These are the perfect sweet treat for Valentines Day or special anniversary. These miniature sourdough artisan loaves stuffed with milk chocolate and dehydrated strawberries are sure to make your loved one smile.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Mini Chocolate Strawberry Loaves
I brought these loaves to my women’s group, and they are the perfect sharing size. You can cut them in half or have a whole mini loaf to yourself to enjoy! Make these for Valentine’s Day, girls’ night or a special anniversary. It’s the perfect touch that will make your friends smile! While also being a delicious treat.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Starter- Sourdough Starter – the leavening agent to sourdough bread. Every good loaf of bread begins with a strong and healthy sourdough starter.
Water – filtered water is best.
All Purpose Flour – Unbleached, organic all- purpose flour.
Whole Wheat Flour – I like the flavor whole wheat flour brings to an inclusion loaf.
Salt – I use pink Himalayan salt for all my recipes but use what you have.
Chocolate Chips – one cup of milk chocolate chips, or you can use white chocolate chips 🙂
Dehydrated Strawberries – I used one bag (which is a one-ounce bag) of the simply organic dehydrated strawberries.
👩🍳 How to Make Mini Chocolate Strawberry Artisan Loaves
- In the morning, feed your sourdough starter.
- In the afternoon, when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough.
- Mix together the starter and water until the starter is fully dissolved and turns into a milky liquid. Add the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Mix everything together until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
- After resting, pull the sides of the dough up and towards the middle, rotating the bowl each time until a semi – smooth dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 – 1 hour.
- Uncover and perform first set of stretch and folds/coil folds. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Add the chocolate chips and dehydrated strawberries to the bowl and perform your second set of stretch and folds, working all the inclusions into the dough. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- After resting, perform the last set of stretch and folds. All of the inclusions should be evenly distributed throughout, and the dough should be both strong and smooth. Cover with a damp bowl cover/ tea towel and let bulk ferment on the counter for 8 – 10 hours.
- The next morning, turn the dough over onto a lightly floured workspace. Using your bench scraper and food scale, separate the dough into 6 equal (375 gram) mini balls of dough.
- Shape into a small boule (round shape), and place seam side up in your mini bannetons. Place all the bannetons on a baking sheet and cover the whole thing with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for at least two hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450 degrees with an oven safe dish on the bottom rack.
- Turn your mini dough balls over onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Score the tops of the loaves with large “X” shape going from one side of dough to the other. A deep score will ensure a nice oven spring while baking.
- Boil water on the stove in a kettle and pour it into the oven safe dish that’s been in the oven preheating (I use my large cast iron skillet). Place the baking sheet with the bread onto the middle rack above the water.
- It’s best to do this step quickly, so you can trap the steam from the boiling water inside the oven.
- Bake with the steam for 20 minutes. Remove the steam and bake for an additional 18 – 20 minutes, just depending on how brown you like the outside of your bread.
- Remove the bread and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely before serving!
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Wet your hands before folding the dough so they don’t stick while you are doing the stretch and folds/coil folds.
- I used to bake these on a large pizza baking stone in my oven, and liked how it turned out! So, if you have a pizza stone, give it a try.
- A cast iron pan is the easiest oven safe baking dish to pour the boiling water in to create the steam. Place a dish towel at the top of your oven near the handle to further trap the steam while you are baking.
🗒 Variations
These are a stuffed version of my sourdough bread bowls. You can substitute the inclusions for any that you like.
- Jalapeno Cheddar Mini Loaves
- Sourdough Bread Bowls.
🗒 Substitutions
If you wanted to substitute for fresh strawberries, that would add quite a bit of hydration to the dough, so keep that in mind and add more flour during stretch and folds if you need to.
- Whole wheat flour – all-purpose flour
- Milk Chocolate chips – white chocolate chips
- Dehydrated Strawberries – Blueberries.
🗒 Best served with
- Breakfast
- A snack, smeared with butter or cream cheese.
- Dessert + a cup of coffee.
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store the leftovers in a brown paper bag/ Ziplock bag and on the counter for 2 – 3 days, or in a bread box for 3 – 4 days. If you want to freeze the loaves, I suggest pre-slicing them before placing them in your Ziplock bag into the freezer.
🤔 Common Questions
Yes! They might be a little more squished while baking, but place three loaves onto a piece of parchment paper and bake in the oven like a normal loaf. Removing the lid to release the steam halfway through.
Yes! If you want savory loaves – my Jalapeno Cheddar mini loaves/ bread bowls are super popular! Substitute the chocolate chips for jalapenos and measure the cheese with your heart ;).
Mini Chocolate + Strawberry Loaves
Equipment
- bowl cover/ tea towel
- bread mat/ parchment paper
Ingredients
- 100 grams bubbly, active sourdough starter
- 700 grams filtered water
- 900 grams all-purpose flour
- 100 grams whole wheat flour
- 18 grams salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 oz dehydrated strawberries
Instructions
- In the morning, feed your sourdough starter.
- In the afternoon, when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough.
- Mix together the starter and water until the starter is fully dissolved and turns into a milky liquid. Add the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Mix everything together until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
- After resting, pull the sides of the dough up and towards the middle, rotating the bowl each time until a semi – smooth dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Uncover and perform first set of stretch and folds/coil folds. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Add the chocolate chips and dehydrated strawberries to the bowl and perform your second set of stretch and folds, working all the inclusions into the dough. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- After resting, perform the last set of stretch and folds. All of the inclusions should be evenly distributed throughout, and the dough should be both strong and smooth. Cover with a damp bowl cover/ tea towel and let bulk ferment on the counter for 8 – 10 hours.
- The next morning, turn the dough over onto a lightly floured workspace. Using your bench scraper and food scale, separate the dough into 6 equal (375 gram) mini balls of dough.
- Shape into a small boule (round shape), and place seam side up in your mini bannetons. Place all the bannetons on a baking sheet and cover the whole thing with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for at least two hours.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450 degrees with an oven safe dish on the bottom rack.
- Turn your mini dough balls over onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Score the tops of the loaves with large "X" shape going from one side of dough to the other. A deep score will ensure a nice oven spring while baking.
- Boil water on the stove in a kettle and pour it into the oven safe dish that's been in the oven preheating (I use my large cast iron skillet). Place the baking sheet with the bread onto the middle rack above the water.
- It's best to do this step quickly, so you can trap the steam from the boiling water inside the oven.
- Bake with the steam for 20 minutes. Remove the steam and bake for an additional 18 – 20 minutes, just depending on how brown you like the outside of your bread.
- Remove the bread and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely before serving!
Notes
Nutrition
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Have you fermented mini loaves in small glass bowls versus bannetons?
I have not, but it would work just fine!
Do you have the measurements for just a single loaf?
This recipe makes two large loaves, or 6 mini loaves. If you split all the ingredients in half it will make you one regular sized loaf 🙂
What is the difference between dehydrated strawberries and freeze dried strawberries? I can’t seem to find dehydrated
If you have freeze dried strawberries that’s good! Both kinds would work just fine 🙂
Do you have to use the steam method when baking the bread? I have made regular sourdough loaves and have not done this method.
You can put them in a Dutch oven if you prefer, just cut down the bake time! The steam is just because these loaves fit on a baking sheet/ stone.