Sourdough Bread with Chocolate Chips, Walnuts, and Flaxmeal
Inspired by our chocolate chip walnut muffins, this bread drops the sugar, milk, oil, and egg of the muffins and adds delicious sourdough fermentation flavors. Your toast will be decadently delicious without actually being sweet (…or, you can swap in milk chocolate chips for the dark chocolate if you want more sweetness).
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 35 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 260 g bread flour (2 cups)
- 160 g red fife whole grain flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 340-370 g water (approx 1 1/2 cups) *
- 75 g sourdough starter (1/4 cup)
- 9 g salt (1 2/3 tsp)
- 30 g flaxmeal (3 Tbsp) **
- 130 g toasted walnut pieces (1 cup)
- 115-200 g dark or semisweet chocolate chips (2/3 - 1 1/8 cups) ***
Instructions
- 1
Briefly toast the walnut pieces until they're aromatic. This can be done in a pan on the stove in just a few minutes. Shake them around and stay attentive so they don't burn.
- 2
In a large bowl mix the flour, 340 grams (scant 1 1/2 cups) water, sourdough starter, and salt. Cover and let the dough rest about 20 minutes. These instructions are for hand mixing, but you can use a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment if you prefer. Make sure you cover the bowl during the rests, and use minimal power and duration to mimic lamination and stretching and folding.
- 3
Add the flaxmeal, and if your dough is not already quite wet, the remaining 30 grams (1/8 cup) water to the dough. Mix by hand with the rubaud method until the flaxmeal is distributed throughout the dough. Cover and let the dough rest 20-30 minutes.
- 4
Add the walnuts and chocolate chips to the dough via lamination. This video will show you how to do this. Return the dough to the bowl or a straight-walled container, cover and let rest 20-30 minutes.
- 5
Stretch and fold the dough to further distribute the additions, cover and let the dough rise until it has expanded by about 30%. This dough is quite heavy so it will be quite fermented before it gets anywhere close to doubling. See the Photo Gallery for target expansion. My dough took 6 hours in a 77°F kitchen.
- 6
Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured work surface and shape it to fit your proofing basket. Flour the top of the shaped dough and your proofing basket, then flip the dough into the basket seam-side up.
- 7
Cover and let the dough rise again. If the ambient temperature is over 75°F, refrigerate the dough immediately after shaping. Otherwise let it rise for 20-60 minutes at room temperature, then put it in the refrigerator. The dough can be refrigerated 8-16 hours. You could also bake the dough the same day by only proofing at room temperature for 1-2 hours. My dough proofed in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
- 8
Preheat your oven and baking vessel to 500°F for 30 minutes.
- 9
Flip the dough out of the proofing basket and onto a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone bread sling, score, and load into your baking vessel and oven.
- 10
Bake at 500°F for 15 minutes with the lid on and 450°F for 15-20 minutes with the lid off. If you prefer a lighter crust, lower the oven temperature to 450°F as soon as you put the dough in the oven and bake the bread for a total of about 40 minutes instead of 30-35 minutes.
- 11
When the bread is done, it should have an internal temperature over 205°F.
- 12
Let the bread cool for several hours before you slice it unless you don't mind melty chocolate chips smearing throughout the crumb.