Mini Chocolate Croissant Sourdough Loaves
I’ve been loving these mini chocolate croissant (pain au chocolat if you’re feeling fancy) sourdough loaves, and they’re perfect for Valentine’s Day! These would make a great addition to your Valentine’s meal, or such a cute gifting idea for your friends and family. They’re a take on classic artisan sourdough, but made with a touch of decadence with the addition of grass fed butter and clean-ingredient dark chocolate. Imagine a chocolate croissant made into a loaf of sourdough - buttery, flaky, rich and chocolatey. It’s this all wrapped into one.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make chocolate croissant sourdough - this recipe makes 3 mini loaves weighing about 350g each, but it can easily be doubled or tripled if you want more for gifting!
375g filtered water
50g active sourdough starter
500g organic flour (I use Sunrise Flour Mill organic heritage flour always!)
10g sea salt/Himalayan salt
1 stick grass fed butter, cold
40g chopped chocolate (whatever you prefer, but I only use and highly recommend Hu’s dark salty chocolate)
Instructions
Prepare your base dough as usual - mix flour, water, starter and salt. Fermentolyse for about 30 minutes.
Start stretch and folds every 30 minutes. After the second set, grate the cold butter over your dough and add in chopped chocolate. Continue the remaining stretch and folds as normal - the inclusions will naturally incorporate as you go. After 4 total sets of stretch and folds have been completed, cover the dough and set aside.
Bulk ferment (remember, never go off the clock! Learn to read your dough to understand when the bulk ferment is at the proper stage). You’re looking for about a 70% rise, lots of air bubbles under the surface, and the dough should start rounding out on top and pulling away from the sides of your bowl.
When the bulk ferment is done and you’re ready to shape, divide the dough until 3 equal pieces (this should be roughly 350g each, but you can also make one large loaf if you want!). Shape as usual.
Move the dough to bannetons and put in the fridge to cold proof. The amount of time is up to you - I personally like around a 36 hour cold proof to maximize the fermentation benefits and structure of the loaf, but I recommend at least 8-12 hours if possible.
Preheat oven to 475F with Dutch oven inside. When hot, remove loaf from fridge, flip onto parchment paper, score, and put inside Dutch oven with lid on for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 15-18 minutes. (This time may vary as every oven runs differently, so keep an eye on it for a nice dark golden brown color.)
Let cool and enjoyyy!
If you give this a try, tag me on Instagram @bysourdoughmama!
Want to learn more about sourdough baking?
Check out my full Sourdough Basics guide, or sign up for updates on upcoming sourdough workshops right here.