15th Birthday - Chocolate & Praline Almond Sourdough
It was my son's birthday last week. We threw him a surprise party (the ribbons in the pictures below were from his party). When I made my daughter's 17th birthday cake, I had a feeling that the next time when a birthday comes around, I would not want to make another sponge cake. I asked my son after his party what I could make him. In his true color, he said Chocolate Sourdough! Out of all my baking, this was the one that he commented "epic." Don't you just love the boy's choice of words? When you get a supportive family member like that, you just want to bake more. Anyway, with this levain bread, I made two variations from my last try:
- I didn't use cocoa powder, so the crumb color was not the usual cocoa color. On hindsight, it would have been better to use it; the chocolate sourdough doesn't look as decadent without it. (If you do put cocoa powder in your chocolate sourdough, give it the same hydration as you would your flour.) And,
- I added Australia-made praline almonds for crunchiness texture.
My formula
- 330 g starter @ 75% hydration
- 825 g bread flour (replace up to 8% of flour with cocoa powder if you wish)
- 240 g chocolate chips (24% total flour, which is quite a high ratio)
- 200 g praline almonds (20% total flour)
- 570 g water
- 30 g honey
- 20 g salt
Total dough weight 2.2 kg; overall dough hydration 73%
dough proving on a thick face towel to absorb moisture
You will need to line your dough with baking paper when the shaped dough is loaded onto the baking stone or the chocolate will stain the stone. Expensive chocolate or good quality chocolate chips are not necessary as they melt too easily; cheap cooking chocolate from supermarket works better. If you are interested in my procedure, please see here.
My son reluctantly gave one away as present.
Shiao-Ping
Comments
Seamless beauty Shiao-Ping! a true delicacy. How sour does it get in your loaves? do you feel that the sourness is well pronounced? or it is merely subtle?
Mebake
Hi Mebake
Thank you for your comment. Sorry that I didn't realize there were questions in your comment. This sourdough is only mildly sour. I kept one in the freezer for my son's friends when they came to visit during the Christmas holidays. The sourness is not pronounced but it is there. My son doesn't like this one as much as my last Chocolate Sourdough.
It's so wonderful that your children appreciate what you bake! They really seem to enjoy all the nuances of your different breads. Mine have an overwhelming sweet tooth (teeth?) and I just made a very sweet brownie/cake for my son's 14th. His was on Nov. 29th. What is your son's B-day?
Happy Birthday!
Marni
... friends who don't have a sweet tooth! His B-day is on the 23rd.
Thanks.
tell me Shiao Ping, when you make a batch of sourdough bread of that type, how long will it last at room temperature, or do you freeze them after baking? how do you store your sourdough leftovers?
They are best on the day when the crust is still cruchy and crispy. After 24 hours I generally prefer it toasted. I think they can last up to 4 days but I generally don't like it at room temperature that long. If I know they won't get consumed by the second day, I generally would slice them and store them in the freezer.
I just threw a batch of Cranberry-walnut-pumpkin bread in the freezer...as soon as that's gone, this is the next one I'm going to make. It looks so amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe! It's awesome your son appreciates your baking skills! And what a nice guy he must be to give away a loaf. Your posts are great. My starter has been abandoned in the fridge for about 3 weeks...time to resurrect it!
Sue
Shiao-Ping
thank you shiao-ping. i would tend to do the same.
I prefer your cocoa powder version for the looks alone. Nothing like a good birthday desert bread - and yours is very nice indeed. This is going on my bucket list like so many other of your fine breads. I loved your orange semolina turmeric bread too. I made that with orange YW instead of SD.