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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

Brown butter sourdough with a rich, tender crumb and a crisp, flaking crust, made with frozen browned butter grated in during the last two 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, doubled and at its peak
Dough
  • 400 g water about 1⅔ cups, lukewarm
  • 600 g bread flour about 5 cups — or sifted landhvete if you're in Scandinavia
  • 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 + 1 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.
  • Bench scraper A softer, butter-streaked dough sticks more than a lean one; a scraper handles it without tearing.
  • 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.
  • Linen cloth (couche) Lines the basket so the dough releases cleanly and keeps a crisp pattern.
  • 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.
  • Instant-read thermometer The butter darkens the crust early, so color can fool you. 205–210°F (96–99°C) in the center means it's done.
  • Wire cooling rack Air underneath the loaf as it cools, or the base goes soft.

Method
 

Brown the butter (do this first)
  1. Brown it. 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 and freeze. 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.
Day 1
  1. Feed your starter the morning you bake (or the night before) so it's lively when you mix — it should have roughly doubled and look domed and bubbly.
  2. Mix the dough. In a large bowl, whisk the starter into the lukewarm water to loosen it. Add the flour and mix by hand until no dry flour remains — you'll have a shaggy, sticky dough. Hold the salt back for now. Cover and rest 1 hour at room temperature.
  3. Add the salt. Sprinkle it over the dough and work it in thoroughly, squeezing and folding until fully incorporated. The dough will tighten up slightly.
  4. Stretch and fold — every 30 minutes, 4 sets — with the butter on sets 3 and 4. With a wet hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over the center; turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat around the whole dough (four pulls = one set). Before the third set, grate half the frozen brown butter on the coarse side of a box grater directly over the dough, then fold it in. Repeat with the rest at the fourth set. Work quickly so the butter stays cold. The dough will feel slacker and look streaky — that's correct. Our Stretch & Fold Timer keeps track of the sets for you.
  5. Bulk ferment until risen. After the folds, cover and let it rise at room temperature until it's grown by about 30–50%, looks domed and jiggly, and shows bubbles on top and along the sides — roughly 4–6 hours total from mixing. Watch the dough, not the clock; our guide to bulk fermentation shows you what to look for.
  6. Preshape and shape. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently round it into a loose ball. Leave it uncovered for 20–30 minutes so the gluten relaxes. Then shape it into a tight oval, building surface tension with a light hand — a higher-fat dough tears more easily. More on that in how to shape sourdough.
  7. Into the banneton. Line your proofing basket with a cloth and dust it generously with rice flour, then set the dough in seam-side up.
  8. Cold retard overnight. Cover and refrigerate 12–16 hours. The slow, cold rise builds flavor and firms the dough — and keeps the butter shards solid until the bake.
Day 2
  1. Preheat, hot. About 45–60 minutes before baking, heat the oven as hot as it goes — around 480°F (250°C) — with a perforated baking tray on the middle rack and an empty metal roasting tray on the rack below. Both 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. Turn out and score. Tip the cold loaf onto a sheet of parchment, seam-side down, and score it with one confident stroke about ½ inch (1 cm) deep — see how to score sourdough.
  3. Bake with steam. Slide the parchment onto the hot 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 480°F (250°C) 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. Finish in dry heat. Pull out the roasting tray, drop the heat to 400°F (200°C) and bake another 15 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the center reads 205–210°F (96–99°C). Start checking at 10 minutes — the butter darkens the crust faster than a lean loaf, especially along the score. Our guide to sourdough baking temperature explains the heat and steam in detail.
  5. Cool completely. Cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before slicing. Cutting too early makes the crumb gummy.

Notes

Chef's tip: freeze it, grate it coarse, add it late. Frozen shards survive shaping and only melt in the oven, leaving thin flaking planes in the crust. Soft butter smears into the dough and just gives you a richer crumb.
  • Weigh after browning, not before. Butter loses water as it cooks; the recipe is built on 100 g of finished brown butter.
  • Keep the solids. Scrape everything from the pan into the bowl — the browned milk solids are where most of the flavor lives.
  • Got a Dutch oven? You can bake covered instead: lower the loaf into a screaming-hot pot, lid on, 20 minutes at 480°F (250°C), then lid off at 400°F (200°C) for the last 15 — no water tray needed.