Is Chocolate Sourdough the Bay Area’s Most Delicious Secret?

Before moving to California from Leipzig, Germany, Anne Moser had never considered making sourdough bread. She didn’t know much about it and had no plans to become a professional baker.

In fact, after immigrating to Monterey Bay in 2009 to pursue her Master’s in International Studies, Moser became a part-time translator for half a decade before she ended up in Daly City with her husband, Robert, who grew up in the Bay Area.

So it’s especially noteworthy that Moser has established herself as one of the Bay Area’s brightest sourdough luminaries.

“I never baked sourdough before,” says Moser. “I started when I was here. I missed having bakeries I could walk to. I randomly ordered Chad Robertson’s book, Tartine Bread, and gave it a try in 2013. I was just baking for my family, and it became too much bread, so we started giving it to neighbors and friends.”

Moser went on to become the masterful head baker and founder of Backhaus, which began to sell loaves at local markets in 2016, eventually opening their first brick-and-mortar in downtown San Mateo. Now one of the Peninsula’s buzziest bread suppliers, the German-inspired “bakehouse” continues to rise like a loaf of naturally leavened dough. Last November, the couple opened their second location in Burlingame to much fanfare (and a dash of name confusion).

Perhaps most impressive, though? Backhaus serves what might be the best sourdough bread I’ve ever eaten. And it’s not the kind of white-bread sourdough you may be envisioning. Actually, this sourdough is far from the run-of-the-mill loaf you can pick up at any bakery.

What Moser — who now refers to herself as a “benevolent ruler over billions of wild yeast minions” on X — has perfected is a true rarity of carb-laden, soul-mending, San Franciscan wonder: the chocolate sourdough mini-loaf.

“We decided on the small format because some people might eat it by themselves, but you don’t necessarily want a full size of that. If your loaf for the whole week is just chocolate, it can be limiting for the sandwiches you make,” Moser laughs. “But it’s good with cream cheese or your favorite preserve, almond butter or peanut butter.”

Admittedly, due to its small size, I was left desiring more. I would happily eat a larger portion — any day of the week. Moser tells me that (surprisingly) no one has ever asked her to bake a full-size loaf of the chocolate specialty bread, which is only available on weekends. But that’s the first thing that crossed my mind while eating it. (The second was to fantasize about turning it into chocolate sourdough French toast).

With an empyrean, almost-marshmallow-like fluff, the slightly-melted chocolate bits dissolve on your tongue while the chewy country sourdough loaf provides a fibrous counterbalance. The bread has the iconic acidity of supreme-tier sourdough — yet, inside and out, the small loaves are a dark brown shade that would make any Hershey’s bar blush.

In addition to sprinkling semisweet chips from Burlingame-based Guittard into the dough, Moser’s recipe adds cocoa powder and honey, giving the bread its lightly candied — but not overly sugary — piquancy. It’s both savory and filling. And though it’s certainly not the first time anyone has made chocolate sourdough, it’s the only Bay Area bakery (in my personal findings) that seems to be supplying the near-perfect combination on a regular basis.

Of course, sourdough bread has long been one of the Bay Area’s most iconic foods. Since 1849, its distinctive tang has sustained gold rushers, trappers, thieves, railroad workers, immigrants, politicians, brothel-goers and, of course, modern day hipsters and food influencers. In recent years, sourdough has had a veritable renaissance, appearing in doughnuts, pizza, croissants, pretzels and just about anything else that local foodies can mold into an edible form (and yes, that includes scoops of ice cream).

Now, Moser and her sourdough contemporaries — whether it be the old-school outposts like Boudin, the new-school leaders in Tartine and Arizmendi, or the cultishly experimentalist deviations of Rize Up — are still finding ways to improve the unmistakably yeasty recipe.

Maybe that’s part of the mystic allure of sourdough — its undying, amoebic permutations across time, space and bakery continuums. As someone who has jumped through many sourdough portals that the Bay Area has presented in my lifetime, I had never encountered a chocolate-ized one. Until now.

Backhaus’ bakeries in San Mateo (32 E. 3rd Ave.) and Burlingame (261 California Dr.) are open every day except Monday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Chocolate sourdough mini-loaves are only available on Saturday and Sunday, in limited quantities on a first-come, first-served basis.