Chocolate-Cherry Sourdough Bread Recipe (2024)

How about a recipe for the sourdough starter?

A heaping teaspoon of active dried yeast in sourdough bread? Sorry, but that's cheating.Call this recipe bread if you wish, but dont' call it sourdough bread.

Sourdough starters can be used to raise bread (typically only an oz or so) -- but starter can do do much more. It preferments the dough. It keeps baked goods moist for longer than foods made with only yeast. It adds amazing flavors that would not be there with just yeast. I add some sourdough to nearly everything I bake, including brioche, bagels, banana bread and coffee cake. The time and temp you use to develop the starter for each recipe determines whether the dough will be sour or sweet.

Gee, I wonder if you couldn't just incorporate all these flavour ingredients (the chocolate, the cocoa, the cherries, the espresso) into the No-Knead Bread Recipe here on the NYTimes. Experiment away!

Not really. I've read it's not uncommon for French bakers to use a combination of sourdough culture and yeast. I give some breads a long fairly cool primary fermentation exclusively with sourdough culture, but add a very small amount of yeast (1/2 to 1 gram per loaf) to assist with the final proof and oven spring. I don't know if it's really necessary, but since the bread develops complex flavours during the primary fermentation I don't consider it cheating.

This recipe has a typo/variation from the Modernist Bread recipe. In the original the amount of yeast is 1/8 of a teaspoon (0.16 g), which makes a difference.

This turned out well. I followed the recipe to the letter, using the scale, as opposed to the volume measurements. Mine needed an extra 5 minutes to reach the final temperature. The resulting flavor is reminiscent of a brownie, but unsweetened, and in bread form. It's an intriguing breakfast or snack, great with a cup of coffee. I bake high hydration breads regularly. I can see that this dough might be challenging if you have not played with bread making much. Be patient. Try again!

See the included link for sour dough starter.Use a bowl if you don't have a basket.While this is not a difficult recipe, baking high hydration breads does require some patience. Bread baking, even for experienced home bakers is fussy business. Most mistakes are edible. Why not bag the impatience and give it a shot?

It would be helpful if the recipe included the hydration percentage of the starter as used in Modernist Bread.

Surprising recipe. Lighter and more tart than the version LaBrea Bakery in LA sold for many years.I followed the recipe carefully and had no issues.I would suggest using larger chunks of chocolate. Gentle and careful folding will keep the ample chocolate & cherries inside to prevent their burning. 2.5 hrs out of fridge. If you don’t cut the loaf before baking, it will force a higher rise. Steam will escape anyway from the few cherries which poke out. Learned much from this one.

This is a tasty bread, as noted, more for brunch than dinner. I make sourdough bread regularly, so the time was not an issue. But this recipe is more hands-on than advertised - way more folding and resting than regular sourdough. Dough rested overnight in a wine fridge- 50F - and did not get a lot of rise. However, after baking and cooling the interior was moist with a nice crumb. I would not make again because too labour intensive for result and too many charred cherries for my liking.

This was so much fun to make. I used my starter and made it a bit more liquid than usual. I also had to add a little extra flour as it is hot and sticky here. I used my mixmaster to knead ten minutes and then followed directions. It needed more than six folds to achieve window pane. I also baked it cold (that is how I always bake my bread) after heating Dutch oven with lid on. Highly recommend giving this a try!!!! Visit my instagram for photos.

You guys still haven't fixed the yeast quantity here. It's about 10x too high, as the original uses 1/8 tsp per batch, not a heaping tsp.

Ended up making French toast with this bread. It was delicious with maple syrup and all the chocolatey cherry flavors still came through. With the syrup, you definitely wouldn't want the bread any sweeter.

Very good for breakfast & with tea. I reduced yeast to 1/8 tsp. The amount of fruit & chocolate chips seemed excessive when I was folding them in but the end result was good. I would not reduce the amount of the add-ins. I baked at 450 degrees for the recommended time but used a baking stone instead of the dutch oven. I covered the loaf with a large foil roasting pan for the first 20 minutes of the bake. Next time I will double the recipe & make two loaves.

I was skeptical about this, but just had to try it... I like it, although as some others have commented, because the cherries and chocolate aren't all encased in the dough (some do stick out on the top and the bottom), they get charred in the hot oven. Even so, this is very tasty!

This recipe is overly complicated and much fussier than it needs to be. I made it following the recipe and then got something very similar by just adding cocoa and espresso to a regular no knead sourdough recipe and adding a little more water.I added the cherries at the 2nd stretch and fold like any other add in. I let it rise, shaped it, and baked it as a regular no knead doughNote: I just used regular 100% hydration starter (added an extra 1/4 cup) without extra yeast

I am sure the addition of yeast is for folks who might not know what to watch for in a sourdough starter and to speed up the process. It's a back-up plan. But yeast is definitely not necessary with this much starter in the recipe. Claire Saffitz's guide to sourdough here in the NYT cooking pages is excellent, and a very fine basic recipe that turns out every time. For chocolate bread, a wee bit of chili pepper, especially aleppo, adds some zest.

This bread isn't worth the the work to make it. Six folds takes three hours of babysitting If you're going to invest the time, make at least two loaves. I preferred a King Arthur recipe for a similar bread.

Would recommend that you whisk in all the dry ingredients (besides salt) before adding the flour for even distribution.I have tried this recipe multiple times, I never get enough gluten build up to get a thin membrane if I just do the 4 folds ever 30 minutes, even if in total I do this for 5 hours. With an hour left of turns, I pull it out of the bowl and kneed it until it’s almost at the membrane stage, and then allow for 2 final turn intervals before it goes in the fridge.

As others have mentioned this is a very wet dough (100% hydration), and quite difficult to work with. The end result is delicious though.However, hydration is not the main problem here. The problem is the yeast that acts so fast not allowing the gluten to develop. That's why the dough never comes together and there's no oven spring. I am still confused if it is supposed to be this way bec the recipe describes a totally different dough. Will def try again, with no added yeast (just sourdough)

Tried this as stated... the amount of flour made it more the consistency of a soup than a bread. Wound up added several tablespoons at a time until it resembled something that could be considered a "shaggy mass", probably at least another 3/4 cup. I chopped a cup of dark chocolate into chunks, which made for a mix of about 1/3 powder and 2/3 chunks (3x or so chip size). Came out great -- will make again. No need to be fussy about bread basket, plastic container, etc... it'll be fine.

Made with a loafpan and a baking tray with water below for the last ten minutes. Very nice looking! Just waiting for it to cool.

Recommend soaking the cherries in water for approx 30 minutes then draining before folding in. It helps prevent them from burning (I also baked at 475 which might have helped)

I did not have any instant yeast just active dry yeast so I had to activate it and it did take longer to rise than what the recipe says. It is a very slow rising bread anyway so it really didn't make much difference. It was very good and a mix between sweet and not.

This is a great recipe, but tricky, and to get the result I wanted it needed some tweaks. It's probably best for people already comfortable with sourdough. The combination of sourdough and yeast isn't unusual, and great for using sourdough discard. I didn't want it as bitter and added 2 tbps honey. I didn't bother with the wicker basket, for the rise, just used the bowl. I used parchment paper to put it in the heated pot, baked at 475, next time might do 450 for longer.

Hmmm, I cooked this and had tasty but dense (undercooked?) results. It ended up more like a "yeasty" cake! It's delicious, but I don't think I can call it "bread". Why the yeast? I'm going to try this without the yeast - my starter works great. (I make bread at LEAST every other day). ALSO. I added about a TBSP of date syrup mixed into the coffee to add some sweetness. - just seemed like it needed it.

Really quite yummy, loaf did not survive a day in a family of 4. I used 1 tsp yeast and 70 g 100% hydration starter (all I had), making up the difference with more flour and water. Used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and sweetened dried cherries (all our rural grocery store carried), so the result was plenty sweet. Was alarmed at how much rise I had during the ferment with the yeast, will experiment with yeast/starter quantities in the future.

Made exactly as the recipe dictated- it turned out perfectly! I will say it seemed really wet and difficult to fold during the folding phase, but it ultimately turned out great. Worth the labor!