Easy Sourdough Bread
No kneading, no frills, no worries. This is definitely not the fanciest way to make sourdough but it is very easy and very consistent — it breaks lots of the 'rules' that make sourdough hard. We cut every corner here and skip every step we can in order to make a consistent table bread. Once you get the hang of this you can go on to the complicated multi-step, high hydration sourdough recipes out there. The plan: get starter out of the fridge in the morning, make dough a few hours later, put the risen shaped dough in the fridge around 6 hours after that, and bake the next morning. Be prepared — your hands will get dirty and flour will get on things.
Ingredients
- — 315g water
- — 150g fed starter
- — 10g salt
- — 25g olive oil
- — 500g flour
Equipment
- — Kitchen scale — baking is chemistry; get it right
- — Large bowl
- — Cast iron dutch oven — the most important optional item
- — Proofing basket / banneton
- — Bread lame, razor, or sharp knife for scoring
- — Sprouting mat or other temperature control for a consistent rise
Instructions
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1
Morning — Feed the starter: Pull it from the fridge and feed it — take about 1/4 cup out and throw it away (or save it for other recipes), then add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour. Stir the hell out of it — no lumps of flour.
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2
Noonish — Make the dough: When the starter looks bubbly (a few hours after feeding), add everything but the flour to the big bowl and mix completely: 315g water, 150g starter, 10g salt, 25g olive oil. Then add 500g flour and mix with a fork, then your hands — you'll have a big blob of moderately sticky wet dough. If it won't form a dough, add more flour; if it isn't sticking to anything at all, add more water. Cover with a thin towel and leave somewhere with consistent temperature.
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3
Afternoon — Shape and refrigerate: Once the dough has risen 1.5x to 2x its size (it will be noticeably lighter but still hold its shape — if it collapses or is too loose, you waited too long and your bread won't rise correctly in the oven), take it out and form it into a ball. I do this by tucking the sides around toward the bottom a few times — search YouTube for 'sourdough shaping' if you're not sure what that looks like. You want to stretch it into a ball without the layers tearing; this is the final shape of your loaf. Put the shaped dough into your proofing basket or back in the cleaned-out bowl, cover with a towel, and put it in the fridge overnight.
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4
Next morning — Preheat and transfer: Preheat the oven to 475°F. The dough should be cold and firm but will have risen a little in the fridge. Transfer it carefully to the dutch oven — I put a parchment paper round on top of the bowl, flip the dough onto a strip of parchment paper on my counter, and use the strip to airlift the dough into the dutch oven. Score the top by cutting a 1/2-inch-deep X or # sign.
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5
Bake: 40 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake 15 more minutes for color and crust.
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6
Cool: Take the bread out and put it on a wire rack (or counter/cutting board — just get it out of the heat) to cool for about an hour. You will be tempted to cut it early. Don't. If you cut the bread while it is still hot you'll ruin the inside. Warm is fine; hot is bad; cool is best.
Notes
- · Starter: this recipe expects a 100% hydration starter — equal parts water and flour by weight. Keep about 1/2 cup fed at all times (about a week between feedings when refrigerated; feed every time you make bread). To feed: discard about 1/4 cup, then add 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup flour. Before making bread, either double-feed the original or set aside a second container so you can take 150g and still have about 1/2 cup remaining.
- · Your crumb will look a lot like your starter did when you made the dough — fluffy and bubbly is what you're after.
- · Mixing the wet ingredients first helps avoid pockets of salt or oil in the bread. Ignore the people who yell at you for mixing in the salt early.
- · A sprouting mat keeps the bowl at exactly the same temperature all day, which makes the rise much more predictable. The oven with just the light on also works, or just the counter — but check on it more often.
- · A cast iron dutch oven makes sourdough very very easy. A big pot or bread pan will work, but you'll need to add ice to the oven when you put the bread in and figure out the rest of your setup.
- · Starters are little piles of active microorganisms — weird, fickle, and gross. Sometimes it takes multiple feedings to wake back up after sitting in the fridge. Gross blackish liquid on top (called hooch) just means it's hungry — pour it off and feed.
- · Don't experiment at first, just get the recipe down. After a few good loaves, go wild — herbs, olives, whole wheat flour, whatever. You can also try harder recipes and techniques. The internet is full of fun sourdough stuff.
- · Save your discard for easy amazing recipes like pizza dough, scones, and tortillas.
- · Expert mode: shaping the dough once or twice during the first rise can help you get a taller loaf. Bread people call this preshaping.
- · Bread dorks name their starter. You're a bread dork now. Some properly cringeworthy options: Bread Pitt / Bread Sheeran / Breadie Mercury / Breadley Cooper, Loaf Erikson, Leonardo Dough Vinci, Doughbie Wan Kenobi, Yeastie Boy(s), Clint Yeastwood, Yeast Witherspoon, Benedict Crumberbatch, Doughly Parton, Yeast Mode, Dr. Bubbles, Microbe Tyson, Colony McColonyface.