No Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe
My journey to making my own No Knead Sourdough Bread from scratch was a painful one. It took me 7 days just to prepare my Sourdough starter and another 2 days just to make the bread but it was all worth it to see the end result 🙂 (be prepared to dedicate 2 whole day to making this…)
If you plan to make sourdough bread on daily basis, you will likely have your starter sitting out at room temperature and have a regular daily feeding schedule. If this is the case, this process will only require 2 days of prep time. However, since I do not have time to make bread that regularly, I keep my starter in the fridge and only feed it once a week (or as needed) and will require an additional day of prep as I will need to take the starter out a day in advance to get it up to room temperature for a final feed before starting my no knead sourdough bread recipe.
This was the schedule I followed to have my Sourdough bread ready to bake on a Saturday morning:
Day 1 (Thursday)
2:00pm – Revive starter
Take starter out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. Starter will wake up and continue to rise throughout the day.
9:00pm – Feed starter
Feed starter in the evening using the Maintenance feed recipe mentioned in this our “How to Make Sourdough Starter” post. This will ensure your mature starter is nice and strong for when you make your no knead sourdough recipe tomorrow.
Day 2 (Friday)
9:00 am – Prepare the Levain:
- 45g mature starter
- 45g unbleached all purpose flour
- 45g whole wheat flour
- 90g warm water (85F)
I followed Joshua Weissman‘s recipe on Youtube for this recipe. Mix everything together in a jar with a loosely fitted lid and allow to ferment for ~5 hours or until doubled in size (refer to image below). I kept my Levain in my oven with the light turned on which simulated an ideal proofing environment of ~80F.
1:00 pm – Prepare Autolyse
Meanwhile, prepare your Autolyse. This is a stage in bread making where where you hydrate the flour with water and allow to rest to help with gluten development which will ultimately lend to a better rise in the bread. Combine unbleached bread flour, unbleached all purpose flour, and whole wheat flour into a large mixing bowl and whisk until the flours are evenly combined. Slowly add in the water while mixing the flour by hand to ensure all the flour is hydrated and there are no dry flour pockets left behind. The dough will look very shaggy and somewhat dry. This is ok as it will hydrate over time and we will be adding a bit more water to it later.
- 273g unbleached bread flour
- 500g unbleached all purpose flour
- 175g whole wheat flour
- 580g warm filtered water (90F)
2:00 pm – Combine Levain with Dough Mixture
- Levain Mixure
- Dough mixture (from Autolyse)
- 18g Kosher Salt, mixed in 80g of warm filtered water (90F)
Add all of the levain into your autolyse mixture and knead it in my hand. You can wet your hands with some water to minimize the dough sticking to your hands and make it easier to work the levain into the dough. I like to dimple it in with my fingers (like when you make focaccia) as I find it helps incorporate much easier.
Continue massaging/kneading it into the dough for a couple of minutes until it is well incorporated. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes. You can cover the dough with a tea towel or in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
2:30 pm – Add in remaining salt mixture
- 18g Kosher Salt, mixed in 80g of warm filtered water (90F)
Combine 80g of warm water with 18g of kosher salt so that the salt dissolves more evenly. Add this mixture to your dough from above and knead it in with your hands. The dough will be appear wet and sloppy and you will think you added too much water. This is normal considering this bread has a fairly high hydration (i.e. water content).
Remove the dough from your bowl onto a non-floured work surface and proceed to “slap and fold” the dough to help with gluten development. This is a where you continuously slap the dough on the counter, fold it in on itself, rotate, and repeat. I did this for about 4-5 minutes to further strengthen the dough and reduce the slack. You’ll know when it is ready when the dough has a smoother appearance, holds its shape better, and is overall less wet and sticky. Refer to image below for reference.
Allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes before proceeding to the next step of the bulk fermentation process where you will be performing a series of stretch and folds to strengthen the gluten of the dough.
2:45 – 7 pm – Bulk Fermentation with 6 total folds
During the Bulk Fermentation process, you will have to stretch the dough several times in 15-30 minute intervals. Basically, you will stretch the sides of the dough over itself to reform a dough ball shape. You will need to do this 3 times – See folding schedule below.
- 2:45pm – Fold #1. Rest for 15 mins.
- 3:00pm – Fold #2. Rest for 15 mins.
- 3:15pm – Fold #3. Rest for 15 mins.
- 3:45pm – Fold #4. Rest for 30 mins.
- 4:15pm – Fold #5. Rest for 30 mins.
- 4:45pm – Fold #6. Rest for 30 mins.
7:00pm – Shaping the loaves
After bulk fermentation is done, your dough should have doubled in size, potentially with air bubbles forming to indicate the trapped air. Gently scrape out the dough with a bench scraper onto a non floured surface. With a floured bench scraper, divide the dough into 2 and shape them into 2 round balls. Cover with them with a large bowl and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Then, remove the bowl and let it rest uncovered for another 10 minutes to let the skin dry out a bit.
Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and flip it upside down so the floured side is on the counter, and the top part is sticky. Stretch the dough from the bottom and fold it up half way, then fold in both sides, and finally fold the top half down to the middle. You are essentially reforming the dough into a ball. Pinch the bottom shut and flip seam side down and shape the dough into a tight ball.
Prepare your banneton (proofing basket) if you have one.
If you don’t have one, you can also use a small colander instead lined with a tea towel generously dusted with rice flour. Flip the dough seam side up. Place the baskets in a closed plastic bag to prevent the dough from drying out and place in the fridge so it can continue to ferment overnight to help with flavour development.
Day 3 (Saturday)
7:00am – Preheat dutch oven
On the morning of baking day, preheat your oven to 500F (or as hot as it can go) and place your dutch oven with the lid on inside the oven while it is preheating and keep it in there for 1 hour (you want the dutch oven to be super hot before baking).
8:00am – Bake
Once ready, take your dough out of the fridge and flip it (seam side down) onto a round piece of parchment paper so that it won’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Score the top of the dough if you wish to make some cool patterns.
Then, quickly (and carefully!) drop the dough into the hot dutch oven. Cover with lid and place in the oven for 20 minutes with the lid on. This will trap the steam creating from the bread as it bakes to help build up a nice brown crust. After 20 minutes, take the lid off and drop the temperature to 475F. It will have a pale brown color at this point.
Bake for another 25 minutes at 475F until it is a nice deep brown color. When you knock on the bottom of the bread and it sounds hollow, this indicates it’s done.
**Important** While it may be enticing to cut into your freshly baked bread right away, it’s important to allow the bread to rest because the bread is still cooking on the inside from the residual heat. If you cut into it too really, it may still be very gummy inside. Allow the bread to rest for at least an hour (or until it’s not warm to the touch) before cutting into the bread with a bread knife.
I’ve tried this recipe twice, via Joshua, and my bread tastes delicious but it’s always very wet and never holds it’s shape well in the oven. Should I knead it more (or slap and fold)?
Were you able to shape your dough into a tight ball after the bulk fermentation? It’s important for it to be able to hold its shape before putting it in the basket to further ferment overnight or else it won’t hold its shape much more when its being baked. If you’re having trouble forming a tight dough ball after bulk fermentation (i.e. it really is too wet), consider reducing the amount of water a little bit. You can reference the photos on my blog post for reference as to how the dough should look like at various stages of baking. Hope this helps!