Dill Pickle Sourdough Bread

This dill pickle sourdough bread is made with real pickle juice swapped for water, diced dill pickles folded into the dough, and dark rye flour for a deeper, tangy crumb. A naturally leavened loaf with a chewy interior and deeply caramelized crust.

4.78 from 9 votes

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Fermentation Time 20

Total Time 21

Ingredients

180 g water warm
150 g pickle juice
100 g sourdough starter active
400 g bread flour
100 g dark rye flour
5 g fine sea salt
150 g pickles finely diced
flour for dusting work surfaces

Instructions

Make The Dough:

In a large bowl, combine 180g warm water with 150g pickle juice and whisk in 100g of active sourdough starter until mostly combined.
Add 400g bread flour and 100g dark rye flour and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Knead the dough with your hands until all the shaggy bits are incorporated. Sprinkle 5 g fine sea salt on top of the dough.
Cover the bowl and set aside for 45 - 60 minutes.

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 4 times.
Recover the bowl, and set it aside for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, dice 150g of dill pickles and wrap them in paper towel to absorb some of the moisture.
Before the 2nd set of stretch and folds, add 150g of diced pickles and stretch and fold to incorporate the inclusions. Allow to rest for another 30 minutes and perform 2 more sets of stretch and folds, for a total of 4 sets. This helps to completely incorporate the pickles. If you find the pickles are too wet and pulling apart the dough after the final stretch and fold, generously flour the working surface and the dough and gently knead the dough until it comes together cohesively.

Bulk Ferment:

After the 4th and final stretch and fold, cover the bowl and set aside for 2-4 hours to bulk ferment. It is important to keep the dough bowl somewhere warm to encourage the microbes to work quickly!
Bulk ferment is complete when the dough has risen in the bowl, and has 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.

Shape:

Lightly flour the work surface and turn the dill pickle dough out onto the floured surface. Try to get the smooth top part face down so that the sticky underside is on top facing you, this will make shaping the dough easier.
Fold the sides into the middle. Then starting from the bottom, tightly roll the dough into a batard. Stop there if making a batard, or tuck the long ends underneath to create a boule.
Allow the dough to rest covered for 20 minutes.
Place your hands underneath the dough and using your pinkies, apply pressure to the dough and drag it along the work surface to increase surface tension in the dough. Avoid overtightening the dough because it may tear with the inclusions.
Dust the top of your boule or batard with rice flour, then use a bench scraper to pick up the dough, flip it, and place it upside down, or seam side up, into a banneton to prove for 2 hours.

Cold Proof:

Cover the banneton with a reusable plastic bag and place it in the fridge. During the proving period, the dough will rise in the banneton, but due to the cool temperatures in the fridge, it won't be a marked difference.

Bake :

Place your dutch oven, cloche, or desired baking dish in the oven and preheat to 450f.
Once the oven is preheated, remove the dough from the fridge and invert the banneton onto a sheet of parchment paper.
Use a lame, sharp knife, or clean razor blade to score the dough, I usually like to make one deep curved slash when adding inclusions, 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.
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 a rich caramel brown. 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 2-3 hours before slicing, as slicing too soon can affect the crumb and texture of your loaf.

Notes

Expert Tips

Dry the diced pickles before folding them in. Pickles hold a surprising amount of extra moisture that can throw off the hydration of this loaf.
Watch the clock more than the rise on hot days. If your kitchen runs above 75°F, start checking doneness by the 40% mark rather than waiting for 50%.
Taste your brine before you commit to the full 150g. Pickle juice brands vary a lot in salt and vinegar concentration. If yours tastes notably saltier or more acidic than a standard grocery dill pickle brine, drop your added salt below the 5g in the recipe and re-check with a quick dough-taste after mixing, don't assume every bottle hits the same 7.5g-of-salt-per-150g baseline the recipe is built on.
Let the crumb set before slicing a little longer than usual. The extra moisture from the pickles mean this loaf's crumb structure firms up more slowly than a standard sourdough. Cutting before the 2-hour mark risks a gummier slice than you'd get with your unflavored loaves, even at the same internal temp.