The Best Oven Temperature For Fresh-Baked Sourdough Bread Every Time

Bread-baking isn't for the faint of heart, as there are many mistakes that people make with it along the way. Not only do you have to knead it perfectly (or know when to shut off the stand mixer), but you also have to master the perfect rest, score, and, perhaps most deceptively difficult of all, bake. If you fail to bake your bread at the perfect temperature, you risk an improperly developed crust and potentially under- or over-baked interior.

Samantha Merritt, creator of Sugar Spun Run, offered us some helpful tips for baking sourdough bread specifically. "You want an oven that's hot enough to create a good oven spring and crust, but not so hot that it burns the outside of the bread before the inside can finish baking," she says. She notes that for her bread recipe, she prefers to heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and cover the loaf for the first half hour of baking. "This produces a loaf with a crispy, crusty, but not overdone exterior and a soft, springy interior," she says. We use the same temperature for our Dutch oven sourdough recipe, and call for preheating the pot with the lid on for at least 30 minutes before baking. Putting the lid back on once you add the raw dough doesn't just protect the outside from burning, either; in a Dutch oven recipe, it also seals in the steam, which gelatinizes the starch, resulting in a crispy crust. 

If you are not a baking pro, it can be difficult to determine when to pull your loaf from the oven. And, as much as we hate to say it, it's something that comes with experience. While you can use a thermometer, not many folks want to puncture a still-warm loaf. Though if you're going with this method, you're looking for a temperature of around 190 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the type of bread.

The more reliable metric here is entirely sensory. When you pick up your loaf, it should feel light — not dense — as most of the water should cook off as it bakes. We're also big fans of the knock test. If you tap the bottom of your Dutch oven sourdough a couple of times, it should sound hollow. Color is another reliable metric, though the "right" hue is dependent on the type of bread you're baking. An enriched bread, which contains fats and sugar, is going to be darker in color than a non-enriched one. Regardless of the type, it's important to note that bread isn't finished baking until it's cool, so refrain from slicing into it, no matter how delicious it looks and smells.