted butter. Next, add all of the flour (370 g), salt and sugar. Mix well, and knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth. Shape it into ball and place it into a bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and leave to ferment until doubled in volume, about 3 hours.

Prepare the filling mixing softened butter, sugar, and grated chocolate. Line a Dutch oven or another appropriate baking container with a piece of parchment paper.

Roll the dough into a 12×18 inch rectangle. Drop the filling across the rolled dough and spread it thinly, leaving about 1 inch clean border on all sides.  Roll the dough from the longest side, then tuck the ends underneath. Cut the rolled dough in half length-wise. Flip the cut halves outwards.

Start braiding two strands one over another. Tuck the ends together to form a circle. Place the twisted bread into Dutch oven and let it rise until doubled, about 1.5 hours.

Heat the oven to 375°F. When the dough is ready, put the Dutch oven into oven and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a rack before slicing. If desired, cover the bread with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This was a fun weekend project, for sure. My only issue was that during baking, a lot of butter sipped out of the bread, forming a puddle on the bottom of the baking dish. I was not sure how to deal with it, so I ended up using one of those stainless steel bulb basters (like this one) to remove the butter a couple of times during baking. The bread tasted amazing, no major harm done on the bottom crust, all seemed fine. It was not overly greasy either.

We enjoyed some of it still a bit warm from baking. A deep silence ensued. You know how that goes sometimes.  Leftover wedges were wrapped in plastic and frozen. A few minutes in a low oven restored the bread to top-notch level, so rest assured, you won’t need to consume it all in one sitting. There’s a limit of how much aerobics a person can do…

This bread is a nice alternative for a pain au chocolat craving. Much easier to make and equally delicious.

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