Chai and double chocolate chip sourdough

240g Bread Flour
30g Whole Spelt Flour
20g dark rye
250g Chai concentrate*(3 parts of milk, 1 part water, 1.5 packets splenda**) ***

60g honey
6g Salt
60g Starter @ 100% Hydration (20 ww starter, fed w 20g Bread Flour, 20g Water)
total hydration 80% given that the majority of the liquid came form milk

50g chocolate chips(I used a mix of dark chocolate chunks and white chocolate chips)

1 extra earl grey tea bag

*to get the flavor to pop, you want it to be 3x as strong as you would normally drink 

**the splenda packets were included in my usual concentrate recipe, of which I add in 2 parts of water to drink. I found the sweetness of the finished product to be just right, so I've been sticking with it since. 1.5 packets of splenda has the equivalent sweetness of 15g sugar, or 16g of extra honey 

***I'll post the recipe of my chai concentrate below, feel free to use your favorite chai recipe instead:)

1.Get starter/levein ready, mine took about 4hrs @ 85f

2. Bring chai concentrate to a simmer, turn off heat and let steep for 1 hour, let cool off stove for another hour, strain out the 250g of warm tea in the bowl, along with the honey

3. Mix in all the flour, autolyse for 2 hrs

4.Bulk ferment @ about 85-95f 

Mix in all the starter/levein > rest 30min
hand mix in salt > rest 30min
Stretch and fold with dough scraper 3-5 mins till the dough show signs of increased strength and smoothness for the next step> rest 30 min

5. Mist counter and tip dough out, flatten dough out by stretching gently with wet hand, sprinkle tea bag/tea leaf &chocolate chips evenly, fold it into quarters lengthwise and roll it up from bottom to top to form a tight ball> rest 1 hour 
Light S/F > rest 1 hour
Light S/F > leave to bulk ferment for 1hr 45 mins

6.Shape
shape and proof in banneton for 20mins, cover and pop in fridge for 12-18 hours

7.Bake

Preheat oven to 425f with Dutch oven, I sprinkled coarse cornmeal at the bottom of the Dutch oven before I place the parchment in to prevent a burn bottom as it's an enriched dough with sugar and milk.

Tip dough onto the parchment, score, cover  

Bake@ 425f 30min lid on
Drop temp to 400, take the lid off, slide a baking sheet underneath the do, continue baking for 15 more mins

Keep an eye on it the last 10 mins as the bread can easily over brown, cover the top loosely with foil that happens


My Chai concentrate recipe 
600g milk
200g water
3 cinnamon sticks
3 Tbsp ground ginger
3 slices fresh ginger
12 cloves
8 cardamom pods (Cracked open)
1 Tbsp + 1tsp vanilla
5 earl grey tea bags
6 splenda, 1/8 tsp of salt, pinch of black pepper 

Put everything except the tea bags in the pot and bring it to a light simmer, turn off heat, throw tea bags in, cover, let steep for 1 hour