Truly No-Knead Sourdough Bread

Everyone knows making sourdough bread is hard, right? There’s the schedules, the weird techniques, and that hard-to-handle dough. Well, not anymore. This recipe is so hands-off and straightforward that anyone can do it! It’s truly a matter of mixing, waiting, and baking.

This bread recipe will earn a place in your rotation, whether this is your first loaf or your three hundredth.

What You’ll Need

Your starter should double by four to eight hours after you feed it. If you don’t have a bubbly starter, your dough won’t rise properly and will seem dense. (Read more about how to keep your starter healthy here.)

This makes 1 loaf. If you’d like to double or triple this recipe, or use metric measurements, you can make adjustments in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Equipment

• Dutch oven
• Parchment paper
• Lame
• Proofing Basket

Ingredients

• 155 grams (5½ ounces)sourdough starter active and bubbly
• 425 grams (15 ounces) bread flour
• 285 grams (10 ounces) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt

How to Make

This schedule is not intended to stress you out and make you think that this bread recipe is a complicated production. But I want to give you a sense of the time that this will take. It’s hands-off time, but it definitely takes a while!

For a more sour taste: Add 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid with the other ingredients. Since this dough has a long bulk ferment and a cool overnight rise, it is already on the tart side. In step one, you can add mix-ins to the bread dough, like cubed cheese, dried fruit, or nuts. These add a delicious flavor without a lot of extra work.

Day One: Morning

First, mix everything up in the morning.

First, we’re putting all the ingredients in a bowl and letting it rest to give it strength. This is a very long rest time (about 10 hours), and occasionally you will stretch it and fold it a bit (every 3 hours or so) to provide it with even more structure.

The long rise time means the dough will hang out on your counter for a while, and you’ll need to pay attention to it for a minute every now and then. So you can’t be asleep.

To stretch and fold, just stretch the dough from the outside towards the center. Repeat on all sides of the dough. See how easy the stretch and fold is? Just a few seconds of work. You’re working with sticky dough, so it might be helpful to have wet hands or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

Day One: Evening

You’ve been stretching and folding and watching all day, and now it’s time for the next step.

This is when you’ll shape the loaf, place it in the proofing basket, and pop it in the fridge. Do not get worked up about shaping your loaf. If it looks like a ball, you did it.

And then it goes in the fridge until morning.

Day Two: Morning

Now we bake! First, you will preheat your oven with the empty Dutch oven inside. As the oven preheats, you can take the dough out of the fridge and get it ready.

All you need to do is dump it out onto a piece of parchment, rub more flour on the top, and slash with a sharp knife or lame. You can see here how ugly my slashes are. Don’t worry; it will still be pretty once it goes in the oven.

Bake for 50 minutes (30 with the lid on, during which the loaf will rise a lot, and 20 minutes with the lid off so the loaf can brown. Carefully remove the Dutch oven, and let the bread cool for at least four hours.

Day Two: Afternoon

You eat!

Sample Baker’s Schedule

Time	Step & Notes
Day 1 (Morning)
8:00 am	Feed your starter (if needed) so it’s bubbly by mixing time.
10:00 am	Mix dough: Combine starter, flour, water, sugar, and salt. Cover.
1:00 pm	Stretch & fold #1: just a quick 30-second pull and tuck.
4:00 pm	Stretch & fold #2: another quick pull and tuck.
7:00 pm	Stretch & fold #3 (optional): if you’re around. Dough should look smoother and puffier.
8:00 pm	Shape loaf: Lightly flour, tighten into a ball, place seam-side up in proofing basket. Cover and refrigerate overnight (cold proof).
Day 2: Morning
7:30 am	Place Dutch oven (with lid) in oven. Preheat to 450 °F. Remove dough from fridge.
8:00 am	Turn dough onto parchment, dust with flour, score loaf, and load into hot Dutch oven. Bake 30 min covered.
8:30 am	Remove lid, bake another 20 min uncovered for browning.
8:50 am	Transfer bread to wire rack. Cool completely.
Day 2: Afternoon
1:00–2:00 pm	Bread is fully cooled—slice and enjoy!

Storage Instructions

Sourdough doesn’t need to be stored in an airtight container., and you can keep it on the counter for 2-3 days, either in a bread bag or box.

It also freezes well, either sliced or as a whole loaf. After the bread has cooled completely, put it in a ziplock bag and freeze it for up to a month.

Questions and Troubleshooting

More Easy Sourdough Recipes

• Bread machine sourdough is a totally different method but just as easy.
• Sourdough bread with jalapeno and cheddar is a family favorite that also uses a Dutch oven.
• Sourdough focaccia also has minimal hands on time. So easy for something so good.
• You don’t have to always do stretch and folds. You can make sourdough in your stand mixer instead.

Printable Recipe