Dutch Oven Sourdough Boule Recipe

Dutch Oven Sourdough Boule Ingredients & Supplies

• Sourdough Starter: We have an easy sourdough starter recipe HERE. You’ll need to start this 7 days before baking, or 2 days before baking if you use our quick recipe option! I like to feed my starter 100% rye flour, or a 50/50 rye all-purpose mix.
• Flour: For my dutch oven sourdough boule I use organic bread flour.
• Water: You can use tap water to bake bread, I do. But if you prefer bottled or filtered, that works too! 
• Salt: Unrefined sea salt, please! Just make sure your sea salt is unrefined and free from anticaking agents. 
• Spray Bottle Filled with Fresh Water: This is a must-have for stretching and folding the dough. (see section below)
• Dutch Oven: a 6-quart dutch oven with a lid works best for this recipe.
• Proofing Basket: You can use a proofing basket like this one, or you can use a bowl with a tea towel coated in flour.

The Hardest Step to Making a Dutch Oven Sourdough Boule

The hardest step to making a dutch oven sourdough boule is the stretching and folding. It takes patience and a gentle touch. For a video tutorial on how to stretch and fold and shape the dough, I suggest checking out Bake with Jack on youtube.

I have three main rules for stretching and folding my sourdough loaves:

1. Don’t use a floured surface. To stretch and fold you have to turn the dough out onto a clean surface. Some people suggest sprinkling flour on the surface but DO NOT. Get yourself a little spray bottle and fill it with fresh water. Spray your surface and hands with water before turning the dough out on the surface. This prevents sticking without making the dough dense with too much flour. The more hydrated your dough, the greater the rise will be.
2. Make sure it doesn’t get too warm. While you’re waiting between stretch and folds, your dough needs to be at a cool temperature, about 70-76 degrees max. Cooler proofing temps will prevent over proofing the dough.
3. Do at least three wet surface stretch and folds in a 6-hour span. You can do a stretch and fold every hour for six stretch and folds total, or every two hours for three stretch and folds minimum.

Sourdough Digestability

Sourdough is the oldest form of bread. Experts say that the bread originated in Egypt long ago… as in 1,500 BC. Since commercial yeasts were obviously not available back then, bread products had to be naturally leavened using wild yeats. 

Wild yeasts are captured in a sourdough starter along with flavor developing microorganisms, like lactic acid bacteria. When I say “captured” I mean they come from the flour you use to make it. The wild yeats are significantly more acid-tolerant than packages of baker’s yeast. So the yeasts in sourdough are still very active and able to produce carbon dioxide to make the bread rise even when they’re in the presence of acid-producing bacteria. Visit our sourdough starter blog to learn more about the microbiology of sourdough starters.

Sourdough Bread Nutrition

Sourdough bread is made out of flour, just like regular bread. However, the fermentation process makes the nutritional components of the flour more bioavailable. Lactic acid bacteria in sourdough starters are able to reduce phytic acid, the compound that can prevent nutrient absorption in regular bread. Without the phytic acid, binding to the minerals, you can absorb more potassium, phosphate, magnesium, folate, and zinc from the bread. Those amazing little lactic acid bacteria also produce antioxidant compounds (postbiotics) and SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids) during the fermentation process. Aren’t lactic acid bacteria awesome?!