Crusty Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread

This iconic Sourdough crusty artisan loaf is a thing of beauty. Crusty on the outside, delicate soft crumb on the inside. Only 4 humble ingredients combine to make this classic masterpiece.

5 from 3 votes

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Course: Breads

Prep Time: 45

Cook Time: 45

Total Time: 1 30

Servings: loaf

Ingredients

125 grams active starter
390 grams water
500 grams high quality bread flour
12 grams fine sea salt

Instructions

Activate your starter. Activate it using whatever ratio works best for your schedule. You will just need a total of 125 grams of starter, which is about one volume cup. If you need help figuring out how to activate your starter you can use this ratio: in a jar combine 1/4 cup runny discard starter with a heaping 3/4 cup flour and a tad under 3/4 cup water. Mix together until the mixture resembles a thick, pancake batter texture. (if it is too thin, add more flour. if it is too thick add more water.) This will yield enough for the recipe, plus a little extra for the reserve starter. Mark the height of starter right after the feed with a rubber band or with a dry-erase marker. Wait approximately 4 to 7 hours for mixture to activate, double in size and fill with bubbles in volume. When it has reached that point, work fast! It's time to move!
Combine water and active starter. In a large bowl, combine 390 grams of water and 125 grams of the active starter. Mix together until it becomes a milky-looking mixture.
Add the remaining ingredients and let it rest . Add 500 grams of flour and 12 grams of salt. Use a danish dough whisk (or your hands) to mix it all together in the bowl. The result will be a very shaggy, unsmooth, sticky mess. Clean off your fingers. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Do the Stretch and folds. Come back to the dough and do your first "stretch and fold" (see note above). Repeat the stretch and folds every 20 to 30 minutes for a total of 4 times over two hours. You will notice the dough changes considerably in structure and strength with each stretch and fold. Make sure that the dough is covered with a lid in between the stretch and folds.
Bulk Ferment. Cover and let bulk ferment at room temperature until the volume of the dough has increased by 50%. This may take 3-6 hours depending on the ambient temperature in your house, and the strength of your sourdough starter.
Laminate. On a clean surface, dump dough onto countertop. Very gently "laminate" the dough. (see note above) To laminate the dough, you gently stretch the dough into a thin, rectangular layer on your countertop. Work carefully to prevent tears in the dough. Try and avoid using flour on your workspace if possible, or use only very minimal flour.
Preshape. With the laminated dough, fold 1/3 of the dough inward, then fold the opposite 1/3 side of the dough inward as well. With the triple layer in the center, start at one end and tightly roll it up into a wonky shaped ball.
Rest and Laminate again. Cover the wonky shaped dough ball with either a bowl or a towel and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. then, for a second time, laminate the dough stretching it out as thin as it will go without tearing it. It will not stretch nearly as far or as thin this time as it did in step 7. Repeat the fold method of folding 1/3 toward the center, then the opposite 1/3 toward the center. With the long triple layer, roll it up into another wonky shaped ball. (If you are in a time crunch, step 8 can be completely skipped)
Shape. Using a minimal dusting of flour, or no flour if possible, use your hands to smooth the wonky shaped ball into a tight, yet smooth ball. Gently pull and turn the dough ball back and forth over the countertop to create tension, being careful that the dough does not overstretch or tear the smooth layer of dough on top of the round.
Transfer to Banneton. When it is formed into a tight ball, generously dust the top of the dough with flour and spread it onto the top surface of dough using your hand. If you have brown rice flour, (not necessary but helpful since it is less sticky) you can use brown rice flour instead of bread flour. Sprinkle some of the (brown rice or bread) flour on the inside of the banneton basket liner to prevent sticking. Turn the dough ball upside down and place it bottom up into the lined and floured banneton basket. Cover your banneton basket with a dough shower cap so it won't dry out.
Cold Proof. Transfer covered dough to the refrigerator and let it cold proof. A cold proof is helpful for both fermentation, and for ideal oven spring. Eight to Twelve hours is the ideal amount of time, however, I do often let it cold proof for 24 hours when convenience beats out my need for a perfectly fermented loaf.
Preheat. Put your Dutch oven inside of your oven with a pizza stone or a cookie sheet underneath it to prevent too crusty of a bottom. (trust me on this don't skip the cookie sheet/pizza stone under the Dutch oven!) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it reaches temperature, let it stay at that temperature for at least 30 minutes before putting in the dough.
Transfer to Parchment Paper and Score. Remove the cold dough from the refrigerator. Using a sheet of parchment paper, empty dough out of banneton so it is right-side-up (floured side up) on the parchment paper. Using a sharp Lame blade, confidently score the top of the dough in a crescent shape, or in whatever shape or design that you like. Scoring not only adds decoration to the top of the loaf, but more importantly it gives the steam somewhere to go, which means it will help the dough lift UP instead of OUT, making a beautiful oven spring.
Transfer to Dutch oven and Bake. Carefully remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven, open the lid and using the corners of the parchment paper, lift the dough into Dutch oven and put the lid back on. Put it back into the oven and Bake at 450° F for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake another 10-15 minutes or until the golden crust has achieved the right color. Remove immediately.
Let Cool. Set the hot loaf onto a cooling rack and let it cool for at least one hour before slicing into it. (Waiting is the hardest part of the whole process!) If you cut into it early, the still hot tender crumb will tear and turn to mush. I know it's tempting, but trust me. Just wait!
ENJOY! Slice into the bread and enjoy with softened grass fed butter, with olive oil and vinegar, or in whatever way you would like. Close your eyes and savor every bite! ENJOY!!!

Notes

Special notes

You can double this recipe if you want! (I usually do!) Double the ingredients and do all the steps up until after the bulk ferment. Then just divide the dough in two when it is time to form. and let the rise do it's cold proof in two separate banneton baskets. You do not need two Dutch ovens. Just bake the first loaf, then when it’s done, put the second loaf into the Dutch oven.
If your loaves aren't rising or are turning out dense, we need to strengthen your starter with more consistent feeds. A weak starter will not have enough strength to rise bread. See the note above about powerfeeds.
You can absolutely use this base recipe and add whatever else you want to the dough, such as nuts, seeds, cheddar, herbs, garlic, jalapeno, or cheese (cheddar and jalapeno is an amazing combo FYI). If adding any of these, do so during the lamination step right before it is folded up.

What is a stretch and fold?

This method uses "stretch and folds" instead of a traditional kneading. Stretch and folds are best for this dough since it is more wet than many other doughs. This method helps develop gluten structure and elasticity. It also stimulates fermentation because with each stretch and fold, you are renewing the food source for the natural yeast. You will notice the texture changes and it is more flexible and relaxed with each series of folds.

How to perform the STRETCH and FOLD:

After combining all of your ingredients and letting them rest for 30 minutes, come to the dough and grab onto dough on the side of the bowl. Pull that dough up and over to the opposite side, where you will gently push it in. Then turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat with the next "corner". Do this to all four "corners" of the dough. Then turn the dough ball upside down and cover the dough in the bowl. Come back to the dough and repeat the process every 20 to 30 minutes for a total of 4 times over two hours. (If you skip one time, it’s not the end of the world.)

what is lamination?

"Laminating" the dough for sourdough is a step that helps the dough build strength and is typically done before shaping. This step agitates the strands of gluten and strengthens them, resulting in a fantastic open crumb end product. Lamination for sourdough is not quite the same as it would be for a buttery crescent dough, but almost!

To laminate the dough, dump the dough onto the counter and start gently flattening and pulling on the edges of the dough to make the dough thinner and thinner in the shape of a square. Don't pull hard, just pull little by little. Keep going until the dough is very thin, being careful not to tear it. This is not a fast process, it can take a while for the dough to stretch out fully. Remember, little by little!

Be patient as you use your fingertips to keep gently stretching the edges of the dough. Aim for it to take on the shape of a square. If any holes are accidentally made, just push the dough back together in that spot to repair the hole. If you are wanting to add in any extras to your dough (nuts, seeds, cheddar, jalapeños, herbs, etc) these are perfect to add right after lamination while the dough is flat and before it is folded up and shaped.

NATURAL YEAST = SOURDOUGH = WILD YEAST These are all interchangeable synonyms.

ACTIVE STARTER: A synonym for this is LEVAIN. Active starter is starter that has been activated by a recent meal of flour and water. It is full of bubbles and has about doubled in volume after its feed. Active starter is what is needed to give lift to any leavened bread.

If it is not active and strong, it will not rise your bread. The bigger the feed, the longer it will take to become active. The smaller the feed, the sooner it will become active.

DISCARD: runny starter that is in its inactive state. This can be fed to activate, or you can add the runny discard to most baked goods.

HOOCH: The liquid, sometimes dark colored that accumulates on top of your flat and runny discard starter is called "hooch". Active starter will never have a hooch. The hooch will only be present once the starter has eaten all of it's available food and now it is hungry again. The hooch is technically the waste product of the starter. Depending on your preferences, the hooch can be poured off before a feed to maintain a fresh tasting starter. If you prefer your sourdough bakes to taste more sour, stir the hooch in with the feed. Anytime that there is hooch on your starter, clear or dark colored, it means that your starter is HUNGRY.

FEED: Your starter requires only two things. 1- flour and 2- water. A feed is simply giving your starter about equal weights of flour and water, mixed together into your starter until it resembles a thick pancake batter consistency.

POWERFEED: A powerfeed is just a feed ratio that encourages your starter to increase it's strength and metabolism. This can be used for when your starter has been unfed for a longer period of time, or when your starter seems to be underperforming. Generally the ratio is a very small amount of starter and a large amount of food. A 1:4:4 ratio or a 1:8:8 ratio could be considered a powerfeed (1 part starter: 8 parts water: 8 parts flour). Usually a powerfeed works best when it is done every 12-24 hours for 2-4 days. It really gives a starter a jump start and rev's up it's metabolism and strength. For those struggling to get their sourdough to rise, I encourage a series of powerfeeds to help their starter gain strength.

When doing powerfeeds, you may end up with some extra discard starter laying around. You can either toss it, or use it to make a discard recipe. Add the “discard” to pancake batter, German pancakes, or another recipe that uses discard.