This kit comes with a FREE pot of sweet chocolate sourdough starter. It is refreshed using organic cocoa powder and sugar, which encourages osmotolerance from the yeasts – this can be helpful when making sweet sourdough. The starter is made using organic strong white flour, organic cocoa and unrefined sugar produced by famers who care deeply about the soil and the land.

Contents:

Free: 50g of our chocolate organically certified fresh sourdough starter

3 x 35g Organic cocoa & sugar mix to refresh with (you can buy more or simply make up your own.)

1 x 1kg Organic Strong White Flour

1 x Ceramic kilner jar: height – 15cm, diameter – 9cm, capacity 600ml (20.3 fl oz)

1 x adhesive sourdough jar label (please note that this sticker is hand wash proof but it is also not attached to the jar to make it easier for you to write on before sticking on the jar – we suggest using a permanent pen to date and name your starter – this is not included.)

1 set of Sourdough Cards

1 x SD002 Chocolate Starter card
1 x SD005 Basic sourdough recipe
1 x SD006 Sourdough Loaf Record
1 x SD007 Sourdough Baking Schedule
1 x SD008 Sourdough Flavour & Tasting Card

What kind of sourdough can I make using a chocolate starter?

You can make any bread with this starter. This robust starter can be used to leaven any bread whatsoever but we particularly love this starter with the rye formula on page 127 of The Sourdough School book, and the Chocolate & Roast Hazelnut recipe on page 145. It is beautifully lactic and makes deliciously sweet sourdough but don’t limit it to the ones we suggest in the book. Cacao works as a beautiful background flavour, but it also brings specific lactic acid bacteria that thrive in warmer temperatures. Cocoa fermentation takes place 10 degrees either side of the Equator because cocoa trees grow well in humid tropical climates with regular rains and a short dry season.

This is one of the reasons that this is a starter we recommend to our students if they live in a warm climate.

* Please note that our sourdough starters are built up, nurtured and posted out in absolute peak condition. If you choose a starter kit then the whole kit will be sent as one. We refresh and pack the starter here at the school to ensure each starter is in optimal condition and at its most active.

* We suggest that when you receive your starter it is refreshed immediately. As you might imagine it will have been traveling for a few days and in need of feeding ASAP in accordance with the instructions on the Chocolate Sourdough Starter refreshment record card – included in the kit.

* For best results, continue to refresh your starter using the recommended flour or at least one that is very similar. Using a different flour can alter the microbial composition of the starter and may affect its level of activity. Failure to feed the starter with the ingredients we suggest, or at longer intervals than recommended will change the way it behaves.