The Fresh Loaf

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Irish Mist Soaked Sour Cherry Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cocoa Sourdough

Benito's picture
Benito

Irish Mist Soaked Sour Cherry Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cocoa Sourdough

This is my first time with this recipe I put together.  Based on Dan and JC’s experiences with cocoa sourdough I’m hoping that my formula is a good tasting cocoa bread.  I used the usual 2% salt rather than lowering it because salt had hide bitterness.  I’ve added a bit more honey to try to balance the bitterness of cocoa.  I used a rich Dutch processed cocoa again with the alkalinization to help reduce acidity.  I added semisweet chocolate chunks and I used dried sour cherries that I soaked overnight in Irish Mist liqueur.  For those unfamiliar with Irish Mist it is made from aged Irish whiskeyheather and clover honey, aromatic herbs, and other spirits, blended to an ancient recipe claimed to be 1,000 years old.  The left over soak was so flavorful that I added it back to the bottle of Irish Mist, the sour cherry going so well with this liqueur.

Because the tannins in the cocoa tighten the gluten and increase the elasticity of the dough, I attempted to counter that by adding spelt to the dough and also using a relatively high hydration for a dough with only 20% whole grain.

Despite my alterations to the recipe hoping to increase extensibility the dough proved to be quite elastic.  So much so I was only able to do half coil folds most of the time.  Next bake I would consider using 10% protein all purpose to replace the bread flour, this dough doesn't require the extra strength of the 13.3% protein bread flour we have here in Canada.

 

For one 900 g loaf 90% hydration 

300 g white bread flour.              80%

41 g whole spelt flour (for added extensibility)             20% (including levain)

205 g water     (Next time 225 g and hold back water back down to 20 g)

40 g water for mixing later

6.75 g salt  

30 g cocoa powder alkalinized (Dutch Process) 8% cooked with 60 g water to make a syrup, then added 20 g honey to balance the bitterness of the chocolate

70 g levain   

 

20 g Honey 5.3%

70 g Chopped 60% semi sweet dark chocolate 20%

 

Total flour 376 g

Total water 320 g for 85% hydration 

Since added 40 g water during bassinage 90% hydration

 

68 g dried sour cherries 20% soaked in rum (or kirsch or Irish Mist) overnight

34 g toasted hazelnuts chopped 10% (consider dec to 10-15%)

 

Levain build 1:7:7 for overnight 74ºF

 

5 g starter + 35 g water + 35 g spelt

 

Overnight saltolyse

 

Bulk Fermentation 80-82ºF 

Add levain to dough, pinching along with hold out water, Rubaud for a few minutes then 700 French folds fully develop gluten.  

  1. + 30 min Bench letterfold, set up aliquot jar
  2. + 30 mins Lamination.  Place dough on wet counter and spread out into a large rectangle. Spread walnuts and cranberries on the dough in thirds. 
  3. + 30 min half Coil Fold
  4. + 30 min half Coil Fold
  5. + 30 min Coil Fold
  6. + 30 mins Coil Fold
  7. + 30 mins coil fold
  8. + 45 mins coil fold

 

End of BF - Shaping aliquot jar 60% or greater - the bench rest until aliquot 70% or greater.

 

Retard Overnight

 

Bake

Preheat oven 500ºF with dutch oven inside

Once 500ºF remove dough from banneton and score as desired.

 

Transfer to dutch oven placing the lid on top place in over lower ⅓ of the oven.  Turn oven temperature to 450ºF. Bake for 20 mins.  The drop temperature to 420ºF and continue to bake for 10 mins lid on.  Then remove lid and continue to bake in the dutch oven lid off for 10 mins further.  Remove bread from dutch oven and bake directly on the oven rack for another 10-20 mins until fully baked.

 

Comments

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

I love your decorative scoring, and look forward to the crumb shot and taste report.

Benito's picture
Benito

Hi Debra, thanks so much for your comment on my loaf.  Once sliced I'll update with photos, fingers crossed the crumb looks good.

Benny

pmccool's picture
pmccool

If you keep parading this kind of stuff in front of me, I’m apt to bake some for myself wife.  Yeah, for my wife. For Valentines Day, or something. 

Out of curiosity, what was your rationale for cooking the cocoa?  Did it produce the desired result?

Paul

Benito's picture
Benito

Thanks for your comments Paul. Hopefully this tastes good, based on Dan’s experience with cocoa sourdough I don’t have high hopes.  I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that the alterations to combat the bitterness of dark cocoa powder are successful.

Regarding cooking the cocoa, in my research on the effects of cocoa on gluten I found a study where they cooked the cocoa and water to boiling and that had the effect of increasing the extensibility of the gluten even more than the base dough without any cocoa added.  I wasn’t able to boil the cocoa and water because my saucepan is too large so the cocoa and water were too shallow a layer on the bottom and I felt it risked burning.  So it was a failed experiment.  I doubt I’ll have open a crumb with this given the effects of the cocoa and all the inclusions added.  I’ll just hope it tastes good.

Benny

Ilya Flyamer's picture
Ilya Flyamer

Supposedly, precooking cocoa makes the flavour stronger.

Ilya Flyamer's picture
Ilya Flyamer

That looks nice, so dark! I wonder if it would make amazing chocolate French toast?

Benito's picture
Benito

That’s a great idea Ilya.  But we’ll have to see if I did enough so it doesn’t taste bitter like Dan found it to be.

Benny

Carlo_Panadero's picture
Carlo_Panadero

Just saw this in IG and this is just amazing Benny, I should try ‘saltolyse’. Thanks for the recipe!!

Benito's picture
Benito

Don’t thank me yet Carlo, let’s find out if it tastes any good first.  Thanks for the inspiration Carlo, I’ve had this idea for quite some time but seeing your beautiful chocolate loaf gave me the push to finally make it.

Benny

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Beautiful loaf Benny!  Hope the flavor works out for you.  I tried a chocolate bread with yeast a while back and also used Dutch cocoa powder.  I didn’t find it bitter (not SD), but found the chocolate didn’t come through.  Was trying to find the perfect toast for peanut butter.

Looking forward to the crumb!

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Troy, this will be lunch today so I’ll slice it later.  It certainly looks rustic, I find that my loaves with this much inclusions always look rustic with the burnt fruit/nuts that make their way to the outside of the loaf.  I’ll report on the flavour at lunch as well.

Benito's picture
Benito

OK to say I am pleased is an understatement.  Now before I go into the analysis of the bake, I will start by saying that I would probably reduce the cocoa a bit.  Despite my attempts at increasing the extensibility of the dough the crumb is pretty tight.  Although I cannot taste any negative bitterness from the cocoa, I think I would reduce it to increase the extensibility of the dough since the tannins in the cocoa really really tighten the gluten in a way that I’ve never experienced before.  However the flavour was excellent.  The bread does not come off as a dessert since there isn’t much to sweeten the crumb other than a bit of honey which I added to counter dark chocolate bitterness.  However, when you get a bite toasted hazelnut it tastes like Nutella for adults ie not too sweet Nutella.  Then when you get a Irish Mist soaked dried sour cherry oh WOW so delicious.  Then altogether with the chunk of semisweet 60% dark chocolate, this is a great bread for people like my partner and I who love chocolate.  I can’t believe I waited so long to bake this, it had been on my list for so long.

I’ll definitely bake this again reducing the cocoa to see if I can open up the crumb a bit, but otherwise I have to say that this was delicious and so different from any other sourdough bread I’ve baked in my short history of baking bread.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Glad it turned out good and sounds like the chocolate really comes through.  Have to love it when an experiment turns out just like you planned! ?

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Troy, overall I’m really quite pleased how this turned out particularly how it tastes.  I will make this again for sure at some point making some changes to see if I can improve upon my first effort.

Benny

Benito's picture
Benito

Thank you Paul, I didn’t search on this site for ideas, I guess I should have.  I’ll bake mine again with a bit less cocoa and see if I can open up the crumb a bit but also check those out as well.

Benny