Wheat sourdough loaf from a Dutch oven: crackling crust, open crumb
The bread good bakeries make: four ingredients, no commercial yeast, plenty of time and little work. A rye starter does the heavy lifting, folding replaces kneading, a night in the fridge builds flavour and makes scoring easy, and a preheated cast iron pot traps the steam that makes the crust burst and shine. Start Friday evening, slice Saturday morning.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Autolyse 45 min
- Bulk fermentation and folds 240 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Overnight in the fridge 720 min
- Baking in the pot 45 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneAutolyse: flour and water
Mix the flour with 300 ml of the water into a shaggy dough, without starter and without salt. Cover and leave 45 minutes. The flour hydrates and the gluten starts organising itself: the folds will go easier and the crumb will be more open.
Ingredients: 100 g active rye sourdough starter · 500 g strong bread flour · 340 ml water · 10 g salt
TipThe starter is ready when it doubles within 4–8 hours of feeding and is full of bubbles. A sluggish starter gives a flat loaf; feed it twice a day for two days before baking.
Flour and water, no salt, 45 minutesAdd the starter and salt
Pour the starter over the dough and work it in with a wet hand, squeezing and folding, until it disappears. Then sprinkle on the salt, add the remaining 40 ml of water and squeeze again until the salt dissolves and the water is absorbed, about 3 minutes. The dough will be slack and sticky: that is right.
Starter, then salt with the rest of the waterBulk fermentation with folds
Cover and leave somewhere warm (24–26 °C) for 4 hours. For the first two hours, every 30 minutes do a set of folds: with a wet hand grab the edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the centre, turn the bowl and repeat four times round. Four sets in total. Then leave it alone. The dough is ready when it has grown by half, shows bubbles on the sides and jiggles when you shake the bowl.
TipFolding is kneading spread over time: each set strengthens the gluten without effort. In a cool kitchen bulk can take 6 hours; watch the dough, not the clock.
Four sets of folds, half again in size, bubblesShape the loaf
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Fold the edges to the centre like an envelope, flip seam down and drag the dough toward you across the counter with both hands, turning, until the surface tightens into a firm ball. Wait 10 minutes and tighten once more: a taut skin holds the shape and gives a tall loaf.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp rye or rice flour
Envelope, then drag toward you until tautInto the basket and overnight in the fridge
Dust a proofing basket (or a bowl lined with a cloth) generously with rye or rice flour. Put the loaf in seam side up, cover and refrigerate 12 hours (8–16). Cold dough is firmer, scores cleanly and springs better in the pot, and the long chill gives a deeper, slightly tangy flavour.
TipThe readiness test in the morning: press the dough with a finger. The dent springs back slowly and not fully: ready. Springs back at once: give it an hour somewhere warm. Doesn't spring back at all: bake immediately, the dough is at its limit.
Seam up, a night in the fridgeHeat the pot and score
Put a cast iron pot with its lid in the oven and heat to 240 °C for 45 minutes. Take the loaf straight from the fridge, turn it out onto a sheet of baking paper, dust with flour and score with a razor in one decisive curve, 1 cm deep, at a 30° angle. The score tells the bread where to open.
Cold loaf, one cut a centimetre deepBake covered, then uncovered
Take out the hot pot (careful, it burns), lower the loaf in on its paper, cover and return to the oven. Bake 20 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid, reduce to 220 °C and bake another 25 minutes, until the crust is deep brown, almost black in places. A pale crust means less flavour: don't take it out early.
TipThe lid traps the dough's own steam: the crust stays soft long enough for the loaf to rise, and then, uncovered, it caramelises. Without a pot: a tray on the bottom shelf, a cup of boiling water poured in as the bread goes in, the same timing.
Twenty minutes covered, twenty-five uncoveredCool before slicing
Lift onto a rack and listen: the crust crackles as it cools. Wait 60 minutes, at least. Warm crumb is gummy and the knife squashes it; after an hour it slices cleanly. Keep the loaf cut side down the first day, then in a linen bag; it keeps 4 days and slices freeze perfectly.
Crackling on the rack, an hour before slicing
Before you start
With some wholemeal
Replace 100 g of the bread flour with wholemeal wheat or rye and add 20 ml more water. Darker, more aromatic, a little less open.
A flat loaf
Three causes: a weak starter, too long a bulk, or loose shaping. Check that the starter doubles after feeding, shorten the bulk by an hour and tighten the loaf twice.
Without the overnight chill
After shaping, leave in the basket 1.5–2 hours somewhere warm and bake. The dough is soft and harder to score and the flavour milder, but it is the same bread.
