I made this dutch oven sourdough bread a few times to ensure that the recipe worked for me. I used my Le Creuset cocotte which is very heavy and well insulated.
Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Dutch Oven Sourdough ♥
One of my favourite parts of home economics at school was baking. I like the preciseness of weighing out ingredients and having something sweet as the reward. Even before I started blogging I would bake every weekend. Usually the same things over and over again as they were tried and tested recipes. When I started blogging, baking became a part of what I posted. But over time I have made more sweet dishes than savoury. In fact, a presenter on KFM listed me as the go to baking blog.So, after 11 years of blogging I consider myself an accomplished baker. Recently I have tested a lot of recipes that have failed. Some of them have been in books I have been sent to review. This irks me as I wonder how recipe books get published if the recipe themselves don’t work. Others have been from cooking programmes that I watch.
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Dutch Oven Sourdough ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
It is no wonder the contestants on these shows don’t succeed as the recipes don’t work. I recently entered a photography competition. This is not my area of expertise, but the camera prize was a good incentive. I had to make a milk tart and the recipe was provided. First, the 10 minutes of stirring to get the mixture to thicken turned into 50 minutes. And then it did not set. I have taken a look at my recipe which I have made several times, and the amount of cornflour is nearly four times as much! I wonder how many other people made the melktert and had the same results? Now, I know my recipes may not be perfect, so if you have made something from my blog and it has not worked, please let me know. That way I can try and make them better.
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Dutch Oven Sourdough
Ingredients
- 92 g fed starter
- 440 g flour
- 20 g rye flour
- 9 g fine salt
- 340 g water
- oil for greasing
- semolina for dusting
Method
- Place the starter, flour, salt and water into a stand mixer bowl
- Use a dough hook and bring the ingredients together
- Once mixed, knead for 10 minutes then refrigerate with the bowl covered to prove until doubled in size
- Lightly grease a 20cm dutch oven (round cocotte) and dust with semolina
- Once proved, tip the dough out onto a silpat or lightly oiled surface
- Lightly oil your hands and shape the dough into a ball
- Pop the dough into the pot and leave to rest uncovered for 30 minutes
- Cover with a shower cap or cling film and leave prove until the dough passes the probe test. This is when you push your finger into the dough slightly and if it pops back up within 30 seconds you are good to go
- Preheat the oven to 230° Celsius, slash the top of your dough and spray with water
- Put the lid onto your pot and place into the oven for 20 minutes
- Remove the lid, lower the temperature to 200° Celsius and bake for a further 30 minutes
- Remove the pot from the oven, tip the dough out and leave to cool for 2 hours on a wire rack before slicing
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime October 23:
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- 2019: Pam The Jam
- 2017: Microwave Curd
- 2014: Grapefruit Cordial
- 2011: Enkosi Cookathon
How often do you bake? And have you made anything recently that failed, or maybe something you think I should try?
My husband’s Dutch oven sourdough is a little like yours, but his proofs in a wicker basket. The pot is preheated in the oven Then the loaf is “thrown” into the hot pot to bake, first covered, then uncovered. I think this creates a crisper crust. He has two or three favorite bread books that he relies on: as you say, recipes from the web and from some books are quite unpredictable.
be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Mae, that sounds like an intriguing recipe to try. My sourdough is hibernating again until December when I will take it out to make bread.
I love sourdough bread, so this looks wonderful. Another blogger mentioned to me that dutch ovens are a little tough to work with?
I love my Dutch Oven but have never attempted bread….yet. But ugh. Yes, So many recipes on very prominent blog sites are so terrible! I can’t believe they get published. Frustrating to waste ingredients.
I agree!
That looks like a wonderful loaf Tandy! It makes me want to start another mother but I don’t know if I can deal with it on a day to day basis haha.
I leave mine in the fridge when I don’t have time for it 🙂
I also love to bake, Tandy. I rarely have a fail now as I can usually tell if a recipe will work or not and can often “fix” it. The issue is often the raising agent or the quantity of sugar and I always have to reduce the amount of raising agent in British recipes. Altitude impacts on raising agent, so you would use more than me.
When I am testing recipes I follow them to the ‘t’ as that is part of the testing regime. But mostly I can tell what needs to be done 🙂