Look at this beautiful sourdough bread with 70% hydration baked in dutch oven! We thought it is time to share another sourdough recipe with you – because we love sourdough breads.
This is our second one that was baked in a dutch oven. The first one can be found here.
When looking at the result, you can tell it is absolutely worth investing that little time to feed your starter regularly to keep it alive and healthy.
Things to know before you start
Time Schedule
| Steps | Work time | Waiting time |
| Mix | ~15 minutes | – |
| Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold | ~10 minutes | 2,5 hours |
| Pre-shape | ~5 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Shape | ~5 minutes | – |
| Proof | – | 10-14 hours |
| Score | ~5 minutes | – |
| Bake | ~5 minutes | 45 minutes |
| Cool | – | 2 hours |
In just about 16 to 20 hours this sourdough bread with 70% hydration will be baked and ready to eat.
Total ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 250 g | Mature sourdough starter – From whole wheat flour |
| 410 g | All-purpose flour |
| 12 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Sugar |
| 10 g | Butter |
| 1 g | Yeast – Fresh (optional) |
| 250 g | Water |
You will have a dough of about 942 g in total.
Make sure to have a mature sourdough starter that is active and healthy. If you think your starter is not, then you can add 1 g of fresh yeast to help with the rise.
Difficulty
As the hydration level is at 70% the dough is easy to handle and which makes this sourdough bread simple to make.
You can have a look at our sourdough bread for beginners recipe that contains a lot of details for the different steps used here.
Baking tools
A round banneton proofing basket is needed in order to get the bread in a good round shape and a dutch oven. You can also have a look at our should have baking tools to find some more baking tools we are constantly using.
Steps
1. Mix
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 250 g | Mature sourdough starter – From whole wheat flour |
| 410 g | All-purpose flour |
| 12 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Sugar |
| 10 g | Butter |
| 1 g | Yeast – Fresh (optional) |
| 250 g | Water – 24°C (75,2°F) |
- Mix all of the mentioned ingredients in a stand mixer for 4 minutes on speed level one and 7 minutes on speed level two
- The dough should be smooth after mixing and not stick to the bowl a lot
2. Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold
- Cover the dough and let it rest for a total of 2,5 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
- During that time stretch & fold the dough every 30 minutes (3 times in total) and after the 3rd time, let it ferment further for 1 hour until 2,5 hours are reached in total
- After each stretch and fold put it back to the bowl and cover it again so it doesn’t dry out
3. Pre-shape
- Get the dough in shape by roughly rounding it
- Afterwards look for a dry spot on your surface and flour it
- Transfer the pre-shaped dough ball on the floured surface
- Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes
- Tip: If you realize that the dough starts sticking to your hand or bench knife, just clean the bench knife of any dough and flour it a bit again
4. Shape
- Get the dough in the final shape by rounding it again
5. Proof
- Dust your proofing basket with all-purpose flour
- Put your previously shaped dough seam-side-up in the dusted proofing basket
- Add flour on top and cover it with a towel
- Let it proof for 10 to 14 hours in the fridge at 5°C (41°F)
6. SCORE
- Cover a pizza peel with parchment paper
- Take your proofed dough out of the fridge
- Gently take your dough out of the proofing basket by flipping it upside down on the pizza peel
- Make several random small cuts (about 2 cm deep) that don’t overlap on top of the loaf with a bread lame
7. Bake
- Place your dutch oven with the lid on top in the oven and preheat to 260°C (500°F) for ~45 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
- Remove the lid of the dutch oven (use oven mitts so you don’t burn your hands!), place the dough inside and seal it again with the lid and bake for 45 minutes
- After 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 220°C (428°F) and remove the lid from the dutch oven so you get a nice crust on top
8. Cool
- Let your sourdough bread cool for 2 hours on some kind of grid
Conclusion
Crust
The crust is extra crunchy thanks to the dutch oven the bread was baked in.
Crumb
Soft and moist with bigger and uneven pores. The closer it gets to the crust, the bigger the pores.
Taste
This bread with 70% hydration has a slightly sour taste that is typical for a sourdough bread. Apart from that it has a nice, balanced and soft taste.
Goes good with
As you can see from the gallery, we had the bread as an addition to a nice salad but it is also super delicious with cold cuts such as ham. Due to the great taste of this sourdough bread, you can also enjoy it plain with only a little butter.
Gallery
