Who knew that today is International Chocolate Day [or #WorldChocolateDay], and is every July 7th? This year, 2021, celebrates the official twelfth anniversary of the day. But this could well be the 471st anniversary because it was on this day in history (1550 AD) when chocolate was first enjoyed in Europe.

We have come a long way since then, and these days we celebrate its arrival on our menu with all kinds of goodies, including chocolate milk and hot chocolate to drink, chocolate cake and brownies, candy bars, or anything covered in chocolate.

Yes indeed, this is a day is for chocolate lovers.

But for those of you who follow this blog, you already know that July is National Blueberry Month, and I have been buying and making sourdough goods with blueberries all month. In fact this very morning I made blueberry sourdough pancakes for breakfast. They were oh so good!

So today I wanted to try bringing both chocolate and blueberries into a loaf of sourdough bread. Sadly I could not locate any recipes that combine both. This of course means today is going to be a long experiment— I love experimenting in the kitchen, especially if it works out.

Pain Noir is a traditional French loaf is known as black bread. Often nuts, seeds, and fruit are added to the dough

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE SOURDOUGH NOIR

Serving Size:
1 boule, 18 slices
Time:
10-24 hours depending on your long ferment time
Difficulty:
moderately challenging

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix your starter, water, sugar, and vanilla until well combined.
  2. Whisk (or sift) together with the bread flour with the cocoa powder then add this to the wet mix above and mix it all together there are no signs of dry flour. Cover it for a one-hour autolyse (rest).
  3. After the autolyse, add salt, blueberries, and chocolate chips by combining them with several turns (lifting and folding the dough up and over itself several times) until the dough comes back together in a ball.
  4. During the next 2 hours of repeat the stretch and fold process every 30 minutes, for a total of four times.
  5. To prevent burning during the bake, on the last turn, try to keep your fillings tucked into the dough.

    BULK FERMENTATION
  6. Cover the dough and leave it to rise about 1½- 2 times its original size. This can take between 4-12 hours (or overnight in the fridge) depending on your need for a long ferment.

    SHAPE THE DOUGH
  7. Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface, and let it rest for 30 more minutes (this is especially important if your dough is cold from the fridge).
  8. Then divide the dough in half to make two small loaves, or leave it whole for a larger single loaf. 
  9. Using e a bench scraper, gather the dough one side at a time, and fold it into its center OR roll it up jelly-roll-style. Then using your hands or the scraper, move and rotate the dough in quarter turns until you are happy with how it looks, but be sure to build surface tension on the dough as you take this step.

    FINAL RISE
  10. Put the dough into a proofing basket or a floured/cloth-lined bowl to rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  11. It is ready when the dough is slightly puffy and passes the poke test (see Tip 12 here).

    BAKE THE BREAD
  12. Preheat your oven to 400°F / 205°C.
  13. Invert the dough onto a sheet of lightly oiled parchment and slash the dough with a lame or serrated bread knife
  14. Using the corners of the parchment, carefully lower the dough into the pot.
  15. Bake the bread with the lid on for 20 minutes. Then remove the lid, and bake it uncovered for another 20–40 minutes until you get an internal temperature of about 205°F / 96°C. (Also during the last ten minutes of baking, if you crack open the oven door it should crisp the crust more if you like it that way.)
  16. Take the bread from the oven to cool on a wire rack for an hour or two before slicing. This sets the dough and prevents gumminess.
  17. If you like, dust the bread with powdered sugar before serving.

Pain Noir is a traditional French loaf is known as black bread, but it is hard to find a good sourdough recipe for it. There are several baker’s yeast-based recipes on the internet that you might locate and the same is true of blueberry bread, but bringing them both together and making them with sourdough was the challenge… and I can tell you it was well worth it.