September 28, 2021

Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread

Name: Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread (no-knead)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 775 min
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour ((380.5g)); ¼ cup sourdough starter ((73.73g)); 1½ teaspoon salt; 1 cup water, room temp

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This recipe for Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread will be the easiest loaf of sourdough bread you will ever make! All you need is a dutch oven and 4 ingredients to make this artisan-style bread at home.

dutch oven sourdough bread sliced on a plate

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This will be hands down the easiest sourdough bread you ever make! I took my No-Knead Rosemary Bread recipe and subbed out the instant yeast for an active sourdough starter and PRESTO! Amazing bread with little effort. This bread is completely from scratch and it will seem like you took hours folding and kneading. Only you will know the secret.

Ingredients Needed to Make Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread

all-purpose flour
salt
sourdough starter (well fed and active)
water

no-knead sourdough ingredients: flour, salt, water and sourdough starter

How to Make No-Knead Sourdough Bread

Prep the Dough

Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk together to fully combine. Add the sourdough starter and water and combine everything using your spatula. If you feel like you need a little more water, add a teaspoon at a time. The dough will be shaggy and sticky.

Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for a minimum of 12 hours at room temp. I made my dough in the evening and let it rest overnight. Easy and perfect timing!

dutch oven sourdough dough start — Dough Before Resting

dutch oven sourdough after rising overnight — Dough Before Resting

Form the Dough and Preheat the Oven

Preheat your oven to 450°F and place your dutch oven in to warm up too for 30 minutes.

While the oven is warming, the dough will rest one more time. The dough should have risen quite a bit and have lots of lovely bubbles. Use your silicone spatula to gently scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough and with floured hands, gently shape the dough in a ball the best you can. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel to rest while the oven is heating up.

Bake the Bread

After 30 minutes, take the parchment paper with the dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated dutch oven. BE CAREFUL, IT’S HOT! Place the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to get a brown crust.

dutch oven sourdough before baking — sourdough before baking

baked dutch oven sourdough — sourdough before baking

Tools You Will Need to Make this Bread

To make Dutch Oven Bread, you will need a dutch oven. The one I use is made by Lodge and I love it! It’s fairly inexpensive but high quality and will last forever if you take care of it. Using a dutch oven when baking bread creates a beautiful and crunchy crust that most people think of when they think of rustic or crusty bread. The lid of the dutch oven keeps in the steam which helps with the crust and the overall baking process.

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And you will want to use a sturdy silicone spatula for mixing and scraping the dough out of the bowl. I use my silicone spatulas every single day and this set has the perfect sizes at a great price.

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How to Make a Sourdough Starter

Making your own sourdough starter is actually pretty easy. You just need flour, water, and patience. Find some great tips and the process in this Sourdough Beginners Guide.

What if I don’t have a dutch oven?

The best way to cook this bread is in a dutch oven. If you don’t have one, you can also bake it in a different pot and have delicious bread with hardly any effort. Just make sure you have a pot with a lid that can handle 450º.

Tips for Making Dutch Oven No-Knead Bread

Only use a sourdough starter that is active, well-fed, and at room temperature to ensure you get the best results possible.
Not only is this bread no-knead, but there is also no scoring! The crust on my bread shown in the photos happened naturally and looked great!
Parchment paper is a must! Because the dough for this bread is so sticky, the parchment paper will not only help you move it into the hot dutch oven, it will also keep it from sticking to the pan itself.
Make sure your dutch oven or pan is rated for high temps because this bread cooks at 450º. As I mentioned above, you need your dutch oven or covered pot to be able to get nice and hot and be safe while doing so.
Don’t forget to preheat your dutch oven while you are preheating the oven. This will help create the awesome crust and bubbly insides of the bread.

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