Caramelized Onion & Gouda Sourdough

Sweet sourdough breads are always fun to make, but the ones that really hit are the savory ones! Gouda and caramelized onion sourdough bread is so intensely flavorful that you’ll just be looking for reasons to use it.

If you’ve never caramelized onions, don’t worry, it’s super easy and I’ll include steps on how to do it.

This caramelized onion gouda sourdough is dedicated to intense flavor.

Jump to:

• Expert Tips
• Key Ingredients
• How To Make Caramelized Onion Sourdough
• More Sourdough Recipes
• Batch + Storage
• Serving Suggestions
• Recommended Equipment
• 📖 Printable Recipe

Key Ingredients

Onions: Choose firm, unbruised onions with a clean papery peel. While you can technically caramelize any variety of onion, I think the best onion choices are yellow or sweet onions.

Aged Gouda: Aged gouda has a rich taste, faintly reminiscent of nuts and caramel and pairs so well with the caramelized onions.

Sourdough Starter: For this recipe, you want to use a fed and active sourdough starter. Your starter should have been fed before beginning and have at least doubled in size.

Psst.. Want to know more about feeding your starter, storing sourdough starter, how to use sourdough discard, or even which is the best jar for your starter? I've got tons of guides to help you!

How To Make Caramelized Onion Sourdough

Make The Dough:

1. In a large bowl, combine 350g of room temperature water and whisk in 100g of active sourdough starter until mostly combined. I prefer to mix my liquid ingredients with the sourdough starter before adding the flour because it's much easier to ensure that the starter is more evenly distributed in the dough. Set aside.
2. Dump 500g unbleached bread flour on top of the sourdough starter mixture and sprinkle 12 g salt on top.
3. Using a danish dough whisk, spatula, or spoon mix until a shaggy dough forms. Knead the dough with your hands until all the dry bits are incorporated.
4. Cover the bowl and set aside for 60 minutes.

Stretch And Fold:

1. Using damp hands, grab the dough and gently pull it until the flap is long enough to fold over itself, then fold the flap, rotate the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat 3 more times, this is considered a set of stretch and folds. Recover the bowl, and set it aside for 60 minutes.
2. Repeat the stretch and fold process once more followed by a 60 minute rest.

Caramelize Onions:

1. Slice up one medium to large sweet onion and add to a heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons of butter.
2. Heat the onions over medium-low heat, stirring often until the onions are browned, sugars have caramelized and they are fragrant. It’s important to cook slow and low and until they are well browned for best flavor!
3. Cool in the fridge until ready to use during lamination.

I borrowed these photos from my smoked onions recipe, and I’m starting to think that smoked caramelized onions would be to die for in this bread!

Laminate + Bulk Ferment

1. Lightly flour a working surface and turn the dough out of the bowl and carefully press and stretch into a rectangle. If the dough wants to tear, allow it to rest for a few minutes before trying again.
2. Spread about half of the 120g caramelized onions on the top two thirds of the dough and repeat with 80g shredded gouda.
3. Fold up the bottom third of the dough, spread about half of the leftover onions and gouda on the dough you folded up. Fold in the bottom right corner one third of width of the dough and then repeat with the left, pressing the dough together to seal it. Spread the remaining onions and cheese across the top of the remaining dough before folding it down to create a tidy package.
4. Use a bench scraper to pick up the dough and place it into a large bowl.
5. Cover the dough and bulk ferment for 2 hours.

Pre-Shape + Shape:

1. Observe your dough, at this point, the dough should have risen in the bowl, and have a smooth surface with visible bubbles. If the dough is domed in the bowl it is ready to work with, if the dough is flat it may need more time in the bulk ferment.
2. Uncover the dough and transfer to a work surface or countertop. Gently press and spread the dough into a large rectangle.
3. Fold up the bottom third of the dough as though you were folding a letter. Fold in the right side about a third of the way across width wise then repeat with the left. Roll from the folded bottom to the top creating a log. Cover with a clean tea towel and rest for 30 minutes.
4. Uncover the dough, flip it over and clasp the ends towards the center and press together to hold the dough together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and clasp the dough together to create a a batard. Press the dough together.
5. Dust the dough with rice flour then tuck seam side up into a banneton.

Don't have a banneton basket? I have a guide on using and maintaining bannetons and one on banneton alternatives!

Prove + Cold Retard:

1. Prove your caramelized onion and gouda sourdough loaf in the banneton for 2-3 hours in a warm place before covering and placing in fridge to cold retard for up to 3 days. If you want to bake it right after proving, you're welcome to, but the flavor is better after resting in the fridge.

Bake:

1. Place your dutch oven, cloche, or desired baking dish in the oven and preheat to 450f. If you don't have a dutch oven, I do have a guide on open oven sourdough bread baking.
2. Once the oven is preheated, invert the banneton onto a sheet of parchment paper.
3. Use a lame, sharp knife, or clean razor blade to score the dough, I usually like to make one deep curved slash, but you can get as fancy as you like!
4. Carefully remove the dutch oven from the oven, and using the parchment paper as a sling, transfer the sourdough loaf from the counter into the dutch oven.
5. Bake the dough at 450f covered for 30 minutes and uncovered at 450f for 10-15 minutes, or until the loaf is cooked through and the crust is nicely browned.

Cool:

1. Remove baked bread from the dutch oven and transfer it to a wire mesh cooling rack to cool completely before slicing. I like to leave it for at least 2 hours before slicing, as slicing too soon can affect the crumb and texture of your loaf.

More Sourdough Recipes

Batch + Storage

Batch:

This gouda and caramelized onion sourdough recipe makes one large boule or batard. This is enough for my family of 4 to snack on for at least 2 days! It can be doubled to make 2 loaves, or tripled, if desired.

Storage:

If you've got leftover onion bread, you've got serious willpower! There are a couple of ways to store sourdough bread to help prolong its quality after cutting.

Your loaf can be kept cut side down on a cutting board for up to 12 hours before the crust becomes too crisp. This is our go-to and usually we finish the loaf before the crust gets too crusty! I do recommend transferring it to a bread bag after 16-18 hours though.

Your sourdough loaf can also be frozen. To freeze sourdough bread, cool the loaf to room temperature, then tightly wrap it in plastic wrap, slide it into a bread bag, seal it up, and stick it in the freezer for 1-2 months. To use after freezing, remove the loaf from the freezer, unwrap, and allow it to come to room temperature (1 -2 hours) before slicing and enjoying.

Serving Suggestions

I won’t lie, this bread is good enough to eat sliced and plain. I think that’s how we ate the entire loaf during recipe testing. But the second time around I got a little more creative and we tried a few things!

1. Grilled cheese. Hands down, probably the best grilled cheese ever
2. Made into croutons and tossed in homemade smoked french onion soup.
3. Toasted with butter. Sometimes simplest is best!
4. Made into a sandwich with smoked pulled pork

Recommended Equipment

Baking sourdough is an accessible past-time, and doesn't require any fancy mixers or special equipment, but there are things that can improve the quality of your baked goods. Here are a few things I find invaluable to my sourdough baking:

• Dutch oven: One of the key tricks to successful sourdough bread is to use a high heat, steamy baking environment, and since most of us don't have commercial steam infused ovens, we use the next best thing! The heavy lid of the dutch oven clamps in steam and improves the rise and texture of your loaves.
• Scale: You certainly can make sourdough without a scale, and I know that we all resist change, but trust me when I tell you using the scale is the way to higher quality, more consistent results. I find it cleaner and easier to use the scale than to use my measuring cups and spoons at this point.

📖 Printable Recipe