Hopefully you’ve all read my Beginner’s Sourdough Starter Guide and are well on your way to a healthy and active sourdough starter! Now you can finally make the thing you’ve been working so hard for—sourdough bread! This is the best recipe I can get my hands on and it’s excellent for sharing with friends and family because it makes two medium sized loaves. The only downside is that it takes the better part of two days to make the bread, so it’s more of a weekend project, but it’s so worth it! (Hey, at least you don't have to knead this one!) Bread making is a lot of work, especially artisan-style breads, but it can be very rewarding.
Peep that gorgeous open crumb!
I really recommend this recipe for beginners. After perusing some of the better bread making blogs, and talking to my friends who have attempted sourdough before, I found most first attempts at sourdough bread are duds. But this one is literally fool proof! Although there were a few times during the bread making process that I thought I’d ruined the bread, the most important thing to do is keep going. You just might be surprised with the result. (I was!) The bread came out amazing—the best result a first time baker could hope for!
I wish I could say I developed this recipe myself, but I totally stole it from one of my favorite youtubers, Joshua Wiessman. He has some of the best bread making guides and I highly recommend watching his beginner’s sourdough video before you make this bread. I’ll do my best to describe it, but watching it being done is so much easier.
Chloe was not impressed with my technique. She said that I looked like a beginner. (Well, that’s because I am!) You’d think that she would share her recipes and secrets with me, but no—she’s unflinchingly rigid about preserving her previous owner’s legacy. (So annoying.) Although, she did agree that my bread was really good for a beginner, so we’ll give it a 9/10 from Chloe!
I tried to think of a pun for this recipe but they were all crummy. So I’ll just jump right into the recipe.
No Knead Sourdough Bread
Prep Time: 24 hours
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 24 Hours, 50 minutes
Yield: 2 medium sized loaves
Ingredients for Levain
45 g active sourdough starter
45 g unbleached AP flour
45 g whole wheat flour
90 g filtered water at room temp
Ingredients for Dough
273 g unbleached bread flour
500 g unbleached all purpose flour
175 g whole wheat flour
660 g filtered water @ 90-95 degrees F
180 g mature levain (use all of the levain that was prepared above)
18 g fine sea salt
Directions and Suggested Bread Making Schedule
9 AM Start Levain: Mix all levain ingredients together in a large glass jar (don’t screw the lid all the way on) and let it ferment at 78 degrees F (an off oven with the light on is a great way to regulate the levain’s temperature) for 6 hours.
2:25 PM Begin Autolyse (i.e. making bread dough base. Start this aprox. 30 mins before levain is done): Combine bread flour, whole wheat flour, and unbleached AP flour with warm water in a large bowl. Mix ingredients together with your hand. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the same temperature controlled environment as the levain (87 degrees F).
3 PM Mix Dough Base and Levain Together: Take the levain and bread dough base out of your temperature controlled environment and sprinkle the salt on top. Then, using a rubber spatula, spread the levain over the top of the bread dough base. After you’ve evenly spread the levain over the bread dough base, get a large bowl of water and wet your hand, dimpling the levain into the bread dough base. Begin mixing the doughs together with your hand. (Keep your hand wet through the process so the dough doesn’t stick to your hand.) After 2-3 minutes the dough should be well combined. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it back into a temperature controlled environment of 78 degrees F. Allow the dough to bulk ferment for 3-4 hours.
3:15 PM Bulk Fermentation Begins Along with Folding the Dough: 15 minutes after you start the bulk fermentation start folding the dough. Begin by wetting your hand and reaching under the dough ball, pinching the side of the dough, and pulling and stretching it upward. Stretch it as far as you can without breaking the dough and fold it over the top of the dough. You’re done folding when you’ve stretched all the way around the sides of the entire dough ball. Cover and rest the dough for 15 more minutes and stretch the dough again. Finally, rest the dough for 30 minutes and do a final fold of the dough. (Three total folds.) Leave the dough covered and untouched for the remainder of the bulk ferment.
7 PM Pre-Shape Your Loaves: Using a bench scraper, gently and carefully pull your dough out of the bowl and place it onto an un-floured work surface. “Draw” a line down the middle of your dough by sprinkling a line of flour and cut along that line so you have two evenly sized doughs. Without moving the dough off your un-floured work surface, separate the dough babies and place an inverted bowl over each dough for 15 minutes. After that time is up, take the bowls off (so the top can dry out a little bit) and let the dough rest for 10 more minutes. Next, flour two proofing baskets (or flour two tea-towels inside a bowl if you don’t have any proofing baskets) and set aside.
7:30 PM Shape Your Loaves: Lightly flour the top of the dough balls and loosen the sides from the counter using a bench scraper. Then flip the dough ball upside down. Grab the bottom of the dough and stretch it up and over to the middle of the dough. Then take the right side and stretch and fold it into the middle of the dough. Repeat with the left side and fold it all the way over to the right side. Lastly, take the top of the dough and stretch it over to the bottom of the dough. Flip the dough back over so the seam side is facing down. Then, using the side of your palm and your pinkies, slide your hand along the counter to shape the dough into tight balls. Keeping the sides of your hands in constant contact with the counter, pull the dough towards you, then twist. The dough will be pulled underneath itself and create tension in the dough. Repeat the pulling and twisting until you have a taught and tidy ball. Repeat with the second dough until you have two tidy balls. Place the doughs into the prepared tea-towel lined bowls or proofing baskets.
7:40 PM Proof Dough Overnight: Take your dough, which is inside their baskets or tea-towels, and wrap the whole thing in a plastic bag that’s secured with a rubber band (so they don’t dry out) and put them in the fridge overnight to proof for 14-15 hours.
8 AM (the next day) Preheat Your Dutch Oven: One hour before you bake your sourdough, place your dutch oven (or any pot that can safely go into the oven with a tight fitting lid) into the oven and preheat it at 500 degrees F for one whole hour.
9 AM Baking Your Loaves: Carefully flip your dough out of your proofing basket or tea-towel onto a floured surface. Pull out your now hot Dutch ovens* and flour the bottom of the pots. (Put on gloves so you don’t burn yourself for the next part!) Then, using a bench scraper to help you, grab the doughs and gently place them into the bottom of your Dutch ovens. Put the lids back on and bake for 20 minutes. After that, take the lids off and reduce the heat to 475 degrees F and bake the loaves uncovered for another 25-30 minutes. Cool your bread on a wire rack and enjoy!
*Note: If you only have one pot for baking the sourdough, just stagger the baking.
Pin It!
Comments