Shiao-Ping's Chocolate SD-My take
When I saw Shiao-Ping's post of Chocolate Sourdough, I knew I had to try it. Her beautiful images drew me into the project and made me drool for a rich dark decadent desert bread. I thought it might pair with cranberry's well and tried a couple different liquors to soak them for extra flavor. I had some great morning oatmeal for a couple days but in the end I decided to let the cranberry's be cranberry's.
I followed SP's time line nearly exactly except I let the dough proof in plastic bannetons at room temp until they were 50% larger. On bake day, I held my breath and slashed the rather dense dough after dusting and loaded the first 2 in the oven. The cut marks didn't open even a little when I made the slash and I was worried these were going to be black doorstops.
To my delight and surprise after the 10 minute steam timer went off, I checked and found the oven spring was happening.
One interesting thing to report. Just as I was loading on a stone, I saw some chocolate chips on the surface and wondered how much of a mess I would have after baking. To my surprise, the chips don't seem to run out. In fact the ones on the exterior were firm to the touch when I unloaded the oven. I don't know much of anything about chocolate in the kitchen so maybe someone with pastry experience will jump in on this.
As Shiao-Ping said the flavor is Moorish. To me that means I need more for lunch. This is a delicious gift bread that takes a couple days including the SD elaboration and well worth the effort. Thank you Shiao-Ping for your lovely inspiration.
Here is the recipe as posted by Shiao-Ping [1], goddess of chocolate!
Eric