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

Ingredients

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.