26/08/2017

No-knead sourdough

Name: No-knead sourdough bread cooked in a cast iron pot
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1140 min
Ingredients: 600 grams bread flour; 2 tsp salt; 60 g/ml sourdough starter ((see Recipe Notes)); 400 ml water ((see Recipe Notes))

In this post I share my easy method for wonderful homemade no-knead sourdough bread. Let time do the work of developing gluten by creating a wetter than usual dough and letting it ferment overnight. In the morning, bake in a heavy lidded pot that will create steam and give you a beautifully risen bread.

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What is sourdough?

The basis of sourdough bread is a starter. This is a mixture of flour and water containing naturally occurring yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. It’s used in bread making to raise doughs instead of commercially produced yeast. The quality of your starter, which you keep alive by regularly feeding with more flour and water, is the key to good sourdough.

I’ve kept my starter going, stored in the fridge between breadmaking sessions, since 2010. Not quite as impressive as those reportedly passed down the generations for decades, but not bad.

There are various methods of getting a starter going. I made mine many years ago and long before I started this blog. I do plan to write an in-depth piece about creating and maintaining a sourdough starter when time permits, but note that this current post assumes you already have a starter.

When I began, I used Dan Lepard’s inspiring book, The Handmade Loaf to create a starter and bake my first sourdough loaves. But do a search online and you’ll find lots of different methods. Or maybe try this simple one from the Real Bread Campaign.

Actually, if you want to learn more about sourdough generally, the Real Bread Campaign. is a great place to start. They aim to get more people discovering the delights of proper bread and also support independent bakeries who make the genuine article. They also promote Sourdough September which generates lots of interest every year.

my overnight, no-knead sourdough method

Over the years, I’ve developed a method of making sourdough loaves that works for me and fits comfortably with my routines. Overnight, no-knead sourdough cooked in a covered pot. Admittedly, this goes against everything I learned when I started making bread 30-odd years ago. And it still might raise a few eyebrows among traditionalists. But I end up with a delicious loaf with the stunning crust and the classic open-crumb inside.

NO NEED TO KNEAD

When you knead dough, what you’re doing is developing the gluten. Gluten is the protein which allows bread to rise but, given enough time and a wetter than usual dough, the gluten will get along very nicely without you. As an added bonus, slow-risen doughs result in a far better-tasting loaves. Also, many people who struggle to digest quick-risen, additive-packed mass produced bread find it suits them.

THE SECRET TO GREAT BREAD: STEAM

The reason I bake bread in a very hot, lidded pot is to create steam. But why do I want steam? Because a steamy, moist environment inside the pot will encourage the bread to continue to rise in the oven. This means the dough will stay soft for longer before a crust starts to form and inhibits rising.

Incidentally, my overnight, no-knead method also works for a crusty loaf made with yeast instead of sourdough starter.

the night before you want to bake

For a basic no-knead sourdough loaf, the evening before I want to bake, I mix together a small amount of my starter with water, bread flour and salt. You’ll find ingredient amounts and full instructions in the recipe card at the end.

If the starter has been stored in the fridge for a while, than I’ll plan the loaf a few days ahead. I’ll need to feed the starter over the course of a day or more, depending on how long it’s been dormant. The starter needs to be full of bubbly life to make a great loaf. As a general rule, it should have at least doubled within 4 – 6 hours of being fed.

This no-knead dough is much wetter than a standard bread dough, so I use a rubber or plastic spatula to bring the mix together. You’ll most likely get into a right old mess if you try to use your hands.

Covering the bowl with a tea towel, large plate or cling film, I leave the dough on the kitchen worktop overnight, for a total of 12-16 hours.

the next day

The next day, the dough should have risen (and probably spread out) substantially. But it will sit happily for a good few hours more without coming to any harm. In fact the longer you leave the dough, the better-tasting bread you’re likely to end up with. As I usually walk the the dog first thing in the morning, my dough is left until I get back.

One of the joys of this method is that timings are not critical. If it’s more convenient for you to make the bread later in the day (e.g. when you come home from work), then you can do most of the initial rise in the fridge. Just bring the dough back to room temperature before you continue.

When I’m ready to get started, I scrape the dough out of its bowl onto a floured worktop. Due to the wettish dough, I recommend a dough scraper for this.

Now you can stretch (rather than knead) the dough by flattening it out then folding into thirds a couple of times. This will encourage good structure, although simply folding to create your desired shape is usually sufficient. The dough is then left to rest on the floured worktop, covered, for about 10 minutes.

Next, I put the dough into a proving basket or tea towel-lined bowl. Whichever you use, make sure these are floured well to prevent sticking. I then re-cover and leave for about 60-90 minutes. The breads should be ready to bake when the depression left by a finger pressed into the dough slowly springs back and leaves an indentation. If it springs back immediately then you need to leave a little longer.

baking no-knead sourdough bread

For the final 30 minutes of proving time, I switch on my oven to its highest setting. At the same time, I pop in my chosen cooking vessel, complete with lid.

If I’m making an oval loaf it will be my Le Creuset 29cm / 4.7 litre oval casserole. For a round loaf I have a cheaper brand cast-iron pot. It’s not as good as the Le Creuset (you can perhaps see from the image below that some of the outside enamel is wearing off). But it does the job until I get around to investing in another Le Creuset.

Any heavy pot or Dutch oven should be fine though. Just make sure any knobs or handles can withstand high temperatures.

When I’m ready to bake, I turn down the oven to 240C/220 C Fan / Gas 9). Then I remove the pot from the oven and flip the dough into it so that the side that was facing up in the proving basket is now face down in the pot. I slash the top with a lame or grignette blade, put the lid back on and place in the oven. You can now leave it to bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes (you might want to give heavier wholemeal loaves a couple of minutes longer), I remove the pot from the oven, take the bread out of it then put the bread back in the oven, straight onto the oven shelf. I leave it to bake for a further 10 – 15minutes depending on the type of bread. Generally, I find that loaves made with white flour take less time than denser wholemeal, rye or similar. You can also turn the oven down if the outside is getting too brown before the bread is cooked through.

cooling, storing & varying your no-knead sourdough

Bread is said to be cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped underneath. But I think experience comes in here too. Some dense breads can sound hollow, but I find they sometimes still benefit from a little more cooking. Leave the bread to cool on a wire rack. You should hear a satisfying crackling sound as the crust starts to cool down.

If we’re not eating the bread that day or the next, when cold I cover it with a tea towel, leave until morning and, to avoid any wasted bread, slice and freeze it. That way we always have good bread to hand.

You can vary your no-knead sourdough by using different flours such as wholemeal, spelt, rye, malted grains or any combination of these. I often like to add a few seeds such as sunflower or flax.

I hope you’ll give my overnight, no-knead sourdough bread a try and let me know how it went in the Comments. Over the years, I’ve found that when it comes to sourdough there’s no ‘one size fits all’. Flours, starters, and ovens vary, so experiment and find out what works for you.

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