I fit more chocolate chips into this chocolate chip sourdough bread than anybody in their right mind would. I have zero regrets. This loaf takes my classic sourdough base and packs it with chocolate in every single slice. I’ve built this recipe to work well for beginners just learning inclusions. Come on in!
New to sourdough? Start Here! How To Feed Sourdough Starter Beginners Guide Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners (Artisan Loaf)
Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Chip Sourdough Bread
- Ridiculously good toasted. A slice of this, toasted, with butter melting into every pocket where the chocolate hide… That’s a whole personality trait around here.
- Forgiving inclusion. Chocolate chips don’t release juice or make your dough sticky the way fruit can. They just sit there and behave, which makes this a great loaf if you’re folding something into sourdough for the first time.
- Perfectly balanced flavor. This recipe has the salt bumped up a bit to offset the chocolate. It’s dangerously good!
- Insanely full of chocolate. I tried a lot of other baker’s suggestions about how much chocolate should go in sourdough. I baked as much as 200g of chocolate into a loaf! In the end this was my magic balance. Not too much and not too little – a true chocolate lovers bread!
What You Need to Know Before You Start
Chocolate chips. I use semisweet chocolate chips. If you prefer a less sweet, more intense chocolate flavor, bittersweet or dark chocolate chips swap in beautifully at the same weight. Standard size chips give you great, even distribution with zero extra effort.
Add the chocolate at your first stretch and fold, not before. Just like my blueberry sourdough bread, the chocolate goes in during the first set of stretch and folds only — a quarter of it with each of the four folds. This distributes it evenly through the dough without overworking anything.
A little more salt than my base recipe. You’ll notice this recipe calls for 13g of salt instead of the 10g in my basic loaf. That extra salt helps keep the chocolate’s sweetness in balance instead of the whole loaf tasting one-note sweet. Don’t be tempted to cut it back.
Your starter should be active and bubbly when you begin. If it’s sluggish, the dough will be too. (Full starter guide here if you have questions.)
Heads up on the crust near the chocolate. Chocolate chips sitting right at the surface of the loaf will darken and caramelize more than the surrounding crust during baking — sometimes almost to a burnt-looking spot. That’s completely normal and honestly some of the best bites in the whole loaf, but don’t panic and think you scorched your bread.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Sourdough Bread
Autolyze – Mix and Rest In a large mixing bowl, add the water, starter, flour, and salt. Mix with a dough whisk or wooden spoon until no dry bits remain — a shaggy, rough dough is exactly what you want. Cover and rest on the counter for 1 hour.
Stretch and Folds – Build the Structure (and Add the Chocolate) Get your hands wet. Grab one side of the dough, pull gently until it resists, then fold it back over itself. Rotate the bowl ¼ turn and repeat — four stretch and folds makes one set. (Full stretch and fold video guide here.)
This is where the chocolate chips go in. During your first set only, sprinkle in one quarter of your chocolate chips with each of the four folds, so they distribute evenly instead of clumping in one spot.
Cover and rest 30 minutes, then do three more plain sets (no more chocolate needed) for a total of 4 sets over about 2 hours.
Bulk Ferment Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature for 5–8 hours, until doubled and jiggly. Warmer kitchens move faster; cooler ones take longer — that’s normal. This is one bread I don’t use my proofing oven for. It can be too warm and makes the chocolate melty. That gets to be a mess fast!
Shape Turn the dough onto a counter misted with water and shape into a tight boule. Place seam-side up in a rice-floured banneton.
Cold Retard Cover and refrigerate overnight, 8–12 hours. This is what gives you that deep flavor and a dough that’s easy to score straight from the fridge.
Bake Preheat your Dutch oven at 450°F for 1 hour. Turn the cold dough out onto parchment, score, and lower into the pot.
- 450°F, 30 minutes, lid on
- 410°F, 15 minutes, lid off
No Dutch oven? My graniteware roasting pan method works beautifully too — it’s not a straight preheat swap, so head to that post for the exact process.
Cool Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing — 3–4 hours. I know, I know. The smell is unfair. Wait anyway or you’ll end up with a gummy crumb. (Ask me how I learned that… whoops!)
Mirlandra’s Tips for Success
- Add all the chocolate chips during your first stretch and fold set, not spread across all four sets — one and done, evenly distributed.
- Don’t skip the extra salt. It’s what keeps this loaf tasting like bread with chocolate in it, not like dessert.
- Dark caramelized spots where chocolate hit the crust are a feature, not a flaw.
- Want to build your own inclusion loaf? Check out my Sourdough Inclusion Ideas guide for the formula and rules of thumb.
- Prefer less sweetness and more chocolate intensity? Swap the semisweet chips for bittersweet or dark chocolate chips, same 175g weight. You can cut the chocolate down to 100g too if you want. I just like my chocolate like I like my life. Full of crazy and slightly unhinged!
More Chocolate Sourdough Recipes
Because apparently I can’t stop putting chocolate chips in sourdough, and neither should you.
- Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies: long-fermented for the best flavor and texture, and yes, still loaded with chocolate chips.
- Sourdough Discard Brownies: fudgy, chewy, and deeply chocolatey, with sourdough discard as the not-so-secret ingredient. And incidentally the best brownies of my life!
My Favorite Chocolate Chip Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
- 350 g lukewarm water
- 100 g active sourdough starter fed and happy
- 500 g bread flour
- 13 g fine grain sea salt
- 175 g semisweet chocolate chips about 1 cup, added at first stretch and fold
Instructions
Autolyze – Mix and Rest:
- Combine water, starter, flour, and salt. Mix until no dry bits remain. Cover and rest 1 hour.
Stretch and Folds:
- During your first set, fold in one quarter of the chocolate chips with each of the four folds. Rest 30 minutes, then do 3 more sets — 4 sets total over about 2 hours.
Bulk Ferment:
- Rise at room temperature 5–8 hours. Dough is ready when it’s doubled, looks puffy with visible bubbles at the surface, and jiggles like Jell-O when you nudge the bowl.
Shape:
- Fold the edges of the dough into the center to build tension, then flip seam-side down. Cup your hands around the dough and drag it in small circles against the counter until the surface is smooth and tight. Place seam-side up in a well-floured banneton.
Cold Retard / Long Cold Rise:
- Refrigerate overnight, 8–12 hours.
Bake:
- Preheat Dutch oven at 450°F for 1 hour. Score cold dough and bake 450°F/30 min lid on, then 410°F/10–15 min lid off. Bread is done when it’s deep golden brown and internal temp is 205–210°F if you want to check with a thermometer.
Cool:
- Cool completely, 3–4 hours, before slicing.
Helpful Recipe Notes
Your Rating Matters
When you leave a comment or star rating, it means more than you might think. It helps me understand what you’re enjoying, builds trust for other readers, and supports real, tested cooking content. If you have a moment, I’d truly appreciate you sharing your experience. – Mirlandra
Nutrition Estimate
A Note on Nutrition
Nutritional info is an imperfect estimate. Please take it with a grain of salt.
New to sourdough? Start Here! How To Feed Sourdough Starter Beginners Guide Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners (Artisan Loaf)
Leave a Reply