Name: Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Bread Flour - 950 grams; Water - 700 grams; Sourdough Starter (Active) - 100 grams; Salt - 20 grams

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Here’s my recipe for Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread. The recipe yields two standard loaves of sourdough bread that are delicious, soft, and fluffy on the inside without the addition of any butter, milk, or sugar.

The simple process spans two days, but involves a minimal amount of active work. This recipe is almost as easy to make as my no-knead sourdough bread recipe, but I’ve added one extra step which provides additional strength to the dough, producing a more beautifully rounded top on the loaf in the end.

Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe.

Special Tools Needed for This Recipe

Bench Scraper
1 lb. Non-Stick Loaf Pan (link to mine)
Dutch oven (link to mine)

Starter Ingredients

Sourdough Starter (From the Refrigerator) – 25 grams
Water – 50 grams
Whole Wheat Flour – 50 grams

Dough Ingredients

Bread Flour – 950 grams
Water – 700 grams
Sourdough Starter (Active) – 100 grams
Salt – 20 grams

Instructions

In the early afternoon, take 25 grams of leftover sourdough starter out of the refrigerator. In a jar, mix the starter with 50 grams of water and 50 grams of whole wheat flour. Stir everything together until completely combined. Mark the top of the starter with a rubber band so that you can see how much the starter rises during the next 6-8 hours. When the starter rises to double its original size (or close), it’s ready to use.
In the evening, begin mixing the dough. To a mixing bowl add the water, salt, and 100 grams of the risen sourdough starter. Stir the liquid mixture until the starter and salt are well combined with the water. There should be about 25 grams of starter leftover in the jar. Put the jar of leftover starter back into the fridge to use the next time you want to make bread.
Add all of the bread flour to the liquid ingredients. Stir thoroughly until the ingredients form a rough dough and there aren’t many dry bits of flour left. At this point, cover up the dough in the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. This will allow the gluten in the dough to relax and it will be easier to work with.
After the 30 minute rest, uncover the bowl and give the dough one set up stretch and folds. Grab an edge of the dough with your fingers and stretch the dough up into the air until you feel some resistance. Fold the stretched dough over the top of the rest of the dough. Grab the next edge of the dough and repeat. Go around the bowl, stretching and folding the dough six to ten times until you feel the dough starting to tighten up and resist stretching. This process builds gluten development within the dough and it will give the dough extra strength and structure. This one short step will make the final loaf of bread rise up a little bit taller than a true no-knead loaf of sourdough bread.
After the set of stretch and folds, cover up the dough to make it air tight. You can use a kitchen towel and a plate (like I do in the video) or you can also use plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature to rise overnight, or for 8-12 hours. The relatively small amount of starter in the dough will cause the dough to rise slower than other sourdough bread recipes, which is why it can rise for so long without over proofing.
The next morning, uncover the dough and check how much it has risen. It should be doubled in size if everything has gone correctly. As long as the dough looks like it has puffed up and risen, it is good to continue on.
Take the dough out of the bowl and divide it in two equal pieces with a bench scraper. Gently shape both pieces of dough into rectangular loaf shapes and transfer each loaf into its own 1 lb. non-stick loaf pan. If you aren’t sure that your pan is non-stick, line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper before adding in the dough.

Note: You can store one or both of the pieces of dough in the fridge for up to 12-24 hours to save for baking later. For this option, store the piece of dough in the fridge in a glass or metal bowl covered with plastic wrap or an airtight lid.

Cover up the each pan with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size and is rising over the top of the pan.
30 minutes before the dough is done rising, preheat your oven to 450ºF (232ºC). You can include a pizza stone or baking steel on the oven rack if you have one. Preheat the oven for 30 minutes.

Note: Optional, you can bake this pan loaf inside of a Dutch oven like I do in my standard sourdough bread recipe (link to recipe). For this method, preheat the oven for 30 minutes with the Dutch oven inside on one of the lower oven racks.

When the dough is ready to bake and the oven is preheated, transfer each pan onto the oven rack and/or pizza stone. The loaves can be next to each other if you are baking both at the same time. If you are using a Dutch oven, place the pan into the Dutch oven and close the lid. Add a few ice cubes onto the oven floor (or baking steel) to create steam in the oven.
Bake for 40-45 minutes at 450ºF (232ºC) (remove the Dutch oven lid after 20 minutes, if using the Dutch oven method).
Take the bread out of the oven when the crust reaches a golden brown color and the internal temperature of the bread reaches at least 190ºF (87ºC) tested with a probe thermometer.
Remove each loaf of bread from the pan and place them on a wire rack to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

This almost no-knead sourdough bread is so easy to make! For the resulting bread that you get in the end, small amount of work put into this recipe is truly worth it.

Yield: 2 loaves