Easy Beginner No-Knead Sourdough

Sourdough bread has become so popular in the past few years. But so many are intimidated by sourdough or are afraid to start. Sound familiar? Then this recipe was written for you! With this easy beginner no-knead sourdough recipe, and step-by-step instructions, you’ll have your first homemade sourdough loaf in no time!

There’s nothing better than a thick, crusty slice of sourdough bread to dip into a hearty chicken soup, a chorizo and bean stew, a Middle Eastern shakshuka, or with some Balkan stuffed cabbage laves (sarma). It’s also delicious on its own, fresh out of the oven, maybe with some butter – just perfect!

What’s So Special About Sourdough?

Baking a loaf of this easy beginner no-knead sourdough will already make it unique and special! But all sourdough is made by fermenting the dough for a long time. This fermentation process is what makes sourdough a healthier bread than traditional bread.

Wheat, along with most plants, have something called ‘antinutrients’ in them. These are basically compounds which make it harder for your body to absorb any nutrients found in food. They also make food harder to digest. One of the antinutrients found in wheat is phytic acid.

But, through the fermentation process phytic acid gets broken down. This means that the nutrients in the wheat are more easily digestible and absorbed by the body. This is a key advantage sourdough has over bread that is made with yeast!

Before commercial yeast or other leavening agents were around to make dough rise, people were baking sourdough for thousands of years. It really is an ancient form of baking bread!

So what makes the dough rise if we’re not using commercial yeast? It’s actually the wild, natural yeast and bacteria in the flour and air! And this is where we get to the core of every sourdough baker’s heart – the beloved sourdough starter.

What is a Sourdough Starter?

To make this easy beginner no-knead sourdough (or any sourdough for that matter) you’ll need a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter is the leavening agent in sourdough which makes the dough rise. Without it, you’ll end up with a flat, dense loaf with no air pockets.

A sourdough starter is basically a mixture of flour and water that’s left to ferment. The way it ferments is by capturing all the natural wild yeast and bacteria in the air and flour. A sourdough starter is basically a little culture of microorganisms – it’s alive!

The wild yeast and bacteria feed off the sugar, natural acids, and complex carbohydrates present in flour. This in turn creates carbon dioxide (that’s where the bubbles and gas come in, and help your dough rise), and that sour, tangy flavour characteristic of sourdough.

You will need a bubbly, active starter to make sourdough. This means feeding your starter with flour and water well before you start mixing up your dough! Although, it’s more accurate to say you’re simply feeding the wild natural yeast and bacteria by topping up your starter with more flour and water.

Check out my comphrensive guide on making your own sourdough starter from scratch. You can also buy sourdough starters online or from certain bakeries. Some starters have been kept alive for decades, even centuries!

Ingredients for this Easy Beginner No-Knead Sourdough

For this easy beginner no-knead sourdough recipe, you will only need 3 simple ingredients. Far too many breads these days are filled with additives and long lists of extra ingredients. But bread is meant to be quite simple. Just flour, water, and salt! And of course, an active, bubbly starter.

What type of Flour to Use for this No-Knead Sourdough?

I like to keep things simple with sourdough! I know some people insist on using particular types of flours. Some use specific bread flour, some experiment with ancient grain, rye, or whole wheat flour. You should feel free to do so the same! But I just use a plain, unbleached, triple-sifted organic flour. But any plain flour will still give you a delicious loaf of sourdough bread!

Low Hydration vs High Hydration Sourdough Bread

You will hear sourdough bakers talk about ‘low hydration’ or ‘high hydration’ loaves of sourdough. A low hydration sourdough is one that has lower water to flour ratio. It’s typically less airy, and prone to being more dense with a chewier crust. But the dough is less sticky and easier to work with. A high hydration sourdough is one that has a higher water to flour ratio. It gives you a more airy, open crumb, crispier crust, but the dough can be wet, sticky and harder to work with.

You’ll see hydration expressed as a percentage. It’s calculated by dividing the total weight of water by the total weight of flour, multiplied by 100.

A low hydration loaf will have less water, and it’s hydration is anything below 60-65%. A high hydration loaf has more water, and is anything above 75-80%.

My recipe is more on the high hydration side, sitting at 78%. I’ve experimented by going higher and lower, and I find that this is just the sweet spot! The dough isn’t too hard to work with, and you get a perfectly airy, open crumb, and a crispy crust on the sourdough!

How to Make this Easy Beginner No-Knead Sourdough

This easy beginner no-knead sourdough recipe is simple, but it does require patience. Sourdough is not the kind of dough you mix, then bake on the same day. The dough needs time to ferment and rise.

As an example, if I want a loaf ready for Sunday morning or afternoon, I’m feeding my starter with flour and water Friday night, or Saturday morning. But there are ways to speed up the process! Scroll to the bottom of this post for my tips and tricks!

Feed Your Sourdough Starter

You first need to feed your starter with flour and water. Leave it for 4-8 hours and let it double in size, and become active and bubbly. It will rise more slowly is a cooler spot, and rise more quickly in a warmer spot. It’s ready to use when it’s peaked (if unsure, it’s ready when it passes the float test).

I have sometimes let mine go a bit longer past its peak, and it’s usually still fine to use. You still get a great rise on the bread. This is especially true if you have a mature starter like I do, which I’ve kept alive for almost 4 years!

Combine all Ingredients

Traditional recipes will tell you to mix your flour and let it ‘autolyse’ – that’s the process of letting the water hydrate the flour by letting it rest for about 30 minutes. I skip this! I just mix the flour, water, starter and salt, and let everything autolyse together.

This is sometimes called letting it ‘fermentolyse’. It’s an easier, faster process, and the fermentation begins earlier. And honestly, the result is still a beautiful, airy, perfect loaf of sourdough bread every time!

Stretch and Fold your Sourdough (No-Knead!)

And here’s where the no-knead part of this sourdough recipe comes in. Instead of kneading the dough and risk overworking it, we just do a couple of rounds of ‘stretch and folds’.

You grab one corner of the dough, pull and stretch it up toward you, and fold it over the rest of the dough. Turn the bowl 90° and repeat for each corner of the dough, like you’re wrapping a little parcel with four corners!

This is considered one round of stretch and folds – you will need to do anywhere from 3-6 rounds. I space them out 20-40 minutes apart. I often do 3 and the sourdough turns out perfect! With each round of stretch and folds, the dough will become harder to stretch, and less sticky. This is a sign the gluten structure is forming nicely!

Let Your Sourdough Double in Size

Then, you let it rest and double in size – this is the bulk fermentation stage. It could take anywhere from 8-12 hours. It will rise more slowly in a cool spot, and more quickly in a warm spot. When I want to speed up the process, I often leave it on a sunny windowsill, or on top of the oven while it’s running.

Don’t let it over-ferment and lose its gluten structure! You’ll know this has happened with the dough is really sticky, soupy, and caves in when pressed. It is still completely safe to eat! You can still bake it (it just won’t rise much), or turn it into sourdough focaccia, flatbread, or croutons!

Shape Your Sourdough

Once it’s doubled, it will be bubbly, and airy, and this is when we shape it. Shape the dough by placing it onto a lightly floured surface, and gently stretching it out into a long rectangle. Then, roll it up into a log (a batard), making sure you create tension on the surface of the dough.

The whole point of shaping is to create this surface tension, so that it traps in the gas (carbon dioxide) produced in the final rise. This gives you better oven spring once the sourdough bakes, and you get a nice, tall, airy loaf. If the gas isn’t trapped, it’ll escape, and the sourdough will turn out flat!

Place Sourdough in the Fridge for a Long, Cold Proof

Pinch the ends of the dough together. Then place it into a bowl lined with a floured tea towel, or a banneton (bread proofing basket), seam-side up.

This is the long ferment now – pop it in the fridge, and let it ferment anywhere from 12-36 hours. The longer you leave it, the more tangy or sour it’ll be!

Score and Bake Your Easy Beginner No-Knead Sourdough and Enjoy!

When you are ready to bake, you simply flip the dough onto a floured surface, dust the top liberally with flour, and score the dough with a bread lame or razor.

The flour on top will make the pattern stand out! You could use a knife, but it tends to tear the dough rather than cutting it.

You can make any pretty pattern you like with shallow cuts. But you will need one deeper cut, called an expansion score. This creates a ‘weak point’ for the dough. As it hits the oven, the water in the loaf turns to steam. All that internal pressure has to go somewhere!

By having an expansion score, you create an escape route for this steam and control where the dough will expand. If you don’t do this, you may end up with a random bulge in your sourdough (a ‘blowout’) or a dense loaf with a tight crumb.

Tips for a Perfect Easy Beginner No-Knead Sourdough!

Your Sourdough Starter Must be Active!

I cannot emphasise how important it is to have an active, bubbly starter! If you end up with sourdough that’s dense, or flat, it is most often because your starter wasn’t quite ready. Remember, that is our only leavening agent. It’s the only thing making the dough rise!

If you’re unsure when it’s ready to use, try the float test. If you drop a small amount into a glass of water, it should float to the top. This means it’s bubbly and ready to use.

Make Sure You Do Enough Stretch and Folds

How many is enough? Well, that’s where you need to use your judgement with the dough. When you first mix the ingredients, the dough is a shaggy consistency. As you do more stretch and folds, it should become less shaggy, and more like a cohesive ball of dough. It will also be harder to pull and stretch the dough, meaning the gluten structure has developed.

I’ll even be so bold as to say, it doesn’t even need to pass the windowpane test! This is often used as a test to see if the gluten structure is strong enough. You grab a small piece of dough, and stretch it out very thin, until you can see light through it (like a windowpane!). Sometimes my dough doesn’t quite pass this test, but because sourdough ferments for many hours after this, the gluten structure has plenty of time to develop.

So I’d say, you’ve done enough stretch and folds once your dough is tough to stretch, and has become cohesive.

Don’t Bulk Ferment for Too Long, or Too Short

Too short, and your sourdough will be dense and gummy. Too long, and it will be a flat pancake. Both are perfectly edible, but when bulk fermenting, you can check that your dough is ready by gently poking it. You want the indent of your finger to slowly rise back.

If it caves in, the sourdough has been fermenting too long. If it springs back really quickly and feels tight, it needs more time fermenting.

Don’t Fear the Expansion Score

The deep, expansion score is necessary for the steam to escape your sourdough. It should be anywhere from 1-1.5cm deep. The shallower scores are purely to make your sourdough pretty! I recommend buying a bread lame or razor for this, to get sharp, neat cuts that don’t tear the dough. Here’s the one I use:

Really Preheat Your Dutch Oven for the Sourdough

A dutch oven really is the best tool for baking a loaf of sourdough bread. Don’t skip preheating it. When the sourdough hits the piping hot bottom of your dutch oven, it immediately seals the base and begins to form a crust.

It also creates the perfect environment to trap the steam (since we first bake it with the lid on). This gives you an excellent oven spring and rise on the sourdough.

Ways to Speed Up the Sourdough Process (and bake your easy beginner no-knead sourdough on the same day!)

• Get your starter to rise more quickly by feeding it flour and warm (not hot!!) water.

• Speed up the bulk ferment by placing your dough on a sunny windowsill, on top of a running oven – anywhere that’s warm!

• To bake on the same day, you can skip the cold, long proof in the fridge. Instead, after you shape the dough, let it proof on the counter for 2-4 hours. This will depend on the temperature of your kitchen. To have it ready to bake quicker, place it in a warm spot! While your dutch oven is preheating, you can place the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes just to chill the surface. This will make it easier to handle, and much easier to score before baking.

Practice, Practice, Practice, and Don’t Give up!

I cannot tell you just how many flat, pancake-like sourdough loaves I have baked. Some have been really dense and gummy, some have been chewy and dry – it happens! Sourdough baking is an art – and for some it’s a hobby! It requires practice, patience, and perseverance.

No matter how your sourdough turns out, you can always find a use for it! You can use your less-than-perfect sourdough loaves for croutons, breadcrumbs or stuffings. You can also slice the bread and make bruschetta, bread and butter pudding, or use in a panzanella salad!

I didn’t get my first ‘perfect’ loaf of sourdough for about 2 years! Just keep trying, keep your starter alive, and practice – trust me, you will get the hang of it as you learn to understand sourdough. And hopefully, this easy beginner no-knead sourdough recipe will help you get there quicker!

I truly hope you enjoy this sourdough recipe! xxx