Caramelized Onion & Gouda Sourdough
This is the loaf people ask you to make again and again. Deeply caramelized onions, nutty aged Gouda, tangy sourdough – this Caramelized Onion And Gouda Sourdough Bread is worth every minute.
You'll also love: sourdough focaccia, cheddar jalapeño sourdough, and sun-dried tomato sourdough.
Craving The Recipe Details?
What it is: A savory sourdough loaf loaded with sweet caramelized onions and rich, melty Gouda cheese, baked into a chewy crumb with a crisp golden crust.
Why you'll love it: The combination of deeply caramelized onions and nutty Gouda creates bold, comforting flavor in every slice.
How to make it: Mix active sourdough starter with water and flour, develop the dough, then fold in cooled caramelized onions and shredded cheese during stretch and folds. Bulk ferment, shape, proof (optionally cold retard), then bake at 450°F until deeply golden.
Sweet sourdough breads are always fun to make, but the ones that really hit are the savory ones. This Caramelized Onion Gouda Sourdough Bread is so intensely flavorful that you’ll find yourself trying to justify baking another loaf.
This one’s an intermediate bake, totally doable if you’ve made sourdough before, but follow the directions closely. It’s worth it.
If you’ve never caramelized onions before, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with step-by-step instructions below. The hardest part is waiting for them to finish.
This caramelized onion Gouda sourdough is dedicated to intense flavor.
Jump to:
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.
Variations + Substitutions
- No cheese: Simply omit the Gouda. Increase caramelized onions to 150g. The bread is still excellent.
- Smoked Gouda: Use the same quantity, same method. Excellent for grilled cheese applications.
- Caramelized onion jam shortcut: If you don’t want to caramelize onions from scratch, a high-quality store-bought caramelized onion jam (about 80-100g) can substitute. Reduce any added moisture in your dough by 10-15g.
- Whole wheat: Substitute up to 100g of the bread flour with whole wheat for added nuttiness and a slightly denser crumb.
How To Make Caramelized Onion Sourdough
Make The Dough:
- Step 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.
- Step 2: Dump 500g unbleached bread flour on top of the sourdough starter mixture and sprinkle 12 g salt on top.
- Step 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.
Cover the bowl and set aside for 60 minutes.
Stretch And Fold:
- Step 5: 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.
- Step 6: Repeat the stretch and fold process once more followed by a 60 minute rest.
Caramelize Onions:
- Step 7: Meanwhile, slice up one medium to large sweet onion and add to a heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Step 8: 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!
- Step 9: Transfer to a heat proof container and cool in the fridge until ready to use during lamination.
Note: 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
- Step 10: 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.
- Step 11: Spread about half of the 120g caramelized onions on the top two thirds of the dough and repeat with 80g shredded Gouda.
- Step 12: Fold up the bottom third of the dough, spread about half of the leftover onions and Gouda on the dough you folded up.
- Step 13: 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.
- Step 14: Spread the remaining onions and cheese across the top of the remaining dough before folding it down to create a tidy package.
- Step 15: Use a bench scraper to pick up the dough and place it into a large bowl.
Cover the dough and bulk ferment for 2 hours.
Pre-Shape + Shape:
- Step 16: 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.
Uncover the dough and transfer to a work surface or countertop. Gently press and spread the dough into a large rectangle.
- Step 17: 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.
- Step 18: 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.
- Step 19: 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:
- Step 20: 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:
- Step 21: 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.
- Step 22: Once the oven is preheated, invert the banneton onto a sheet of parchment paper.
- Step 23: 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!
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. - Step 24: 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:
- Step 25: 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.
Expert Tips
- I opted to freshly caramelize onions for this recipe, but if you’re looking to save some time, you can totally try caramelized onion jam!
- My bulk fermentation and dough proofing is done at 70-ish degrees Fahrenheit, but if you're in a warm place, your rising times will need to be shortened.
Caramelized Onion Sourdough FAQs
Unfortunately, the most common errors I get asked about occur during the process and show up once baked. So we have to do a little post mortem to determine where we went wrong, but here’s a list of the most common issues:
Undercamelizing the onions. If your onions are done in 15 minutes, they’re not caramelized, they’re softened. This is the single most common mistake and results in a much blander loaf.
Adding warm onions to the dough. Warm onions will increase the temperature in localized areas and interfere with fermentation. Always cool them to room temperature or colder.
Over-proofing. Because the sugars in the onions give the yeast additional food, this dough can over-proof faster than a plain sourdough. Check for the dome and jiggle rather than relying purely on timing.
Slicing too soon. With the extra moisture from the cheese, this loaf needs the full 2-hour cool. Cutting early will result in a gummy crumb.
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.
Yes, smoked Gouda works beautifully here and adds a subtle smokiness that complements the sweet caramelized onions. The texture and moisture content are similar to aged Gouda so it behaves the same way in the dough. Avoid very young or soft Goudas as the higher moisture can make the dough wet and difficult to handle.
This recipe is 70% hydration before inclusions (350g water / 500g flour). The caramelized onions add some additional moisture, so the effective dough is slightly higher hydration, which is why chilling the onions and using bread flour (rather than all-purpose) is important for dough strength.
Why This Recipe Works
Caramelizing the onions triggers the Maillard reaction. Slow cooking onions over medium-low heat breaks down their sugars through the Maillard reaction, the same process responsible for sourdough crust color and depth. The result is flavor compounds that mirror the nutty, slightly sweet profile of aged Gouda, making these two ingredients a perfect flavor pairing.
Aged Gouda’s low moisture content protects your crumb. Unlike younger cheeses, aged Gouda has already lost much of its moisture during the aging process. This means it melts slowly and stays distributed through the crumb rather than creating wet pockets that can collapse your structure or blow out through the crust.
Cold proofing does two jobs simultaneously. The long cold retard slows fermentation to develop more organic acids, the compounds responsible for sourdough’s complex flavor, and firms the dough, which improves the loaf’s ability to hold its shape during scoring and gives better oven spring.
Baker’s Timeline
Day 1:
- 9:00 AM: Combine water, sourdough starter, and bread flour and make the dough
- 10:00 AM: First stretch and fold
- 11:00 AM: Second stretch and fold, caramelize onions
- 12:00 PM: Laminate, complete bulk ferment
- 2:00 PM: Bulk ferment over, pre shape
- 2:30 PM: Final shape, place dough into banneton, beginning of the proof
- 4:30 PM: Proofing complete, place banneton in fridge to cold retard
Day 2:
- 9:00 AM: Place dutch oven into oven and preheat oven
- 9:45 AM: Bake caramelized onion sourdough bread
Serving Suggestions
I won’t lie, this bread is good enough to eat sliced and plain. I think that’s how we ate a couple entire loaves during recipe testing. But after a few goes around I got a little more creative and we tried a few things!
- Grilled cheese. Hands down, probably the best grilled cheese ever
- Made into croutons and tossed in homemade smoked french onion soup.
- Toasted with butter. Sometimes simplest is best!
- Made into a sandwich with smoked pulled pork
More Savory Sourdough Bread Recipes
If you tried this Caramelized Onion And Gouda Sourdough Bread recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
Caramelized Onion And Gouda Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
- 350 g water, room temperature
- 100 g sourdough starter, active
- 500 g bread flour
- 12 g sea salt, coarse
- 1 yellow onion, medium-large
- 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
- 80 g Gouda, shredded
Instructions
Make The Dough:
- In a large bowl, combine 350g of room temperature water and whisk in 100g of active sourdough starter until mostly combined.
- Dump 500g unbleached bread flour on top of the sourdough starter mixture and sprinkle 12 g salt on top.
- 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.
- Cover the bowl and set aside for 60 minutes.
Stretch And Fold:
- 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.
- Repeat the stretch and fold process once more followed by a 60 minute rest.
Caramelize Onions:
- Slice up one medium to large sweet onion and add to a heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Heat the onions over medium-low heat, stirring often until the onions are browned, sugars have caramelized and they are fragrant.
- Cool in the fridge until ready to use during lamination.
Laminate + Bulk Ferment:
- 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.
- Spread about half 120g caramelized onions on the top two thirds of the dough and repeat with 80g shredded Gouda.
- 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.
- Use a bench scraper to pick up the dough and place it into a large bowl.Cover the dough and bulk ferment for 2 hours.
Pre-Shape and Shape:
- 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.
- Uncover the dough and transfer to a lightly floured work surface or countertop. Gently press and spread the dough into a large rectangle.
- Uncover the dough and transfer to a work surface or countertop. Gently press and spread the dough into a large rectangle. 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 kitchen towel and rest for 30 minutes.
- 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.
- Dust the dough with rice flour then tuck seam side up into a banneton.
Prove + Cold Retard:
- 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:
- Place your dutch oven, cloche, or desired baking dish in the oven and preheat to 450f.
- Once the oven is preheated, invert the banneton onto a sheet of parchment paper. Use a lame, sharp knife, or clean razor blade to score the dough.
- 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.
- 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. You can test the doneness of the loaf with an instant-read thermometer. Bread is cooked once it reaches 205 - 210 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature.
Cool:
- 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.
Notes
Expert Tips
- I opted to freshly caramelize onions for this recipe, but if you're looking to save some time, you can totally try caramelized onion jam!
- My bulk fermentation and dough proofing is done at 70-ish degrees Fahrenheit, but if you’re in a warm place, your rising times will need to be shortened.
HF SD doesn’t need stretch and fold
Hi Pam, I am not clear on your comment, high fat sourdough doesn’t need stretch and folds? If that’s what you mean by HF, the fat is all added after the dough is developed through stretch and folds prior to the finish of the bulk ferment.
Would you mind sharing which brand of aged gouda you use? I was debating on using smoked gouda but wasnt sure how that would turn out, then i saw people talk about it in the comments so guess it’s a hit. Also, before adding the onions, is there anything we should do, like dry them? I was reading some technicalities when it comes to adding additions to the dough.
I just used whatever I found at the grocery store deli counter! I don’t do anything to the onions other than cool them 🙂
Absolutely fantastic!! Even the first loaf and all the goof-ups:
1. Starter wasn’t bubbly ripe, was on it’s way “down” – took an extra hour on bulk ferment
2. Spaced totally and used “high protein” flour
3. Pre-Shape only did steps 1-3
But came out amazing!
2nd loaf followed the ALL the instructions, only added more of the onions.
Thank You!! This is a keeper 🙂
So happy to hear you loved it Carol!! This one is one of my favorites!
Hope to get this going tomorrow, but question first on the Prove+ Cold Retard:
after removing from the fridge, do you need to let it come up to room temperature before baking?
Thank you!
Am sooo looking forward to trying this recipe
Hi Carol, you’ll bake directly from the fridge!
This came out so much softer than my usual sourdough recipes, I’m not sure if it’s the inclusions or method so I’m looking forward to trying some of your other sourdough recipes. Super delicious. My husband requested onion and cheese bread which is how I found your recipe. I used a cheddar gruyere instead of Gouda at his request.
Gruyere sounds great! This recipe is a bit softer, because there is a lot of oils from the cheese and onions, but in general, most of my loaves are really tender!
I can’t wait to start this recipe this weekend! I am just a little confused with the laminate then pre shape/shape part. The bread will have all the fillings during the laminate/bf step, then we are suppose to flatten the dough again and shape with all the filling? I thought doing that would cause the dough to pull apart and break and not keep the cheese and onions within the dough?
Hey Melissa! Great question, yes, we do add the inclusions before the shape and preshape. During the preshape phase you’re very gently pressing the dough out into a rectangle so you can fold it. It doesn’t have to be stretched far or too vigorously, we’re just looking to add some tension to the dough and a little form. I also use a clasp fold for the final shape in this recipe to help prevent tearing 🙂
The dough may tear a bit, but it doesn’t happen to me very often. I do have some photos in the step by step within the article that kind of show how much I spread it to add the inclusions and then how it’s a bit smaller when I’m shaping.
Hope that helps 🙂
This makes sense! Thank you so much for responding quickly!
Happy to help!
Amazing!! I used smoked Gouda, and it was soooo good!! Definitely will make this again! Thank you!
Love the idea of smoked gouda! Do you cold smoke your cheese?
I am brand new in my sourdough journey! This is my 3rd loaf, second without help. I am beyond proud that I created some so delicious! I have always loved buying artisan breads, but that is over!
Oh my gosh, you attempted this on your 3rd ever bake? You rock!
This recipe is amazing! I used mild cheddar because it was what I had. Thank you for this recipe!!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it! It’s probably my favorite savory sourdough recipe!
I gried this recipe and loved it ❤️😊 I am new to sourdough so my boules don’t have the best oven spring. Can I make this as a sandwich loaf?
So glad you loved it! This is a pretty intense recipe for a newbie – great job on tackling it! You can certainly make this as a sandwich loaf, I haven’t done it, so I can’t speak to the bake time or temp, but it can definitely be done.
The oven spring on this loaf is always lower for me too due to the oils in the cheese and the butter on the onions adding a bit of fat. So you’re not alone when it comes to this recipe!
OH. MY. GOSH!! Unbelievably amazing.
*mic drop*
So happy you loved it!
I cannot move forward in my culinary adventures without giving this recipe the props it deserves. HOLY COW! This bread is FREAKING AMAZING. How does this not have a ton of reviews yet?!? I’m new in the sourdough journey, but I’m never one to shy away from ingredients I want to eat. Gouda and onion in my bread…sign me up! While this was a really long process and the entire time I was thinking, “this had better be worth all this effort”, it absolutely was! Every bite is delicious with all ingredients well represented. While I think I could have done better on my rise (likely my fault as I’m still working on understanding my starter and feeding it), I could have cared less because the taste was delicious. As much as I hate to say it, I will absolutely make this recipe again and likely soon. There is no chance this loaf is going to last a day with my family. Hmmm… maybe smoked gouda might make it even more delicious. I’m already looking forward to another slice!
Oh my gosh. SJ! You made my day <3 Thank you so much for sharing.
The final proof AND finished product can definitely be affected by the cheese and butter from the onions. The (many) times I've made this recipe the loaves never really rise quite as high as I'm used to.
You can freeze caramelized onions... not that I thought of caramelizing 5 lbs of onions and freezing in ice cube trays for next few times... LOL
LOVE the idea of smoked gouda. It's finally cold enough here that I can cold smoke some cheese, so I may just throw a brick of gouda on the Traeger!