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    Milk and Pop » Recipes » Sourdough Bread

    Sourdough Chocolate Starter (how to make one and where to use)

    Published: Sep 1, 2020 · Modified: Jan 16, 2025 by Tatiana Kamakura · 11 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links

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    Sweet and bitter, made with raw cacao powder and white flour, a sourdough chocolate starter can deepen the flavor of cocoa and whole grain loaves, and take your chocolate discard recipes to a whole new level.

    Chocolate sourdough starter in a jar with wooden spoon.

    If you’re looking for a regular wild culture, I can teach you how to make a sourdough starter step-by-step with whole wheat and white flour.

    What is a Chocolate Starter

    A Chocolate Sourdough Starter is one made with the addition of raw cacao powder.

    Using cocoa when making a sourdough starter is a creative way to make your wild yeast journey more fun. The first time I read about this possibility was in the book “Sourdough School” by Vanessa Kimbel, and it got me intrigued from the start.

    The explanation she gives for adding raw cocoa is that cocoa beans, traditionally fermented under banana leaves in tropical heat, are rich in a specific type of lactic acid bacteria. These bacteria can be found in raw cacao, and their presence adds unique, complex flavors to the starter.

    This cocoa starter is made with a touch of sugar (half the amount of cacao used), which helps the right yeast to thrive, boosting fermentation and strengthening the starter. If you’re ready for something unique, this starter will transform your regular sourdough loaf with bold, rich flavors.

    Ingredients

    Chocolate sourdough starter ingredients: sugar, cacao, flour, starter and water.

    Sourdough Starter. You’ll need a regular sourdough starter to create a raw cacao starter.

    Raw Cacao Powder. Raw cacao powder is made from unroasted cacao beans, while cocoa powder comes from beans that have been roasted. The roasting process destroys the healthy bacteria that help with fermentation, so for making a chocolate starter like Vanessa taught in her book, it’s important to use raw cacao powder.

    Cocoa beans are typically roasted at temperatures between 250°F and 350°F (121°C and 177°C) for 30–90 minutes. Roasting can kill most of the lactic acid bacteria, including the homofermentative ones, so using roasted cocoa wouldn't add the LAB from raw cacao. Adding roasted cacao will, however, add a new depth of flavor when making recipes that call for chocolate.

    This recipe also asks for sugar (granulated, caster sugar or raw cane sugar all work, but avoid any sweetener like monk fruit or erythritol), white flour (or the mix you use when feeding your starter) and water.

    How to Make a Chocolate Sourdough Starter

    We begin with a well-established sourdough starter—one that’s at least two months old and has consistently performed well. It should peak within 4-6 hours after feeding and have already been used to bake at least a handful of successful loaves.

    Tip: Make sure to reserve only a portion of your starter for this process. It's important to keep a "regular" starter, or at least a backup, in case anything goes wrong with the transition.

    We’re starting with a regular sourdough starter. You can use sourdough discard, or fed sourdough starter after it has peaked.

    In a clean jar, add sourdough starter and water, mixing until the starter dissolves into the liquid. Then, add raw cacao powder, flour and sugar, mixing until you get all ingredients well combined - like when you’re feeding your regular starter.

    Chocolate sourdough starter after a feeding in a jar, with rubber band.

    Make sure the cacao is free of lumps. Raw cacao can become lumpy if stored incorrectly, so if necessary, dissolve the lumps by straining it through a mesh strainer before mixing.

    Cover the jar with its lid, placing it at room temperature. Level the starter with a rubber band so you can check the rise, and wait for it to peak.

    Since cacao/cocoa absorbs more water than wheat flour, this starter might feel thicker than your regular starter.

    Chocolate sourdough starter with bubbles and rubber band.

    How to Maintain a Cacao Starter

    You can either keep the cacao starter as a one-time batch for a recipe, or maintain it regularly.

    One time use: Use this recipe and create the chocolate starter only when needed, starting with your regular starter. Use it fully, with no refeeding.

    Keeping as a New Starter: Treat it as you would treat your regular starter. Feed it daily if kept at room temperature, or store in the fridge if you don’t bake that often and want to feed once a week.

    I’m keeping a cacao starter to check if the flavors develop even more as time passes. The ratio I use for feeding is 1:2:2, 1 part of starter to 2 parts of water and 2 parts of cocoa-flour mix (but you can use whatever feed ratio is best for you). The cocoa-flour mix is made with 80% of white bread flour and 20% of raw cacao powder.

    Like a regular sourdough starter, you can use a chocolate sourdough starter straight from the fridge! Feed it, wait for it to peak, then place it back into the refrigerator. It will be good to use for up to 5 days.

    Expert Tips

    You don’t need to use whole wheat or rye flour to feed this starter—white flour and raw cacao will work just fine.

    Don't transfort all your starter into a cacao starter: always keep a backup of your regular starter for flexibility. Learn how to dry your sourdough starter so you can have a backup that takes up little space—it also makes a fantastic gift for any baker or sourdough enthusiast.

    Chocolate sourdough starter in a glass jar.

    Where to use

    A chocolate sourdough starter can be used in countless recipes, from chocolate sourdough loaves to non-chocolate recipes that benefit from a subtle cocoa flavor. 

    My favorite recipe to use this starter with is Chocolate Sourdough Bread. However, I find that any recipe using chocolate, coffee, or whole grains can benefit from a cacao sourdough starter. It is not essential, though: making a chocolate starter is just a nice sourdough experiment, and you will still get delicious results with a wheat-only sourdough starter.

    If you decide to keep this starter, you can also use this starter discard. For that, my readers’ favorite sourdough chocolate cake and these chocolate sourdough muffins are great choices! I tried it, and it made the most delicious chocolate baked goods I’ve ever had.

    Have you tried making a Chocolate Sourdough Starter? Please leave a 🌟 star rating in the recipe card below, I'd love to know how it went!

    📖 Recipe

    Chocolate sourdough starter in a jar with spoon.

    Sourdough Chocolate Starter

    Tatiana Kamakura
    Sweet and bitter, made with raw cacao powder and white flour, a chocolate sourdough starter can deepen the flavor of cocoa and whole grain loaves, and take your chocolate discard recipes to a whole new level.
    5 from 5 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved!
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    4 hours hrs
    Total Time 4 hours hrs 5 minutes mins
    Course Sourdough
    Cuisine American
    Servings 1 starter
    Calories 412 kcal
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Equipment

    • 1 Clean Jar

    Ingredients
     
     

    • 50 g sourdough starter
    • 80 g white flour all-purpose or bread flour
    • 20 g raw cacao powder
    • 100 g water
    • 10 g sugar

    Instructions
     

    • Begin with a sourdough starter that’s at least two months old and has consistently performed well. The initial sourdough starter should peak within 4-6 hours after feeding and have been used to bake at least a few successful loaves. Make sure to reserve only a portion of your starter for this process to keep a "regular" starter or a backup, just in case.
    • In a clean jar, add your sourdough starter and water. Mix until the starter dissolves into the liquid.
    • Add the raw cacao powder, flour, and sugar to the jar, then mix everything together until fully combined, just like when you're feeding your regular starter.
    • Cover the jar with its lid and place it at room temperature. Use a rubber band to mark the starting level of the starter, so you can easily track its rise.
    • Allow the starter to rise and peak. Once it has reached its peak, it’s ready to use or feed again as needed!

    Video

    Notes

    About the Raw Cacao. Make sure the cacao is free of lumps. Cacao can become lumpy if stored incorrectly. If necessary, dissolve the lumps by straining the cacao through a mesh strainer before mixing it into the starter.
    About flour. You don’t need to use whole wheat or rye flour to feed this starter—white flour will work just fine.
    About sugar. It needs to be cane sugar: granulated, caster and raw organic sugar are all good options. Don’t use sweeteners like monk sugar or erythritol.
    Flour to Cacao ratio. Use 80% of flour and 20% of raw cacao when feeding. Both together should weigh the same as the water added.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1starterCalories: 412kcalCarbohydrates: 82gProtein: 18gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 12mgPotassium: 390mgFiber: 10gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 500IUCalcium: 41mgIron: 8mg
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Larissa

      April 09, 2025 at 7:53 am

      5 stars
      Loved this! My starter rose so well and I made a BOMB chocolate sourdough loaf with it. However, how do I feed it to keep it active and not moldy without making it to chocolatey/sugary?

      Reply
      • Tatiana Kamakura

        April 09, 2025 at 8:48 am

        Hi Larissa,

        Love hearing that! I’ve been feeding my chocolate starter using the same ratios from the recipe card. I made one with raw cocoa and one with regular roasted cocoa, and noticed the one with roasted cocoa got a bit sluggish after about 2 months. A 1:10:10 feeding with just bread flour and water brought it right back to life though.

        I keep both of mine in the fridge and feed them at least once a week or whenever I’m baking with them. That’s been enough to keep them active and mold-free so far. I do wonder if this type of starter would thrive more with a room temp routine—but feeding it daily with cocoa would get pricey fast, so fridge life it is for now. Hope that helps, cheers!

        Reply
    2. Lenna

      March 10, 2025 at 9:04 am

      5 stars
      Started one today, so far so good! I have a question though, have you noticed any differences in activity compared to a regular starter?

      Reply
      • Tatiana Kamakura

        March 10, 2025 at 3:53 pm

        That’s awesome! I’ve noticed that when I feed my starter with Dutch-processed cocoa, it tends to get a bit sluggish. But with raw cocoa (natural cocoa powder), it stays much more active. Cheers!

        Reply
    3. Susan Reid

      July 09, 2020 at 7:24 am

      I must have read most of the sourdough articles on Pinterest, but your's is the most comprehensive, informative and easy to understand set of instructions I've come across yet - it took a lot of work to put this together!! Thank you so much!!

      Reply
      • Milk and Pop

        July 09, 2020 at 11:09 am

        I'm so glad you like it, Susan, thank you for reading it! Always happy to help 😀

        Reply
    4. Liberty

      June 06, 2020 at 3:29 pm

      Thanks!!! This is very helpful especially to the newbies like me...

      Reply
      • Milk and Pop

        June 07, 2020 at 1:36 pm

        Glad I could help, Liberty! 😀

        Reply
    5. JOY ANN JONES

      June 04, 2020 at 7:33 am

      Thank you. Worded so well wven i can understand. I am going to try to make my starter. I hope it works. After reading your instructions who can fail. Well haha i hope i don't. I come from a family of bakers and i hope to make them proud. So i can't wait. I will leave a comment to you on Instagram or Facebook. Thank you and appreciate your words of sourdough starter wisdom. I smiled through the entire article?.

      Reply
      • Milk and Pop

        June 07, 2020 at 1:44 pm

        Hi Joy! I'm so glad you enjoyed my guide! I'm sure you're going to make a great starter, but feel free to e-mail me if you have any problem and we can try to figure out together. 😀

        Reply
        • Arlene

          March 27, 2025 at 10:25 am

          5 stars
          Thank you for sharing your recipe. going to try a make it this weekend.

          Reply
    5 from 5 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    Hi, I'm Tati! Here at Milk and Pop, I’m all about making sourdough simple, doable, and fun. Whether you’re just getting started or trying to bake more consistently, I’ll help you fit sourdough into your real life, one loaf at a time.

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