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How to Make Sourdough Bread ~ the easy way

Why buy sourdough bread when it's so easy to make? Learn how to make sourdough bread the easy way with this no-knead recipe.

We love sourdough bread but I’ve been a little intimidated to try to make it. The whole thing about having to feed the starter regularly or you’ll kill it has always been a little bit to much responsibility for me. Goodness, I have kids to feed each day, I certainly don’t need the pressure of keeping a starter alive. 

Then I started the Family Herbalist course with Vintage Remedies last summer and one of the modules was on bread. Bread has gotten such a bad rap lately and yet I can’t reconcile this with the fact that most cultures ate (or eat) bread, and a lot of it, without having the kind of issues that many people in North America seem to have.

Then I read The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread and learned so much about how the ancients made bread, how our great-grandparents made bread and how we now make bread – the similarities and the differences. 

One difference that seems to be a pretty big difference is that most bread baked before the late 1800’s was sourdough bread. The sourdough process is longer and that time gives the microbes time to eat gluten and sugars in the flour while releasing carbon dioxide to make the dough rise.

I’m very intrigued by this and have been playing around with several sourdough recipes for our family. 

Now, I am not a sourdough purist. Our family still eats regular pancakes, biscuits, muffins and quick breads. Maybe one day I’ll convert those recipes to sourdough but for right now it’s not a priority.

Now if we had health issues caused from eating these things I’d be converting them or going without in a heartbeat, but we don’t. 

Back to the whole “responsibility” thing. I’m convinced that people have made a huge deal about how time consuming and fragile sourdough is to make you think they’re doing something really amazing and special.

In my experience (over the last nine months), sourdough is so much easier to work with than breads made with baker’s yeast…both in time and in hardiness. 

I’ve managed to keep the same starter alive for nine months. I also have about 10 back ups that I’ve frozen “just in case”. I ordered my starter from Cultures for Health and just followed the directions to activate it.

For the first several weeks I totally babied it because I was nervous, then I started storing it in the refrigerator so I wouldn’t have to feed it as often.

When I want to make bread I just take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before (or the night before) and add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and let it sit out and get bubbly – sometimes I don’t even measure.

Then I use whatever I need to for the recipe and feed it again with 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and put it back into the refrigerator. I know this isn’t really the “right” way to do this, but it’s working for me. 

Why buy sourdough bread when it's so easy to make? Learn how to make sourdough bread the easy way with this no-knead recipe.

Originally I was hoping to get into a routine of mixing and baking bread each day (or at least most days) and it just didn’t work out.

Then I came across a huge no-knead recipe in the bread book and have been tweaking it until it was just what I needed. The beauty of this is that I mix it in a big bowl and then store it in the refrigerator.

When I want to make bread, I put some in a bread loaf pan, cover with a damp towel, let it rise for a several hours and then bake. 

Why buy sourdough bread when it's so easy to make? Learn how to make sourdough bread the easy way with this no-knead recipe.

Before we get to the recipe let me share with you just how hardy sourdough is. The photos of the baked bread in this post were taken after I had two “mishaps” with the dough.

On a Wednesday late afternoon I put dough in two loaf pans and was planning on baking them that night. I forgot and went to bed. When I got up Thursday morning I saw my mistake, the dough was all over the counter.

So, I took the dough out, re-shaped it and put it back in the pans and put the towel on top. On Thursdays we have homeschool co-op and I had the intention of asking my collage age son to bake them for me.

I forgot. At 2pm we came home and I saw them overflowing the pans….again! The towel was dry and the dough even had a “crust” on it. 

If this had been bread made with baker’s yeast I would have ruined it but not sourdough. I just took the dough out of the pans, re-shaped it and but it back it the pans with a wet towel.

Just before dinner, I took the towel off and the dough had risen enough that it was touching the towel and sticking a little. But the loaves didn’t deflate so I baked them. And they turned out wonderful!

So yeah, sourdough is pretty hardy. 

Why buy sourdough bread when it's so easy to make? Learn how to make sourdough bread the easy way with this no-knead recipe.

Right now I’m just using unbleached all purpose flour for this recipe but I’m playing with it using freshly ground grains and will share that recipe when I feel confident in it. 

Please note: This recipe is a wet dough but should not be as wet as a batter. There are many variables to sourdough making including how active your starter is. When you get ready to make the bread, if the dough seems too thin, add up to 2 more cups of flour. 

Yield: 4 loaves

No-knead Sourdough Bread

No-knead Sourdough Bread

This no-knead sourdough bread recipe makes a large batch that can be stored in the refrigerator and used as needed.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Additional Time 12 hours 10 seconds
Total Time 12 hours 55 minutes 10 seconds

Ingredients

  • 6-8 cups flour
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup starter
  • 1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp honey

Instructions

    Combine everything in a very large container.

    At this point you can put it into the refrigerator and use throughout the week OR go ahead and divide the dough into four pans, let them rise, and then put them in the refrigerator for 5-7 days.

    If you put the bowl of dough in the refrigerator, you can remove as much or as little as you need to make 1, 2, 3, or 4 loaves at a time. When you're ready to make the bread, oil a loaf pan and put 1/4 of the dough in the pan. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let the dough rise for 10-12 hours or overnight at room temperature.

    If you want to store the loaves in the pans, you can oil four loaf pans and divide the dough between the loaves. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let them rise for 10-12 hours or over night and then put them in the refrigerator for 5-7 days until you're ready to use them.

    To bake:

    When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F.

    Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top of the loaf is a deep golden brown.

Notes

Tip: Feed your starter the day before making this with enough extra flour and water to make sure you have sufficient starter to remove 1 cup and still have enough to feed for your next batch.

If the dough is too wet you can add more flour.

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Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Your turn, what are some of your favorite sourdough breads? 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Martha

Friday 28th of January 2022

4 cups of water seems like too much. And in the recipe, it calls for 1 cup of starter. But your commentary, you say 2 cups of starter. Could any of these be a misprint?

Angi Schneider

Friday 4th of February 2022

This is a very wet dough - it will dry out some as it sits in the refrigerator throughout the week. It should not be soupy but will certainly be sticky. If yours is soupy you can add more flour. It only uses one cup of starter, the note is just to remind you to have enough starter so that when you remove one cup, you still have plenty to work with in the future. I've edited the notes to make that more clear. You can certainly use more starter if you want to.

Marlindi

Sunday 31st of May 2020

Can I half this recipe?

Angi Schneider

Sunday 31st of May 2020

I haven't ever done that but you can certainly try it.

Charmaine

Friday 15th of May 2020

Hi Angi.

I have always wanted to try my hand at baking bread, but I am Gluten Intolerant. Would this work with GF flour and flour alternatives?

I was wondering if this would work in a bread maker? I bought one years ago, only to find out that I can't eat bread.

Thank you, loved this post.

Angi Schneider

Friday 15th of May 2020

Hi Charmaine. I have no idea about gluten free sourdough. I do know that during the fermenting process, gluten is made more tolerable for many people, so you might want to do some research on that. The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread has some great information on this (the book is out of print but available on Kindle.) I've also never used a bread machine, so I don't know if it will work. Thanks!

Chris

Saturday 9th of May 2020

Hi! My bread is finally turning out well except for the fact that it doesn’t look like your pic yet! ☺️ I feel like it doesn’t dome enough for whatever reason. But the taste is great! I was wondering, have you ever added raisins and cinnamon to the mix to make raisin bread?

Angi Schneider

Saturday 9th of May 2020

Hey Chris, glad to know that the bread tastes great! That's really what matters. I've never added raisins or cinnamon but it sounds delicious!

Chris

Monday 13th of April 2020

I think what I’m still alittle confused about is....why does the recipe call for 6-8 cups flour? I tried today with 6 cups but after adding 4 cups water was was way too thin so I added another 1/2 cup.

Angi Schneider

Monday 13th of April 2020

I'm sorry, all the flour should be added when you mix it in the bowl, so up to 8 cups. If after adding 6 cups the dough is too wet, then add more, like you did. Maybe you needed to add a full cup or even 2? I wouldn't know without looking at the dough. It is certainly a wet dough but it's not going to be like a batter. There is a lot of trial and error with sourdough because there are so many variables.

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