We think this recipe comes close to the highest and best use of the enormously popular no knead method of bread baking. It combines the ease and simplicity of the original yeasted version, with the flavor and nutritional advantages of sourdough leavening and whole grains, and makes it all work around a schedule accessible to anyone. Start it in the evening and bake the next morning or start in the morning and bake that evening.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In the above video, I preheat the oven and ceramic baker to 500ºF. Different baking vessels may have different heat tolerances. Please refer to the manufacturers instructions for the baking vessel you are using. Bread baking vessels are made by several different companies and while they may look alike, their usage instructions may vary.
Our original contribution to the no-knead bread revolution: substitute live sourdough starter for instant yeast to create the ultimate no knead artisan bread loaf.
Best No Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe (low Maintenance)
There are countless variations of this basic recipe. Here we have profiled a proven favorite of mine using common, easy to find ingredients. Following this recipe should produce a desirable outcome. But what if you prefer a mostly white flour version, or mostly whole wheat? How should you vary the recipe to compensate for the changes? This is where using baker's percentages and understanding hydration levels comes in handy.
Baker's percentage is simply a way to indicate the proportion of a recipe's ingredients relative to the total flour used in the recipe, when making baked good. For example, if the total flour used in a recipe is 1000 grams and the amount of water used is 750 grams, then the Baker's Percentage of water is 75% (750 is 75% of 1000). In this example you can also say the hydration level of the dough is 75%. If the total amount of salt in this example recipe is 20 grams, the Baker's Percentage of salt is 2%. I think the main beauty of knowing and using Baker's Percentages is that it allows you to easily scale a recipe (adjust the size and hydration) to suit your needs. If a loaf of bread using X grams of flour is bigger or smaller than you want, you can reduce or increase the amount of flour by however much you want but keep the proportions of the other ingredients accurate when you know their relative weight to the flour.
Getting back to this No Knead recipe post, the amount of water I used is 85%, by weight, of the amount of flour I used. The hydration level is 85%. This percentage works well for a recipe that is ½ white flour and ½ whole wheat flour. But if I decide instead to bake an all whole grain bread, I'm going to have to increase the amount of water used in the recipe or decrease the amount of flour. In other words, I need to increase the hydration level to maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% to achieve the same consistency of dough. This is simply because whole wheat absorbs more water than the same amount of white flour. Conversely, if I want an all white flour bread, I'll probably drop the hydration level to somewhere around 72-75%. Just knowing this gives me a framework to go by. If my dough turns out too wet or too dry to be easy to work with at whatever hydration level, I'll tweak the level up or down the next time until I get it to about where I want it.
Bread The Easy Way. No Starter. No Kneading
Also, with this recipe post, if this loaf of bread is larger than you like (it might be, it's kind of on the large size), you could try using 1 ½ cups of water instead of 2 cups. 1 ½ cups of water weighs 12 ounces (using ounces now). Divide 12 oz by .85 gives you a little over 14. So you'd use a bit more than 14 ounces (14.12) of flour to maintain the same 85% hydration level and keep the consistency of the dough the same. You can do the same with the starter and salt. You'll end up with the same loaf of bread, just smaller.
This is exactly what I do every time I bake bread for our everyday household needs. I'll measure out the amount of water I need, typically 1 ½ to 2 cups, mix in some starter and then add flour to bring me to my desired hydration level. Here's another tidbit in case you're still awake – some varieties of wheat flour are more or less thirsty than others. Variations even occur from year to year or place to place within the same variety of wheat, requiring a tweak in hydration level to maintain consistent results. HOWEVER, if you're a new baker, don't sweat the details. Just be aware of them and know that there's a pretty wide range of what can work well. Getting kinda close is often good enough. You're not a professional baker. No one is likely to know or care if your bread doesn't turn out the same way every time. Relax, enjoy, learn, experiment, enjoy some more, repeat.
Generally speaking, the wetter your dough the bigger the holes will be, which many people really like. However, a drier dough will make it easier to get the bread to rise while baking, giving you greater “oven spring” and a more spherical loaf versus a pancake. With practice, you’ll get so you can come closer to predicting how your bread will turn out just based on the consistency of the dough when you’re mixing all the ingredients together. You can adjust the amount of water and flour to get the consistency that suits you best.
Rustic & Soft Easy Sourdough Starter Gift Bundle (low Maintenance/traditional) Plus! No Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe
No Knead Revisited – Many years have passed since the original New York Times no knead bread recipe was published… and when was born, by the way. By far the most common difficulty people experience is with the dough being too wet to handle at the end of the long first proofing period and also not knowing when it’s time to place the dough into a covered vessel to bake at the end of the second rise. When you run into this “too wet” issue, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it other than attempt to follow through on the instructions and ultimately wrest the dough into your heated baker and into the oven. Your “mistake” may turn out better than you expected and if nothing else, you’ll learn from it. The next time around you can do one or a combination of a couple things differently.
The same principle holds true on the second rise. While 60 to 90 minutes is the suggested range, I’m almost always at about 65 to 75 minutes for me.
Another concern we hear a lot is about the dough not rising much during that second short proofing period. I don’t see mine rise much then either and it doesn’t matter so long as you see a good rise during the first several minutes that the dough is in the oven. That’s called oven spring and it’s a very good thing. By keeping your proofing periods on the shorter side, you’re more likely to get good oven spring from the still vigorous sourdough starter.
Amish Friendship Bread No Knead Sourdough Bread
If you’re new to bread baking, don’t think from reading this that it’s difficult or tricky to get great results. Most people find it a breeze and enjoy success right out of the blocks. Others may find it takes a few tries. It’s important to have fun with it and don’t worry about bombing. There’s no significant downside to bread baking but the upside can be fabulous. Enjoy!
Many people want to know how to make their bread more sour. reader, Rhine Meyering, enjoys success with this by using just 1/8 cup of sourdough starter and extending the fermentation time by refrigerating the dough. This makes a lot of sense based on my understanding of sourdough baking too.
“I went nuts this weekend and made 3 different no-knead loaves. First was all white flour. I’ve read on other websites that longer ferments with LESS starter is the key to getting a more sour taste. I used about 1/8 cup of starter and put the dough in the fridge for 2 days. I then took it out and gave it 18 hours at room temp. The dough was extra soft, but it held its shape and baked up fine. The loaf came out great with extra large holes and that nice sourdough taste I was looking for. I also made a white/wheat, and one with steel cut oats. Both came out good. I gave the oat loaf a quick spritz of water before putting in in the la cloche, and it seemed to smooth out the crust. Thanks for launching this site. I hadn’t heard of no-knead before, but after just one loaf it’s my new favorite!” — Rhine
Sourdough No Knead Bread
Also, the following comment is from Ariela where she describes her success with the sourdough no knead method using spelt flour. She includes the actual
No Knead Revisited – Many years have passed since the original New York Times no knead bread recipe was published… and when was born, by the way. By far the most common difficulty people experience is with the dough being too wet to handle at the end of the long first proofing period and also not knowing when it’s time to place the dough into a covered vessel to bake at the end of the second rise. When you run into this “too wet” issue, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it other than attempt to follow through on the instructions and ultimately wrest the dough into your heated baker and into the oven. Your “mistake” may turn out better than you expected and if nothing else, you’ll learn from it. The next time around you can do one or a combination of a couple things differently.
The same principle holds true on the second rise. While 60 to 90 minutes is the suggested range, I’m almost always at about 65 to 75 minutes for me.
Another concern we hear a lot is about the dough not rising much during that second short proofing period. I don’t see mine rise much then either and it doesn’t matter so long as you see a good rise during the first several minutes that the dough is in the oven. That’s called oven spring and it’s a very good thing. By keeping your proofing periods on the shorter side, you’re more likely to get good oven spring from the still vigorous sourdough starter.
Amish Friendship Bread No Knead Sourdough Bread
If you’re new to bread baking, don’t think from reading this that it’s difficult or tricky to get great results. Most people find it a breeze and enjoy success right out of the blocks. Others may find it takes a few tries. It’s important to have fun with it and don’t worry about bombing. There’s no significant downside to bread baking but the upside can be fabulous. Enjoy!
Many people want to know how to make their bread more sour. reader, Rhine Meyering, enjoys success with this by using just 1/8 cup of sourdough starter and extending the fermentation time by refrigerating the dough. This makes a lot of sense based on my understanding of sourdough baking too.
“I went nuts this weekend and made 3 different no-knead loaves. First was all white flour. I’ve read on other websites that longer ferments with LESS starter is the key to getting a more sour taste. I used about 1/8 cup of starter and put the dough in the fridge for 2 days. I then took it out and gave it 18 hours at room temp. The dough was extra soft, but it held its shape and baked up fine. The loaf came out great with extra large holes and that nice sourdough taste I was looking for. I also made a white/wheat, and one with steel cut oats. Both came out good. I gave the oat loaf a quick spritz of water before putting in in the la cloche, and it seemed to smooth out the crust. Thanks for launching this site. I hadn’t heard of no-knead before, but after just one loaf it’s my new favorite!” — Rhine
Sourdough No Knead Bread
Also, the following comment is from Ariela where she describes her success with the sourdough no knead method using spelt flour. She includes the actual
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