The Best No Knead Sourdough Bread For Beginners

Finding the right sourdough bread recipe is tough! I searched through dozens of Pinterest recipes before I found one that seemed to be the perfect fit. After using it a handful of times, I realized it just wasn’t creating the loaves I wanted. So, I started tweaking and testing and came up with my own no knead sourdough bread recipe perfect for beginners!

This post may contain Amazon affiliate, and related, links which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link! You can find my full Disclaimer here.

Sourdough Bread

I’ve been making sourdough bread for a few months now and although I am still on the new side, I have had great luck and find much joy in the process.

I started out by finding a easy recipe that I could follow and it would turn out wonderful! However, when I saw others on Instagram making these loaves, doing their stretch and folds, I couldn’t help but wonder what I was doing wrong. Mine was so hard to stretch that it would break. I would have to use everything I had to get it to look a certain way. It was taking the joy out of the process.

With that said, I needed to do some tweaking, so I did and then tested it, and retested, and retested. Soon enough I was getting these beautiful loaves that weren’t hard as a rock but rather crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Because I know how hard it is to find a good recipe, I wanted to share how I make mine now that is the easy to comprehend and follow along.

The Recipe & Process

So Here’s What I do

For this recipe you need:

• 1 cup Active Sourdough Starter – feed about 12 hours ahead of time
• 4 cups Unbleached Flour King Arthur Flour – this is the flour I have found success with, if you use something different it may not have the same outcome.
• 1 1/2 cups Warm Water
• 2 tsp Salt
• Dutch Oven
• Parchment Paper
• Ice Cubes
• Bread Lame
• Cooling Rack
• Pot Holders

Combine

In a large bowl, add your starter and flour. With your hands, gently combine the water and starter so there is no starter stuck to the bottom of the bowl or thick chunks of starter floating around.

Add in your flour, one cup at a time, and then your salt on top. Don’t mix the salt directly into the water and starter mixture.

With your hands or a spatula, combine the ingredients together until there are no dry pieces. If you mix with your hands, this will get messy and your hand will be covered. That is normal but a nuisance so I always use a spatula.

Once everything is combined it will be a bit of a shaggy ball and slightly sticky. You want it to be a little on the sticky side and not too dry or you will have a hard time working and shaping it later. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel and set in a warm place for one hour.

Stretch & Fold

After the hour is up, take one side of the dough, pull up and over itself. You are going to turn the bowl a quarter turn and continue until all four sides have been stretch and folded. It is okay if it is still a bit on the slightly sticky side, use your hands gently to pull it off the sides of the bowl to stretch and fold.

Cover and repeat the process in a half hour.

The Rise

After the second stretch and fold, cover and place in a warm spot for about 8 hours or until the dough has risen by half not doubled.

To know if it is ready, take your finger and gently press on the dough – if it springs back quickly it still needs more time. If it comes back slowly it is ready. You don’t want it to double in size or indentation to stick – this means it has over proofed.

Form The Dough

After it has risen by half, turn the dough out on a slightly floured surface. The dough may still be on the slightly sticky side but should be easy to stretch. From here you are going to turn all four sides into itself and shape into a tight ball.

Final Rise

Place dough on to parchment paper and allow to rest for 30 minutes in a bowl, covered.

Preheat your oven to 450 F. While it is preheating, place your Dutch oven with the lid inside the oven to heat.

After 30 minutes, use your bread lame, or very sharp knife and make a cut or design in the dough. This will allow the air to escape from the bread as it is baking.

Bake The Bread

Place dough with the parchment paper into the Dutch oven. Add two ice cubes to the bottom of the pan in an open space under the parchment paper, not the dough. Place the lid on top and into the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, and 25 minutes with the lid off or until the top has browned.

Carefully remove from oven and allow the bread to cool on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours. Do not cut into until it has fully cooled.

Enjoy!

Things To Know

• After you shape the dough, if the ball doesn’t hold – keep going. While I was testing this recipe, in one of the loaves I ended up using way too little flour and the dough was very sticky and loose so the dough ball would not hold. I baked it anyway and it tasted great toasted with butter.

• When working the dough, instead of using flour to keep it from sticking, you can wet your hands and/or surface and the dough will not stick.

• I have been able to keep my bread fresh for up to a week by keeping it in a Ziplock bag on the counter.

• Too often I was finding recipes with measurements down to the gram and it is just not that serious. Play around with this recipe until you find a consistency that works for you. This is supposed to be fun, enjoy the process!

---

Until next time,

If you like what you saw, please consider subscribing so you don’t miss out on any more homesteading, homemaking, or home-cooking ideas!