Hey Reader!

This week was a fun one.

I had the chance to be part of a chocolate collab dinner, which pushed me a bit creatively. I ended up making a few different loaves for the menu:

• Triple chocolate sourdough
• Cocoa nib sourdough
• Chocolate sourdough with cranberry and cocoa nut
• Brioche

It’s not every day you’re putting chocolate into bread like that, but it actually worked really well—especially paired with some of the dishes on the menu.

If you’re curious, there’s a full write-up by Adam Waxman of the dinner here:

👉 https://dinemagazine.ca/dine-now/innovative-chocolate-dishes-how-chefs-are-reinventing-chocolate​

I’ll break down a couple of those chocolate breads properly next week, but for now I wanted to share one of the riffs below.

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Easter Baking Sale Is Almost Here 🌸

Every year around Easter, I run a short sale on my baking courses and resources.

It’s honestly one of my favourite times to do it, spring hits, energy comes back a bit, and people actually feel like baking again.

This year’s sale will run Friday through Easter Monday (April 3–6), and I’ll have limited-time pricing on some of my most popular courses:

• Sourdough
• Rye
• Baguette
• Pizza
• Panettone

If you’ve been thinking about improving your technique or just getting more consistent at home, this is the best time to jump in.

One important note:​
I’m only sharing the sale pricing with people who click through and join the early access list. I won’t be blasting it to the full newsletter like usual.

So if you want first access (and the best pricing), make sure you’re on that list.

👉 Join the Easter Sale Early Access List

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Cocoa Nib Sourdough (A Simple Riff on Multigrain)

As part of the chocolate dinner this week, I put together a cocoa nib sourdough using my multigrain base.

Honestly, this is how I approach a lot of my baking now; it’s less about new recipes and more about taking a solid base and tweaking it.

In this case, I kept the structure the same and just built out the soaker with:

• Cocoa nibs
• Flax seeds
• Oats
• Cracked wheat

That’s it.

The cocoa nibs bring a really nice bitterness and texture, and they play surprisingly well with the grains.

The bigger takeaway here is that once you understand how to use a soaker, you can go in a lot of different directions. Sweet, savoury, more grain-forward, lighter, whatever you’re in the mood for.

If you want the full base formula and method, you can find my multigrain sourdough here:

👉 View the Multigrain Sourdough Recipe

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Raisin Soda Bread (Swap the Raisins for Anything) 🍇

I made this one for an upcoming collab and honestly… It’s one of those bakes I always forget how much I enjoy.

No levain, no long fermentation, no overthinking it.

You just mix it, shape it, bake it and you’ve got a really solid loaf in under an hour.

I went with raisins here, but you definitely don’t have to. This is one of those formulas you can riff on pretty easily:

• dried cranberries + a bit of orange zest
• aged cheddar + black pepper
• walnuts + a little honey

Same method, completely different result.

Ingredients (1 loaf)

• 532 g bread flour
• 420 g buttermilk
• 27 g sugar
• 6 g baking soda
• 61 g butter (cold, cut into small pieces)
• 149 g raisins
• 50 g eggs (1 large egg)
• 5 g salt

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C)
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt
3. Add the cold butter and toss it through the flour, then lightly rub it in
   You don’t need a perfect crumb—some larger pieces are totally fine
4. Stir in the raisins
5. Don’t overmix here—this isn’t bread dough, it’s closer to a scone
   Just bring it together and stop
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently shape it into a round
   No kneading, just enough to get it into shape
7. Place onto a parchment-lined tray or into a cast-iron pan
8. Score a deep “X” across the top
9. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until deep golden brown

How to Know It’s Done

• Feels light for its size
• Bottom sounds hollow when tapped
• Internal temp around 96–98°C

A Few Small Tips

• Cold butter = better texture
• Works fairly quickly once the liquid goes in
• Don’t overwork the dough (this is the big one)

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Sourdough Pop Tarts 🍓

We made these this week as part of the same collab (with a raisin filling), and they turned out so good.

Super buttery, flaky pastry with jam in the middle, finished with a simple icing… It’s basically the homemade version of what we all grew up eating, just way better.

If you’ve got sourdough discard sitting around, this is a great way to use it.

Rather than rewriting the whole thing here, you can grab the full recipe on the site:

View the full recipe here

Happy Baking,

MJD

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