Rye Chocolate Cherry Sourdough

Fresh/frozen cherries sounds delicious and will very much impact the water situation as well as the color of the crumb. I’d start by only adding the defrosted cherries and very small amounts of water until the dough is just wet enough to incorporate the flour and other ingredients.

If the cherries are delicate and squishy, they’re likely to give off more water as you mix and as time passes, so be prepared to add a small out of flour in the stretching and folding process, or to simply have a wetter dough. Also a purple-pink crumb :slight_smile:

I’d love to hear how to goes.

Wow I didn’t expect such a quick response! I sure don’t mind pink or red bread…Now that could be quite fun…I’m starting it tomorrow…My rye flour was too old. I got some fresh today! woot…Thanks so much!

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I finally made the bread…unfortunately not photo worthy but it did taste delicious.
I made my yeast water with the dried cherries. Somewhat surprised at how quickly the fruit rose to the top etc but wasn’t absolutely sure it was fermented? so I used yw and 1/4 tsp of yeast. The dough was really sticky and I wonder if I added a bit too much water. I didnt do any stretching or folding until last proof. Start to finish was 11 hrs. I am not sure I let it proof enough as it was a very heavy dense bread but I still ate it. I would like to make it again but have a few questions. I have now removed the cherries from the yw. Am I supposed to keep fruit in it? Or will it stay fermented? If it doesnt i could just use it inplace of the water.
Any suggestion on how to lighten up the dough?

The dough is indeed very sticky - so your water amount was probably okay.

I’m glad the taste was good. As for the density, perhaps a longer final proof in the refrigerator next time? Not knowing the breakdown of that 11 hours or what the dough looked like at each stage makes it hard to say, of course.

You should be taking out the old fruit, adding new, and fresh water as well. Approx half yeast water and half fresh water. Leave it out at room temp for a bit to feast, before refrigerating it until your next bake. Take it out to room temp for a while - maybe 12 hrs before using it again. If it sits in the fridge for a long time, you’ll need to see what life it has. Possibly re-feed before using again.

I hope this helps. Here is more info. There’s a learning curve, and you will gain experience with observation and using your nose as well as the fizzy visuals.

Thanks again… I guess I did kind of lump all the timing together…it was 9hrs fermenting, then I took it out of the bowl and tried to shape it into a round. I left it on the parchment and let is rise again for approx two hrs. I know I started at 7 am and it was in the oven around 6-6:30 ish.
But you are right …Practice makes perfect. And I will keep the yw going.

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Lovely bread! I made it today but didn’t have YW so I added 1 teaspoon of yeast along with my Rye sourdough starter. Instead of the dried cherries, I used dried cranberries. I can’t wait to slice into this baby!

How does one add photos to their post?

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Bread results were not the greatest. Flours used were red fife bolted and Abruzzi rye. To leaven I used a rye sourdough starter with the yeast water. It was about 5-6 days old. Had a great first rise but really had a tough time on the second proofing. Baked very dark till it came up to temp. Overall fabulous flavor. I proofed using my bread proofed at about 85°. Trying again today just setting the loaf to rise in my cooler kitchen.

That looks great - I bet the cranberries were delicious too!

I’m glad the bread tasted good, and I think it looks pretty good too. The yeast water does make for a very dark crust. I look forward to hearing how the changes you make in the process affect the outcome.

I wish my rye chocolate cherry no knead bread had the rise that my kneaded raisin cinnamon bread does…or my old fashioned oatmeal bread.
It was a good, snowy day to bake today.

This was the perfect recipe to celebrate my sourdough starter’s first birthday. I followed the recipe closely (without yeast water) and baked this this morning after overnight bulk fermentation. The result is great. I baked the loaf in a dutch oven and the bottom crust ended up blackened and crisp but thankfully this did not impart a bitter or burnt taste. Next time I will experiment with not using the dutch oven to see if the bottom crust comes out less blackened (I’ll bake on my baking stone instead of in the dutch oven). I will also hold back some of the water. I added the full 370g, but next time I will use a bit less and adjust from there. Thanks for a great recipe.

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Happy Birthday to your starter!

I’m glad you had a good experience with the recipe. Your bread looks super!

(One thing you can do if you notice the bottom of any bread getting dark is put a cold cookie sheet under the DO or between the bread and the stone for the last 10-15 minutes.)

Melissa I tried again and much better results. I used the rye sourdough and yeast water but I added a pinch of bioreal. I let it proof first round without doing anything for about 4 hours. I had to go out that evening so divided the dough into 2 batard proofing baskets and let it go for about 5 hours. Came home and heated up my baking steel to 500° For 30 minutes and then I threw those bad boys on! I put a pan of water on the lower rack to create some steam and baked for about 30 minutes till they came up to temp. Came out beautifully and so delicious. My son in law said it was the best bread he has ever eaten!

Beautiful! I’m glad your second round went well and your family enjoyed it.

I love the book ‘Bien Cuit’ by Zachary Golper and have made many recipes from this book, his recipe for Sourdough Buckwheat bread is a favourite of mine, one of many, and then as I understand, those from Eastern Europe/Russia are also are very keen on Buckwheat.

Chocolate cherry rye! Oh my!!


I don’t have a round clay baker but I do have the country loaf batard. I was hoping (and praying) that the shape of the baker really wouldn’t matter in the final result. With all the cherries and chocolate chips added to the dough you should have seen the size of this conglomeration in the proofing basket. I half-expected it to explode out of the basket on its final rise, LOL. I swear it almost did; it was THAT full. When I put it into the preheated clay baker it filled the bottom so I was pretty sure I’d get a good sized loaf. I wasn’t trying for a fancy scoring. I basically just put in a zig-zag, and I neglected to brush off the excess rice flour from the proofing basket so my loaf may not earn brownie points for appearance but I was really happy with the resulting loaf.

What can I say? This is a decadent taste experience that is very complex. I don’t even know how to describe the combination of rye, chocolate and cherries. I was able to find dried unsweetened unsulfured bing cherries and semi-sweet chocolate chips at my local Trader Joe’s, so those were the ones I used. I may try a different chocolate next time, perhaps a darker one. I’m especially fond of dark chocolate. My husband loves rye bread so this different approach to rye was definitely intriguing. We both enjoyed this bread very much. I’ve got to say that every recipe I have tried here on Breadtopia.com has been a wonderful experience. I’ve baked the NK sourdough, NK sourdough artisan rye, NK sourdough cinnamon raisin and now this one. All four of these breads are going to be baked over and over again because they’re wonderful.

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