Honey Oat Sourdough Bread

A hearty, slightly sweet, oat crusted sourdough bread. This is our family's absolute favorite breakfast bread. Butter it as toast, add your favorite jam or use it for breakfast sandwiches! The flavor is everything you want and need in bread, trust me.

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Resting Time 8

Ingredients

100 g active, bubbly sourdough starter
350 g room temperature or slightly warm water
40 g raw local honey
3 tablespoons high quality salted butter melted
300 g high quality all-purpose or bread flour
150 g high quality whole wheat flour I prefer freshly milled flour made from soft white wheat, spelt or einkorn berries
50 g organic rolled oats plus a bit more for crust
10 g fine sea salt I prefer hand-grinded Maldon Sea Salt
* see recipe notes below for ingredient details and tips

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine active sourdough starter and warm water, whisk vigorously until bubbly (Danish whisk works great for mixing starter & water). Add honey and melted butter, whisk again.
Add flours, oats and salt. Use whisk to combine initially then switch to your hands and knead until dough comes together.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30 min for the autolyse period so the water has an opportunity to hydrate the dough. This resting period changes the consistency of the dough and makes it much easier to work with!
Next, wet hands with water and perform the first fist series of stretch and folds, then let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Preferably, I do a minimum of 3 series of stretch and folds 30 min apart before the bulk fermentation where you let the dough do its thing and rise, but sometimes all I have time for is 1 or 2 series of stretch and folds. It will turn out great either way! The stretch and folds are what helps to create the beautiful rise in the bread, so do them if you have the time.
For the stretch and folds, picture a compass with the four directions. You will take the dough from each cardinal direction and stretch it upwards as far as it’ll go and punch it back into the middle of the dough. (1 series = 4 stretch and folds - one for each cardinal direction). Perform first series of stretch and folds. Cover the bowl of dough well with wrap or a lid and let rest for 30 minutes.
Perform the second series of stretch and folds, cover and rest for 30 min.
Perform the third series of stretch and folds. Cover the dough and let it bulk ferment for 8-12 hrs at room temperature. If it's a colder season, choose a warm spot in the house.
When the dough has risen about 50% and is domed over, the dough is ready to be shaped. To shape, wet your hands and remove dough from bowl onto counter surface.
For shaping, I like the envelope and roll-up method. To do this, first, stretch the dough on the counter into rectangle, fold the two shorter sides into the middle like you would a letter for the mail, then roll it up from the other end like a burrito. Push and pull the dough on the counter to form a rounded ball shape.
Let the shaped dough sit on counter uncovered for 30 minutes while the oven preheats.
Preheat oven to 475°F with Dutch oven inside.
Perform any final shaping needed by pushing and pulling the boule on the counter. Get a piece of parchment paper ready for the boule to bake (You can also put the dough covered in the fridge at this point if you would rather bake it later in the day). When ready to bake, sprinkle some rolled oats onto a plate. Wet your hands and gently rub water on top of the boule to wet the surface (will help oats stick). Pick up the boule and dip the top portion of the dough into the oats, making sure to coat the top crust as evenly as you can. Flip dough back over and set on the piece of prepared parchment paper. Score the bread (scoring is making cuts into the dough using a sharp razor). Make sure you have at least one large, deep score somewhere on the boule to allow steam to escape. I typically do a large, deep score closer to the bottom edge of the round and another deep score straight down the middle on top. Deeper, simpler scores work great for the oat crust.
Pick up the boule by the parchment paper and place it into the Dutch oven. Cover with lid. Bake for 30 minutes.
After 30 min, lower the oven temperature to 450°F, remove the dutch oven lid and bake another 18-20 minutes until top is golden brown.
Remove the boule from Dutch oven by grabbing edges of parchment paper. Allow the boule to cool on counter or on wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing. The bread will continue baking as it cools, so don’t slice into it right away or the inside texture may end up gummy!
Enjoy your beautiful, honey oat sourdough bread!

Notes

Ingredient details:

You can find links to some of the tools and ingredients I use in the post above in case you need them!

1. The sourdough starter needs to be bubbly and active to get the best rise on the dough. This is typically within 4-8 hours of being fed equal parts flour and water. I like to do the float test to make sure my starter is active and ready to make bread. Float test: scoop a small, almond sized amount of starter out of the jar and drop it into a cup of water. If dollop of starter floats, it's ready to use! If the starter sinks to the bottom, it either needs a bit longer to become more active or is past its peak activity and needs to be fed again before using. Pay attention to the amount of time between feeding the starter and its peak activity (height & bubbles). Record this timing to help you plan for your bread making!

2. For the water, I prefer to use room temperature. You can heat cold filtered water briefly in a kettle (30 sec-1 minute) if you have one handy or allow the filtered water from the fridge to come to room temperature. Cold water will work just fine, though the dough may take a bit longer to rise.

3. For the flour, I like using a high protein all-purpose or bread flour. These flours have stronger structure needed for the boule shape and rise.

4. Salt: For the salt, I love using Maldon Sea Salt flakes. This salt is so light and delicious. It works really well in bread but I also using it as a finishing salt on just about everything. When I use Maldon sea salt in bread recipes, I grind the flakes into a finer texture in my mortar and pestle. It’s an extra step but it’s so fun and satisfying to do and it produces the most perfect fine sea salt for sourdough bread! I buy Maldon Salt in bulk on Amazon because it’s better deal and I go through it quickly. I believe they sell the small boxes at Whole Foods as well.

5. Use a big ceramic or glass bowl for this dough to allow room for it to rise. The bowl needs to be covered well so the dough does not harden. You can use plastic wrap/beeswax wrap or a Dutch oven lid or a cast iron pan works as long as the top is well covered. I do not recommend a using a tea towel for the long bulk rise. In my experience, too much air gets into the bowl, the top hardens, then the dough does not rise properly and also becomes very difficult to work with when shaping. So make sure your dough is covered well!