Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Bread

This lemon blueberry sourdough bread bakes up with a golden, crackly crust, a soft and chewy crumb, and whole pockets of jammy blueberries in every slice, bright enough to taste like summer, tangy enough to taste like sourdough!

Up next: 10 great tips for feeding your sourdough starter & how to bake sourdough without a dutch oven.

Sliced lemon blueberry sourdough bread on a vintage serving tray.

Craving The Recipe Details?

Sliced lemon blueberry sourdough bread on a platter.

What it is: A artisan sourdough loaf bursting with jammy fresh blueberries and dotted with sweetened lemon zest throughout every slice.

Why you’ll love it: Classic sourdough tang meets bright citrus and sweet fruit, lightly indulgent but not dessert-y.

How to make it: Build your dough with active starter, bread flour, water, and salt, then fold in sugared lemon zest. Laminate the dough with fresh blueberries and brown sugar, bulk ferment, shape before baking in a dutch oven at 450°F.

Blueberries and lemon are one of those flavor combinations I will never, ever get tired of, it just reminds me of sunshine and summer. I’d been eyeing the pints of plump, fresh blueberries at the grocery for weeks this cold, dreary winter before I finally caved and did what I always do… folded them into a sourdough loaf to see what happened.

A few test batches later (the first one was very purple, very messy, and very delicious anyway), I landed on this. The lamination technique is the real game-changer here, it’s what keeps the berries whole in bright white crumb instead of bursting into tie-dye dough.

This lemon blueberry sourdough is dedicated to sunshine.

Jump to:

Craving The Recipe Details?
Why Does Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Dough Get Sticky?
Why This Recipe Works
Key Ingredients
Variations + Substitutions
How To Make Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Bread
Expert Tips
Lemon Blueberry Sourdough FAQs
Baker's Timeline
📖 Printable Recipe

Why Does Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Dough Get Sticky?

Let's get real for a second: adding sugar to sourdough can change the way the dough behaves. Sugar dissolves, creating moisture when combined with the lemon zest, which can make the dough feel wetter and a bit messy at first.

Don't let that throw you off. This dough is very workable – it just may need a light dusting of flour as you handle it. If it starts to pull apart during stretch and folds, adding a bit more flour and kneading the dough will bring it back together. Trust the process. The dough will come together.

Why This Recipe Works

Lamination keeps the blueberries intact. Stretching the dough thin and distributing the blueberries across the surface before gently folding helps keep the berries whole and evenly dispersed throughout the loaf. Folding them in too early can burst the berries and stain the crumb purple instead of creating distinct jammy pockets.

Sugared lemon zest builds better flavor and dough structure. Tossing the lemon zest with sugar captures the citrus oils. Splitting the zest between two stretch and fold sets also helps distribute the lemon flavor evenly throughout the loaf without overwhelming the gluten structure all at once.

The long fermentation creates real sourdough flavor. The extended bulk ferment and optional cold retard give the wild yeast and bacteria time to develop a tangy, complex flavor while strengthening the dough for better oven spring, cleaner scoring, and a lighter crumb.

Jammy blueberries dotting the crust and crumb of a sourdough loaf.

Key Ingredients

Labeled ingredients for lemon blueberry sourdough bread recipe.

Sourdough Starter: For this recipe, you want to use a fed and active sourdough starter. This recipe is based on a sourdough starter with 100% hydration (equal amounts of flour and water by weight, not volume.)

Lemon: Shoot for organic if possible because we are using the peel, if not, scrub the peels well with hot soapy water. Lemon zest adds a bright flavor and aroma to the bread without increasing or competing with the natural acidity of sourdough bread.

Salt: I used grey sea salt, but any quality salt will work. The salt in this sourdough recipe is responsible for adding taste and enhancing the aromas and flavor present in the dough itself. Salt also helps to tighten the gluten structure and strengthen the dough – making it easier to create and hold air bubbles.

Variations + Substitutions

All Purpose Flour: Swap the bread flour for all purpose, but reduce the water by 50g and expect a shallower rise or oven spring.
Frozen Blueberries: Toss frozen blueberries in 1-2 tablespoons of flour before adding and expect them to release juices turning the dough purple or creating streaks.
Same Day Bake: Skip the cold retard in the fridge and bake straight after the proof. Ensure the bread is fully proved before baking, it may need extra time. Expect the loaf to have a more mild flavor.
More Lemon Flavor: Amp up the flavor by adding the zest of a second lemon, or swapping 50g of water with 50g of lemon juice. Expect a more lemon forward loaf.

How To Make Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Bread

Make The Dough:

Combining sourdough starter with water using a Danish dough whisk.

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, combine 375g warm water with 100g of active starter until mostly combined. I like to use a Danish dough whisk, but anything will work.

Adding the flour and salt to the sourdough mixture.

Step 2: Add 500g bread flour and 14g salt to the bowl.

Step 3: Mix until a shaggy dough forms.

Step 4: Knead the dough with your hands until all the shaggy bits are incorporated. Cover the bowl and set aside for 45 – 60 minutes.

Stretch + Fold:

Folding the stretched dough over itself.

Step 5: First Stretch and Fold: Uncover the bowl and 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 around 8 times. This is considered one set of stretch and folds.
This is a higher hydration sourdough so it needs the extra manipulation.

Recover the bowl, and set it aside for 30 minutes.

Tossing lemon zest with granulated sugar.

Step 6: Meanwhile, zest a large lemon and toss the zest with 30g (2 tablespoons) granulated sugar and set aside until the next stretch and fold.

Step 7: Second Stretch And Fold: Uncover the bowl and dimple the dough by poking it with damp fingers – like when you’re making sourdough focaccia.

Step 8: Sprinkle half of the sugar coated lemon zest across the surface of the dough before doing a complete set of stretch and folds the dough. Cover and set aside for 45 minutes.

Incorporating the sugared lemon zest into the sourdough through stretch and fold.

Step 9: Third Stretch and Fold: Repeat once more for a third set of stretch and folds, using the remainder of the lemon zest, then recover and set aside for 60 minutes.

Laminate:

Stretching the lemon sourdough on a floured surface.

Step 10: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, I like to use my large wooden cutting board. Press the dough outwards with your fingers and then carefully stretch the dough out into a large rectangle. I find it helps to gently grasp a side of the dough and flap while I pull on it a little bit, then move over a bit before repeating. If the dough begins to tear or resists stretching, allow it a short 5-10 minute rest before continuing.

Pro Tip: If the dough is pulling apart from the lemon zest inclusions, give the counter and the dough a generous dusting of flour and knead the dough for a few minutes until it comes together.

Distributing blueberries and brown sugar on the dough.

Step 11: Distribute 175g blueberries and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly across the surface of the dough, reserving about 1/4 each.

Folding the dough to laminate in blueberries and brown sugar.

Step 12: Fold up the bottom of the rectangle about 1/3 of the way up, like you’d fold a letter. Sprinkle the remaining add ins on the pieces you fold up.

Step 13: Fold the top of the dough over the bottom.

Rolling laminated dough into a batard shape.

Step 14: Roll the dough up in log. Return to the bowl, cover and set aside for 2 hours to bulk ferment. It is important to keep the dough bowl somewhere warm to encourage the microbes to work quickly!

Pro Tip: I like to use a reusable shower cap for covering my bowls, the patterns are fun, funky, and bright, but they also work amazingly well, are lined with plastic to help keep the moisture in the dough, and are reusable for ages.

Shape:

Gently pressing proofed dough flat on floured surface.

Step 15: Uncover the dough and transfer to a work surface or countertop. Gently press and spread the dough into a large rectangle. We want to work gently with the blueberries, to avoid bursting them open.

Step 16: Fold up the bottom third of the dough as though you were folding a letter.

Step 17: Fold the top down.

Step 18: Roll up into a large log

Creating tension in the dough by pulling across the work surface.

Step 19: The final shaping step for this recipe is just about building more surface tension, so you'll just place your pinkies underneath the far side of the dough log and gently pull it towards yourself. The dough will tighten after a couple of pulls.

Step 20: Dust the dough with rice flour then tuck seam side up into a banneton. Cover the banneton with a plastic bag or other cover.

Don’t have a banneton basket? I have a guide on proofing basket and banneton alternatives!

Prove + Cold Retard:

Step 21: Prove the lemon blueberry sourdough loaf in the banneton for 2 hours. If you want to bake same day, skip step 23.

Step 22: Optional Cold Retard: After the proof, place covered sourdough in the fridge for up to 3 days to cold retard before baking.

A slower, colder fermentation gives the yeast and bacteria more time to produce acetic acid which is responsible for the sharper, more complex tang of long fermented sourdough. A cold proof results in a deeper sourdough flavor that holds its own against the sweetness of the blueberries instead of getting lost behind them.

Bake:

Step 23: 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.

If you don’t have a dutch oven, I do have a guide on sourdough bread baking without a dutch oven.

Step 24: 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 25: 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:

Step 26: 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 developed this recipe to have a subtle lemon flavor, I find it to be more versatile that way. If you’re looking to have more lemony zing in your loaf, feel free to add the zest of a second lemon. OR. If you’re really adventurous, substitute 50g water for 50g fresh lemon juice!
This dough can be a bit of a bear to work with after adding the sugar coated lemon zest. If your dough is not cohesive after the 3rd stretch and fold, knead it with a little bit of flour till it comes together before stretching to incorporate the blueberries.
Use a gentle hand when laminating and shaping – keeping the blueberries whole makes a huge difference in the end – you’ll end up with pockets of blueberries nestled in pure white crumb instead of mashed blueberries in tie dye dough!
This dough is intentionally higher hydration (75% hydration) than my standard sourdough resulting in more extensible, supple dough that stretches easily over blueberries during lamination helping to prevent damaging them, which means intact berries and clean pockets of fruit in every slice rather than crushed, juice-stained crumb.

Lemon Blueberry Sourdough FAQs

Can I use frozen blueberries in sourdough bread?

Yes, you can use frozen blueberries in your sourdough bread but frozen berries have already had their cell walls broken by the ice crystals that form during freezing. They’re softer, release more juice immediately on contact with the dough, and are almost impossible to keep intact through lamination and shaping. If you need to use frozen, dust them in a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of flour before adding them, this helps absorb the surface juice and gives them a little protection. Expect some color bleed regardless, and handle even more gently than you would with fresh.

Why do you sugar-coat the lemon zest before adding it to sourdough?

Sugar captures the volatile essential oils out of the lemon zest and intensifies the flavor, similar to how a classic lemon curd works, but there is a trade off because adding raw zest directly can create a wetter, slacker dough that can be harder to handle.

Why does my lemon blueberry sourdough dough feel so sticky?

Sugar is hygroscopic, it pulls water out of its surroundings, including the gluten in your dough. When you add sugared lemon zest, the dough temporarily becomes softer and stickier than a plain sourdough at the same hydration. This is normal and usually resolves as fermentation progresses and the gluten network strengthens. If the dough won’t hold together after the third stretch and fold, a light dusting of flour and a few minutes of hand-kneading will bring it back.

What is lamination in sourdough, and why use it for fruit inclusions?

Lamination means stretching the dough into a large, thin rectangle on a work surface, distributing inclusions (like blueberries) across the surface, then folding the dough over itself in layers. This technique keeps fruit intact better than incorporating it during kneading or stretch-and-folds, which would crush the berries. The result is whole blueberry pockets throughout the crumb rather than crushed fruit and stained dough.

How do I store blueberry lemon sourdough bread?

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. I recommend transferring it to a bread bag after 12 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.

Baker's Timeline

Day 1:

9:00 AM: Combine water, starter, flour and salt to make the dough
10:00 AM: First stretch and fold, zest 1 lemon
10:30 AM: Second stretch and fold, mix in half of lemon zest
11:15 AM: Third stretch and fold, mix in remaining zest
12:15 PM: Laminate blueberries and brown sugar, beginning of bulk fermentation
2:15 PM: Bulk ferment complete, 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 lemon blueberry sourdough bread

Sliced blueberry lemon sourdough on a platter.

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