How to Bake Sourdough WITHOUT a Dutch Oven
Since starting to make sourdough nearly 3 years ago, I’ve learned that a huge deterrent of people starting to make sourdough is that they don’t have a dutch oven, or don’t want to spend the money on a dutch oven. They’re not cheap! So recenlty I made it my mission to figure out how to bake sourdough WITHOUT a dutch oven! And I figured it out!
When you make your sourdough, you do it just like you do when you’re going to bake it in a dutch oven. Nothing different there! If you don’t have a recipe for sourdough already, this is mine! And I think it’s pretty great.
Preheat your oven to 400ºF with a metal sheet pan and a metal bowl (big enough to fit over the dough with room to rise) in the oven to heat up.
This is a bowl set similar to what mine are, but any metal bowl will work! Just be sure there’e no rubber on it that isn’t oven safe.
When the oven & your dough are ready and it’s time to score your dough, transfer your it to the parchment paper, flour & score it. Then, you will place the parchment paper on the sheet pan and cover it with the bowl.
Bake it for 18 minutes and then remove the bowl. Bake for another 8-10 minutes. You will want to watch it towards the end to make sure it doesn’t get too toasty. If you notice that the bottom of your bread is cooking too much, you can add another sheet pan to the rack below the bread and that may help a bit.
Then remove it from the oven and put the bread on a rack to cool completely before slicing.
That’s it! You just made homemade sourdough bread without a dutch oven! Try it out for yourself and see how it goes! Each oven bakes slightly different, so you may need to adjust the temperature or time to totally dial it in, but this is a great starting spot!
If you ever do want to invest in a quality dutch oven, this is the one I have a love! We got it as a wedding gift and use it all the time for bread, as well as soups, and also as a roasting pan in the oven for roasts and chicken! It’s so versatile and will last for years and years.
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xoxo Morgan