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.
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.
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.
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.
No-knead Sourdough Bread Recipe
This no-knead sourdough bread recipe makes a large batch that can be stored in the refrigerator and used as needed.
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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Your turn, what are some of your favorite sourdough breads?
You don’t have to baby a good starter much at all. We keep ours in the fridge and have gone for weeks without touching it. We pull it out all gray and sad but just scoop out 3/4 of it [pitch that] and feed the rest. In a day it’s happy again. If you want to sweeten it up, feed it every day. It you want it more sour, go longer between feedings. It’s hearty stuff. Also – a spoonful in pancake batter is fab.
That is exactly what I have realized, it’s pretty amazing. I actually just stir that grey stuff back in and then feed it. Thanks for the tip on for the pancake batter, I’ll have to try that!
How do you get a good starter? I’m a novice.
I bought mine from Cultures for Health but Chris from Joybilee Farm has a post on starting your own with rye flour, http://joybileefarm.com/how-to-make-sourdough-starter/
You can make it yourself! I made my own with organic Rye flour and water. Feed it with all-purpose flour and water every day for a week and there ya go! I just googled how to do it and it’s been going great for a few months now. I’ve even given some to a friend who now uses it regularly too 🙂 good luck!
Heck I made mine with regular all purpose flour. It took about 9 days to “mature”. I baked bread with it on the 11th day. I have been keeping mine on the counter because I have been using the “discards” for biscuits almost every day. I’m only just beginning with this sourdough journey, but I’m loving it already.
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for sharing what has worked for you and confirming that sourdough really is simple.
No need to use only a Tablespoon or so, for pancakes. Just use all of your discard if it isn’t really too old or neglected. I take my discard, add some flour if I need to, add only a touch of BP and oil and mix. Add sweetness and maybe cinnamon or spice, or even shredded potatoes for potato pancakes.
our sour dough start is over 40 years old. My husbands father was a sheep herder. This is from his start and he died in 1974. My husband is the baker he makes the best pancakes, bisquits , and scones. he plays with bread. I’m going to try my hand at bread or sweet rolls. My brother makes the best so I’m going to try them.
I agree with you completely! Sourdough leavened bread is SO much more forgiving! When recipes say 8-12 hours later, they mean it! Commercial yeast doesn’t allow the flexibility to live life in between the different stages of bread making. I love it! I haven’t bought bread in months. Two issues to take into account though: 1) because your starter is active and alive, results may vary from batch to batch; 2) some people aren’t super excited about the extra flavor from sourdough–sometimes tangy, sometimes downright sour, other times almost like you added cheese (especially with crackers or biscuits). My whole family has always enjoyed a good strong sourdough flavor, but it may take time to acquire the taste for some.
Getting your own starter going is also very easy, so you don’t have to mail order. Lots of instructions on the web, but my favorite uses pineapple juice instead of water mixed with whatever flour you want to use (including gluten free options). I have done it several times, but intend on keeping “Hattie” going forever now that I am converted and not just dabbling in sourdough baking.
I’m excited to explore some of your other subjects. We already have chickens, but have been wanting to look into beekeeping.
Thank you!
Those are good points, Aleece. Thanks for sharing. I’ve never seen pineapple juice recommended for starting a sourdough starter; I’ll have to look into that. I hope you get bees. I think you will love them and the bees in general really need backyard beekeepers to help keep their species healthy.
My starter is cheesy too! My kids love it when I make crackers with it. I thought I was crazy the first time I tasted cheese in my sourdough products. Funny thing is I killed my old cheesy starter, but then my new starter from a friend began tasting cheesy too. I think it is something in my air. Whatever it is, I like it.
Update! My oldest daughter wanted to make bread while away at college. Her roomies offered to contribute some commercial yeast, which she turned down. (I have turned all my kids into bread snobs!) She decided to get a starter going and used what she had on hand–All Purpose flour (good local brand). She called me after the initial bacterial phase waned, somewhat in a panic, but I assured her that the yeasties would be taking over soon. She ended up making a pretty little whole wheat loaf with that starter. She brought some home one weekend and her brother remarked, “It tastes just like store-bought!” Bread made with her starter, dubbed “Alfred”, is a very mild, almost like regular commercial yeast was used. My starter “Hattie”, made and fed on only whole grain flour, is rather strong. If we want strong flavor, we use Hattie. If we want it milder, we go to Alfred. I still only feed Alfred with that same AP flour. (I usually still stick at least a bit of Hattie into everything just so it has more flavor but not so much to make it sour.).
How exciting! I love it when young adults are keeping the old skills alive. I should name our starter….
My wife thinks she hates sourdough or any other fermented product so I have been adding a tsp of baking soda at the same time that I add the salt to my recipe.It pretty much kills the sourdough flavor but leaves behind a nice seeded rye loaf that has developed long enough to have the benefit of fermented food. I do hurry my recipe down to abouy 12 hours to minimize the sour tang unless I know she won’t be home to taste it.
What a great tip. I may have to try that because a couple of my kids don’t care for the sour flavor either.
It is a good tip, as my grandchildren aren’t used to sourdough flavor. I simply use a starter refreshed 3x, and add a little less to the initial dough mixing. These teens can’t even tell it’s sourdough with the addition of a bit more honey.
I am excited! I just did the mixture and put it in the fridge. How important is the butter part of it? I didn’t add any to mine! Also mine was a very wet mixture so should I add more flour to it before I stick it in the fridge or add some more later? Hope it turns out!
Hi Jovanna, I’ve never left out the butter, so I don’t know. This is a wet sourdough mixture but it shouldn’t be soupy. Some people have said theirs was soupy, if it’s super wet, yes, add more flour either when it’s in the fridge or before you put it in the pans. There’s an art to sourdough and the more you play with it, the more intuitive it becomes for you and your environment. There are so more variables that can affect the outcome than there are with using commercial yeast. This recipe comes out for me each time, but depending on your starter and environment, you might need to play with the amount of flour in your batches.
I have nothing but problems with my whole wheat bread experiments so I am optimistic about trying the whole wheat sourdough bread starter. Placed my order today and got free shipping – good until 03-18 with code word ‘shipping’. Wish me luck! I’m going to be successful at whole wheat bread come he** or high water!
I hope it does well for you! I know you’ll eventually figure it all out for your family.
This is a great simple recipe angi! I have found I really prefer to make all my loaves free-form. I am never happy with my sourdough in the loaf pans, I always mess them up somehow. I know that is a bit backwards isn’t it. haha silly me.
Thanks! I’ll have to try free form loaves. I’ve actually used this same recipe and used a biscuit cutter and made biscuits. They are super good!
Hi there,
Can I expect the loaves to rise a bit during the baking period? The bread in your photos looks beautifully light and airy! I am very excited to try your recipe, as it seems SUPER easy and hands-off.
Yes, mine rise a bit in during baking. Sometimes I preheat the oven and sometimes I don’t, I think I get better rise when I do. This recipe has been great for me and I’m learning how to make the dough “just so” to get the results I need. You’ll likely need to play around with it. Don’t be afraid to add more or less flour each time until you get the results you want.
I struggled with sour dough, killed it, family didn’t like it…. Then I discovered Herman! on All recipes! Then I began researching Herman other recipes, brownies, and other substitutes. We LOVE Herman! He’s easy to care for and delicious.
Thanks for sharing. I’m so glad you found something that is working for you!
I use spelt, and wow, did this ever not work! Fortunately I’m not new to making sourdough, so I haven’t wasted anything, I’ll just keep adding flour until it’s a good consistency and go back to my old method. My dough, with your measurements, was soup lol! After 6 hours in a warm spot, it was still soup.
Goodness, that’s good to know! I’ve only tried it with all purpose flour so I know the measurements are good for that. I’m hoping to try it with freshly ground wheat this summer when I have time to play and experiment. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Angi I have been working with different recipes for sourdough the last few months. I am enjoying the trial and error of working with sourdough. I also started with a packet from cultures for health.
One thing I have been doing, you mention also. I don’t “discard any of the starter when baking bread. It bothered me to be throwing out that perfectly good natural yeast mixture. So I convert what is extra from activating the starter into new starter! Which seems to be what you are doing also. Plenty of starter to continue making bread! thanks for the ideas in this post. I am going to try making the big batch like you did here.
That’s what I do too. I just keep a perpetual jar of starter. I take what is left and add some flour and water and it makes more – I don’t measure or anything. It really is pretty amazing. I can’t wait to see some of your recipes. We’ve also been making sour dough pizza on Friday nights, it’s so good!
You can actually make bread out of a good discard, too. If it’s been fed, and then you are refreshing it and it hasn’t sat in your fridge for awhile, just kinda ‘reverse’ recipe it. I left my discard on the counter and when I saw it bubbling- thought… how to use that!? Just use less flour… maybe… 250 grams flour to 100 grams of discard. I made all my bread from discard for a good 6 months!
Instead of using 3 loaf pans can you make all of it in a Dutch oven? Wasn’t sure if anyone has tried that and how it turned out.
I haven’t tried that but it sounds great! If you try it, come back and let us know how it worked out, okay?
I tried other sourdough recipes in a Dutch oven and they turned out really nice: round, lots of air holes, etc., but I like this recipe better for loaf bread.
Is the butter necessary? Could I substitute an oil? I don’t have anything against butter; I just find oil easier 🙂
Hi Eileen, I don’t think it really matters what kind of oil you use,it just needs some fat. Let me know if you try oil and how it works.
I made starter and made some rye bread….it was awful. If I threw the loaves…I could have killed someone. I want to make sourdough rye but the recipe I used was yuk!!! The starter was not rye…I just used rye flour and added caraway seeds….REALLY REALLY DENSE AND HEAVY!!!! Help please!!!!
Hi Rebecca, I’m so sorry your rye bread didn’t turn out! I’ve never used rye to make sourdough but I have a few resources for you to help you out. The first is an article about how to make a sourdough starter with rye from Joybilee Farm. The other is the book Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads. I would suggest seeing if your library has the book before purchasing it to make sure it’s something you will use more than a few times. Hope this helps!
T have been more or less following this recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eod5cUxAHRM but using rye in place of the whole wheat. For a 9×5 loaf pan I reduce all measurements to 62% of his values, I add a scant 2 tsp of caraway seeds when it is time to mix in the salt and levain. For a lighter, more sandwich-like loaf, do not let up early with the folding or mixing. My first few loaves would have made good boat anchors. I have been baking 1 hour and 10 minutes at 375F with a bread pan inverted on the one with the bread in it to hold the moisture high and soften the crust a bit, sort of like using steam.
Thanks for the tips!
Here are a few more resources for baking rye sourdough bread. Country sourdough bread recipe from This Ole Gal and The Rye Baker book.
Hi I just started making sour dough bread again but not happy about it not rising much. I’m very careful not to deflate the air so today I’ll make your bread recipe but why the honey? Thanks Angi for the recipe ROSZ
I tried your recipe but I must have done something wrong because after it was out of the fridge for 6 hours there was very little rise and it looked like a wet starter very bubbly and runny. What did I do wrong?
Hmmmm, I’m not sure but here’s what I would do. If you still have any dough in the refrigerator, I would add a little more flour to it and then put it back in the refrigerator to try again another day. For the dough that’s out, I would add more flour and either put it back into a pan and let it rise again or roll it out and make sourdough tortillas with it.
I love this recipe but I can’t see it on the site anymore? Did you take it down?
I’d love to keep making this bread! It’s been the best and most reliable recipe I’ve used
Thanks, Callie. I’m not sure where it disappeared to but I’ll get it back up tonight.
I’m not quite understanding the recipe of when we can bake the bread.? Does it have to sit in the fridge after mixing and dividing? Or can I just bake it after letting sit in pan for a few hours to rise?
Hi Chris, it really needs to sit in the refrigerator at least overnight, either in the big bowl or in individual pan. I have left it on the counter to rise and cook later that day and the loaves are not as good.
I’m wondering why it says to have enough starter to use 2 cups but the recipe only calls for 1. I followed this recipe last time and it didn’t turn out but I am hoping this time, it does. Just wondered if I need to use more starter than 1 cup.
Hi Hannah, If you start with two cups, it leaves a cup leftover for you to feed and continue to have starter. You can use more starter and see if that help. Sourdough baking has many more variables than yeast bread baking. If you think more starter will help, then definitely try it with more starter. Just make sure you have starter left.
I made the bread but cut the recipe in half.
It came out good with just a few variables….like although it rose well overnight it flattened when I baked it!
Also, when I was mixing the dough, as you said it would be it was very wet, so at this point was I to add extra flour as needed or after letting it sit in the fridge before putting in pans overnight?
Hi Chris, I don’t add any extra flour. That being said, if you think extra flour will help, then certainly try that next time. It could also be that they are rising too long before putting them in the oven and they are overproofed. Trying shortening the rising time and see what happnens.
I guess the reason I’m alittle confused is because the recipe says add 6-8 cups flour?
Why the range?
Does it depend if the dough is too wet before putting in fridge?
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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!
Can I half this recipe?
I haven’t ever done that but you can certainly try it.
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?
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.
I just wanted to say that I have been using your recipe almost exclusively for about 6 years. I have passed your recipe on to many others who have been intimidated by sourdough. I love your attitude towards it and have adopted it myself. It doesn’t have to be complicated to make everyday sourdough. I’ll let others make their “artisanal” loaves, but I’ll keep using your recipe because it works but doesn’t rule my life. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, Eileen.