An artisanal loaf of No Knead Sourdough Bread that takes almost no skill and minimal amount of hands-on time. If you love making sourdough breads, this is one you absolutely want to try! All you need for this recipe is two ingredients -- a quality sourdough starter and flour. The bread is crusty with a tender, airy crumb and a delicious flavor.
If making bread seems like a lot of work to you, I have for you today the perfect solution: my No Knead Sourdough Bread.
This is really one of my favorite bread recipes, and one everyone at home loves, including my 9-year-old, Jay. He loves eating it fresh and once it's a day old, I toast it up for him and he loves it even more. Because with a dab of vegan butter, this bread is heaven itself.
I started out with a recipe from Sam Sifton, but over the weeks I've tried different versions of it, including a part whole-wheat one that is ridiculously good, although not as airy as the version made entirely with white bread flour. It does pack in a ton of flavor, though. You can rest easy even if you make your bread with all white flour because the probiotic microflora in the sourdough slow down the rate at which glucose is released into the blood-stream, making sourdough bread -- yeah even white sourdough bread -- rank lower on the glycemic index.
The best part about making this bread is, I don't even need to refer back to the recipe. The ingredients couldn't be simpler or more basic and therefore easy to remember.
Ingredients for no-knead sourdough bread:
- Sourdough starter (here's the recipe, if you don't already have one. My starter uses ¾th cup of water for each cup of flour).
- Flour
- Salt and water
The only real work is mixing up the ingredients, but you can do it all in one bowl and set it aside to rise. Couldn't be easier. You do need some time for the sourdough to do its magic, but it's all hands-off time and some things are worth waiting for, aren't they?
The dough needs two rises. One is a longer, overnight rise, and the second is a shorter, two-hour rise. You will need a dutch oven or a heavy, oven-safe pot with a lid to bake the bread. My dutch oven is not enameled on the inside, but it works just great. You will also need some parchment paper or a kitchen towel for the second rise, with parchment a much better option.
I won't keep you waiting any longer for the recipe, but I hope you will try this loaf. If you do, I guarantee you'll love it. Be sure, as always, to follow instructions precisely. I am not a stickler for following recipe instructions, and I don't ask that you do that with mine except when you're baking.
Here's the recipe. Happy baking -- and breaking -- some delicious No Knead Sourdough Bread!
Looking for more sourdough and bread recipes:
- The Best Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Sourdough Challah without Eggs
- Vegan Olive Oil Brioche with Aquafaba
- Crusty French Bread
- No Knead Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- Bread Machine Sourdough Bread
No Knead Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
- ¾ cup sourdough starter (unfed is fine, but it should have been fed at least within a week of baking the bread)
- 1 ¼ cups water (use distilled or non-chlorinated water for bread, especially sourdough breads)
- 3 ½ cups bread flour (can replace 1 cup of the bread flour with whole wheat flour. The bread will be less airy but still delicious)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the sourdough starter with the water, then add the flour and salt and mix until a consistent but sticky dough forms. You can do this by hand or in your stand mixer.
- Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let the dough rise overnight or 8-10 hours.
- Turn the risen dough onto the kitchen counter and form it into a ball as best as you can. If the dough is hard to handle, flour your hands but resist the temptation to add more flour. You want a dough with higher hydration or water content for a light, airy loaf. Adding too much flour will make your bread dense. Even if your dough doesn't form into a perfect loaf, it will shape up nicely during baking in the dutch oven.
- Prepare a sheet of parchment paper by sprinkling liberally with flour. If you don't have parchment, you can use a kitchen towel sprinkled with flour, but keep in mind that there is a much higher chance of your dough deflating when it rises on a kitchen towel because it will more likely stick to the towel. Place the parchment paper or kitchen towel on a baking sheet.
- Transfer the dough onto the parchment paper or kitchen towel, seam side down. Cover (I use the bowl I mixed the dough in), and let it rise another two hours.
- About half an hour before your bread is done rising for the second time, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place a heavy cast-iron or other oven-safe pot in the oven with the lid on. (I use a 3.2 quart dutch oven that is not enameled on the inside. Enameled is even better.)
- Once the dough has risen, carefully remove your heated pot from the oven. Quickly, in a smooth motion, turn the dough into the pot so that the seam side now faces up. A parchment paper makes this much easier because the dough slides off more smoothly. Be very careful doing all this because the pot is very hot. If you find turning the bread into the dutch oven difficult to do without deflating it, you can just transfer the bread into the dutch oven with the parchment paper (don't do this if you used a kitchen towel).
- Put the lid back on the pot and bake for 30 minutes. Take off the lid and continue baking the bread for another 20 minutes. The bread will split at the top and char a little, which I love because the charring adds even more flavor.
- Once the loaf is baked, remove to a rack and let it cool about half an hour before carefully removing it from the pot. Let the loaf continue cooling on a rack. Slice and serve, or tear it apart with your bare hands (which you just might want to do because who has time for niceties when there's a delicious loaf of bread to be eaten 😉 ).
Rosemary Moreland
500 degrees? Is that Fahrenheit. Is seems a very high temperature
Vaishali
You need a high temperature for the oven spring.
Janice
OMG, my first loaf and so easy! It worked! The crust is like a bakery bread. I'll make it again. Thanks
Vaishali
Awesome! It’s my favorite bread to make and eat!
Greg
If you eat sourdough regularly your taste buds get used to the tangy flavour. Just an idea.
Cierra
Hi! I was wondering if I could leave the dough to rise longer than 10 hours for the first round?
Natalie
I left mine for almost 12 hours and it was fine.
Joan Thompson
Hi, the starter is 3/4 cup and that’s how much needed to make the bread. So I’m guessing I feed the starter and then take out the 3/4 cup?
Vaishali
Hi, exactly. Feed the starter to increase the quantity, then take out the amount required to bake bread.
Gunilla
Do I have to use bread flour. Can I use all purpose?
Bonny Lynn Glavin
I read your recipe all the way through and the starter recipe. It sure will be my only sourdough bread.
Your instructions for the starter was made to be easy with accompany photos helps. Other recipes are too difficult to understand. Thank you
Stephanie
Hi! I have been making this bread for over a year now and started with the sourdough starter (instructions were excellent thank you). I do have a question- my bread doesn’t taste sour anymore? I make sure to use hungry starter, stir the hooch in and my starter has been established for a year. Any idea why?
Joe
Hello Vaishali - Me again, with another question/comment. I absolutely love this recipe, both for ease in making and delicious flavor. I've had much success, multiple times, with the results being as pictured and described. However, the last 3 times I'm making this, my loaf of bread 'falls' in the center and doesn't rise like it had been doing before. The taste is still great, but it's a bit denser (and not nearly as beautiful a loaf of bread.) Any ideas? The overnight rising height and consistency still looks comparable to when it 'worked' in the past. I've done less tension and more tension when pulling the ball of dough together, but still the last 3 times have not been a huge success. Thanks for any insight.
Joe
I love, love, love this bread - thank you, again. Although I should have the recipe measurements memorized at this point, I always come back to this site for the recipe. That said, I think there's a glitch when clicking on 'Metric' measurements. The measurements don't convert as they did before, and now the webpage refreshes without change. I can approximate it by conversion, but I loved that feature. Thanks so much.
Joe
You can disregard my comment about the metric measurement not working. Within minutes - it works! It seemed 'stuck' for more than a week, but now it works. Thanks!
Vaishali
Awesome, so happy you've loved the bread and that the measurements glitch worked itself out. Thanks for letting me know.
Melissa
I am trying this recipe after making my starter. I think I may have messed up, however, in feeding my starter after removing 3/4 cup of it for the recipe.
I added 3/4 cup flour + 4 oz water to my starter but that doesn't seem right. How can I make it right, and should I always remove at least a cup of starter to keep the flour to water proportions exact?
I'd hate to have to do my starter all over 🙁
Vaishali
Hi Melissa, you can't mess up your starter--it's really hard to do that. 🙂 If you messed up the proportions, just continue the next time by feeding in the right proportions: 4 parts flour and 3 parts water by volume. You might need to tweak the water proportions in recipes you make next slightly up or down, but otherwise you should be fine. You can't always just take out 1/2 cup because different recipes call for different amounts of sourdough starter.
Melissa
Thanks! The bread was delicious and my husband was super happy! Made some yummy grilled cheese sandwiches with it.
Is there a way to minimize the overly done bottom? I ended up scraping most of it off with a knife but that was messy.
I love Indian food, so I look forward to some of your other recipes as well. Appreciate you sharing them 🙂
Meechum
I find it very difficult to get the finished bread out of the Dutch oven. It always sticks to the bottom of the pan. Can I use the parchment paper in the Dutch oven? In other words the dough would not make contact with the bottom of the pan but instead would be on the parchment paper inside the pan so easier to extract when done?
Thanks and apologies if you have already answered this question
Vaishali
Hi, yes, absolutely. You can place the loaf with the parchment in the dutch oven and bake. I'd cut out any overhanging parchment that sticks out of the pan.
Jen
Posting this twice because I accidentally entered my email incorrectly!
I’ve been making this bread each week for the past few weeks and I’ve been loving it! However the portion is too large for me to finish each week, I’ve been freezing half of it and was wondering if you’ve ever made half the serving successfully, and if so, what the measurements are?
I also wanted to know if you’ve ever added herbs or cranberries and walnuts/almonds, and if so, how much you added?
Thank you!!
Vaishali
Hi Jen, I aswered your other question above. To add herbs, cranberries and nuts, use this sourdough sage and olive loaf as the base recipe and add the nuts and other ingredients you want to instead of the sage and olives. https://holycowvegan.net/sourdough-olive-sage-loaf/
Jen
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I’ll check out this recipe 🙂
Jen
Thank you for this recipe! I’ve been making it for the past few weeks and have been loving it but recently tried to half the recipe as it’s too much for me to finish each week. However when I try to half it, the dough is too dry and will not rise. Have you ever successfully made half the quantity, and if so, what were the measurements?
Vaishali
Hi Jen, I haven't halved the recipe myself, but the only adjustment you should need is to the baking time. Halving the recipe--if you also halve all the ingredients proportionately--should not affect the rise.
Here are some thoughts. Are you halving the water as well? If the dough is looking too dry, it could just be because of changing weather, which can definitely be a factor. Try adding a little extra water until you get the texture you are used to when you make the full recipe.
Jen
Thank you so much! It was a lot colder when I let it rise last night so I think that’s what it was. I’ll keep playing with it!
Kathryn James
I've tried several sourdough recipes but keep coming back to this one as it is just so simple and makes a perfect loaf every time! The sticky dough took some getting used to but I think I've mastered it now by wetting my hands and working quickly. My house smells of delicious warm bread - I can't wait to break into it.
Joe
Thank you, Vaishali. This bread recipe could not be easier - and the bread is incredibly delicious. Since finding this recipe somewhere around a couple of weeks ago, I'm on my 5th loaf, at least! Love the char and the incredibly chewy crust. I literally have to hold myself back once I cut (or tear) into it! Thanks again.
Vaishali
So great to hear you’ve enjoyed it! I am pretty crazy about this bread too. ?
Leslie Jill Shai
Hello Vaishali,
Thank you for educating all of us! Once l have an established starter, can this recipe be naked in my breadmaker? I would really like to benefit from the lower glycemic index of sourdough, and l don't mind a denser loaf if l can incorporate some whole grain in the recipe. Us it possible for the rise time, with the machine's temperature optimization, to be sufficient?
Then you for your help ?.
Joe
Hi Vaishali. As noted in other comments, your willingness to reply to questions is greatly appreciated. (I asked a question yesterday in the sourdough dinner rolls recipe and I'm ready to bake those beauties today!) I've been baking sourdough bread since April (along with half the rest of the world,) using active starter and a more typical process of stretch/fold, rest, repeat. I'm really looking forward to trying this recipe soon. Two questions: For the final 2-hour rise, what do you think about using a bread proofing basket since I have a couple of them, then turning it out onto parchment for the baking? (Or maybe placing the parchment in the proofing basket to help the dough hold its shape, then transfer with parchment to the dutch oven for baking?) Any tips on making a cinnamon, nut, raisin loaf? Thanks again for your kindness.
Vaishali
Hi Joe, it would be a good idea to place the parchment in the proofing basket, as the dough is very wet and might stick to the basket if you place it in directly. Using parchment would also make it much easier to lift the dough and place it in the dutch oven. If you do try it without the parchment paper, be sure to flour the proofing basket very thoroughly.
I haven't made a cinnamon nut raisin loaf but I do have a sourdough olive and sage loaf recipe on the blog that you can use as a guide for various fillings. https://holycowvegan.net/sourdough-olive-sage-loaf/
Always happy to answer questions. 🙂
Joe
Thanks. Dinner rolls out of the oven and they are perfect! Making the sourdough bread tonight! Thanks again. Cheers!