I made this loaf after a conversation with a friend who insisted that chocolate had no business in bread. I disagreed. A week later I brought her a still-warm slice and she changed her mind before she'd finished chewing.

This loaf isn't dessert. It's not sweet in the way a pastry is sweet. The chocolate is dark and slightly bitter, the cherries are tart and a little chewy, and the sourdough tang runs through everything. People never expect to like it as much as they do.

Formula#

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's %
Bread flour	500g	100%
Water	380g	76%
Starter (active)	100g	20%
Fine sea salt	10g	2%
Dark chocolate (70%), chopped	100g	-
Dried tart cherries	80g	-
Orange zest	1 tsp	-

Notes on the Inclusions#

Chocolate. Use 70% dark chocolate minimum. Lighter chocolate is too sweet and the cocoa butter content is different, which affects how it melts into the crumb. Buy a bar and chop it roughly rather than using chips. You want irregular pieces from small crumbs to larger chunks, which creates different textures throughout the loaf.

Cherries. Go for dried tart cherries (Montmorency if you can find them) rather than sweet cherries. The tartness is essential. It mirrors the acidity of the sourdough and keeps the loaf from tipping into sweetness. If you can't find tart cherries, dried cranberries work surprisingly well.

Orange zest. One teaspoon only. This isn't an orange loaf. The zest is there to bridge the chocolate and cherry, tying them together without asserting itself as a third flavour.

Soaking the cherries. 30 minutes before you plan to laminate, cover the dried cherries in warm water. Drain well before adding. This keeps them from pulling moisture from the dough during bulk fermentation, which can affect the crumb structure.

Mixing#

Mix the dough the same way you would any sourdough. Nothing changes until lamination.

Lamination#

After the first stretch and fold set (about 30 minutes into bulk), turn the dough onto a wet surface and stretch it to a thin rectangle. Scatter the chocolate pieces first, then the soaked and well-drained cherries, then the orange zest. Fold and return to the bowl, then resume your stretch and fold schedule normally.

The chocolate will begin to soften from the dough's warmth. That's fine. It helps it integrate rather than sitting as hard chunks that can tear the gluten.

Bulk and Cold Proof#

Bulk fermentation runs about 5 hours at 76°F. The chocolate can slightly affect fermentation rate, so watch the dough rather than the clock. Cold proof 12 to 16 hours.

Baking#

Bake in a Dutch oven the usual way. The scoring on this loaf matters more than usual. The chocolate pieces near the surface can create unexpected weak spots if the score isn't clean and confident. I use a single, decisive diagonal score.

The loaf won't look dramatically different from the outside after baking. The interior, when you cut it open, is where it reveals itself.

When to Cut It#

Wait a full two hours before cutting. The chocolate sets slowly, and cutting too early gives you a smeared, gummy crumb that misrepresents the actual texture. When it's fully set, the chocolate firms into defined, glossy pockets that hold their shape in the slice.

How to Eat It#

Unadorned, in thick slices. Or toasted, with a thin spread of salted butter. Some people have reported eating slices cold from the fridge at 11pm while standing at the kitchen counter. I neither confirm nor deny this.