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Brown butter sourdough loaf seen from above with a deep golden, flaking crust and a bold score down the center

Brown Butter Sourdough Bread

A brown butter sourdough with a rich, tender crumb and a crisp, flaking crust — frozen browned butter grated into the dough during the folds.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Fermenting & Proofing 19 hours
Total Time 20 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 1 loaf
Course: Bread, Side Dish
Cuisine: Nordic, Scandinavian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Starter
  • 140 g active sourdough starter about ⅔ cup — bubbly, ripe, and passing the float test
Dough
  • 400 g water about 1⅔ cups, lukewarm
  • 600 g bread flour about 4¾ cups — or sifted landhvete
  • 15 g fine sea salt about 2½ tsp
  • rice flour, for dusting a few tablespoons — resists sticking far better than wheat flour
Brown Butter
  • 125 g butter about 1 stick + 2 tbsp — you need 100 g / 3.5 oz once browned and cooled

Equipment

  • Digital kitchen scale Browned butter loses water as it cooks, so this recipe only works if you weigh it after browning.
  • Box grater The coarse side turns frozen browned butter into even shards in seconds. Grating is what makes this work — chopping gives you pockets instead of layers.
  • Oval banneton (proofing basket) Supports the dough through the final proof and gives the loaf its shape. A softer, higher-fat dough needs the extra support.
  • Bread lame A clean, confident score. Butter-enriched dough colors fast along the cut, so a sharp blade matters.
  • Perforated baking tray Our standard bread setup — airflow underneath gives a crisp base without a Dutch oven.
  • Metal roasting tray Sits on the rack below for steam during the first part of the bake.
  • Wire cooling rack Air underneath the loaf as it cools, or the base goes soft.

Method
 

Brown the butter (do this first)
  1. Melt the butter in a light-colored pan over medium heat. Let it bubble and foam, swirling now and then, until the milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown and it smells nutty — about 6–8 minutes. Pour it into a bowl, solids and all, and let it cool.
  2. Weigh out 100 g of the cooled brown butter, spread it into a small container or on a plate, and freeze until solid. It needs to be rock hard before it goes anywhere near the dough.
Mix and ferment
  1. Whisk the starter into the water until it's cloudy and dispersed. Add the flour and mix by hand until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest for 45 minutes.
  2. Add the salt and work it through the dough by pinching and folding until it's evenly distributed.
  3. Bulk ferment at room temperature for about 5 hours, with four sets of stretch and folds spaced 30–45 minutes apart.
Add the butter (folds 3 and 4)
  1. Before the third fold, grate half the frozen brown butter on the coarse side of a box grater directly over the dough. Fold the dough over the shards. Work quickly — the butter needs to stay cold.
  2. Repeat with the remaining butter at the fourth fold. The dough will feel slacker and look streaky. That's correct.
Shape and proof
  1. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a tight oval. Dust the banneton generously with rice flour and place the dough in seam side up.
  2. Cover and cold proof in the fridge for 12–14 hours.
Bake
  1. Preheat 45–60 minutes ahead, as hot as the oven goes — around 250°C / 480°F — with a perforated baking tray on the middle rack and an empty metal roasting tray on the rack below. (Metal, never glass.) You're not waiting for the air to heat up; you're waiting for the trays to load up with heat.
  2. Tip the cold loaf onto a sheet of parchment, seam side down, and score it with one confident stroke about 1 cm / ½ in deep.
  3. Slide the parchment onto the hot perforated tray, immediately pour about 1 cup / 250 ml of just-boiled water into the roasting tray below (stand back), and shut the door fast. Bake at 250°C / 480°F for 20 minutes. Don't open the oven during this stage — every peek costs you steam, and steam is what gives you the ear.
  4. Pull out the roasting tray, drop the heat to 200°C / 390°F and bake another 15 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Start checking at 10 minutes — the butter darkens the crust faster than a lean loaf, especially along the score.
  5. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Notes

Chef's tip: the butter has to be frozen solid and grated coarse. If it's soft it smears into the dough and you get a richer crumb — good, but nothing special. Frozen shards stay intact through shaping and only melt in the oven, leaving thin flaking planes behind in the crust.
Adding it at folds three and four is deliberate. By then the gluten is already built, so the fat coats an existing structure instead of interfering with one that's still forming. Add it earlier and you'll fight the dough for the rest of bulk.
The dough will feel slacker and look streaky once the butter is in. That's exactly right.