Whether you’re making our Sweet Potato Dutch Oven Bread or our Multigrain Dutch Oven Bread, our step-by-step guide on how to shape and score your boule will help you bake the perfect loaf.
- Once you’ve made your dough, use gentle tucks, folds, and rolls to help you shape the domed Dutch oven loaf.
2. Place your dough on a lightly floured surface—emphasis on lightly. While the dough will be somewhat sticky, you don’t want it to take on too much extra flour; it’ll make your bread unpleasantly dense. Fold one outer edge into the center, pressing lightly to hold it in place.
3. Moving clockwise, continue to tuck the edges into the center. Press dough folds in gently as you tuck, being careful not to overwork the dough. As this is a no-knead recipe, any excess handling will just make your bread tougher.
4. Turn the dough ball seam side down. Cup the dough, and gently drag it toward you. Repeat this process several times. Keep in mind that if your dough is simply sliding around, you have too much flour on the surface. You want to feel the ball sticking slightly, tugging the sides and stretching the dough into a taut ball.
5. Once you’ve softly stretched your dough ball smooth and tight, hands off. If you continue to roll it, the round will begin to tear—a sure sign you’ve overworked the dough. Let it rest for 1 hour, seam side up, on a sheet of parchment paper heavily coated with corn flour.
