Easy Sourdough recipe - no knead with timings

Learn how to make your own delicious sourdough, no-knead bread at home. This recipe is easy to follow, uses a minimum of equipment, and is really low mess. We've included all the times you need to follow to minimise confusion, but of course you can adapt it to bake any time that suits you.

Making your own bread at home is amazing - the smells, the warmth of that first slice, and the ability to make it exactly how you like, with the best ingredients you can get!

This recipe starts the day before, with feeding your sourdough starter. Don't have a starter?Don't worry, below the recipe we tell you where to find one or how to make your own.

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Sam’s bread recipe and method – two loaves

Day 1 - Feed starter

9am - Mix 10gm of your jar starter culture with

25gm flour

25gm water

Leave jar covered on bench to rest

Day 1 - Feed starter

9pm - Pour 50gm of the starter into a bowl, reserving 10gm of starter in your jar

Mix the 50gm of starter with

110gm flour

110gm water

Leave bowl covered on bench to rest

Day 2 - Baking day

Autolyse

9am - Take your bowl of starter that has been resting for 12 hours, which contains 270gm culture adding

520ml tepid water (blood temperature i.e. neither feels warm or cold)

Approximately 730gm flour (depending on flour - texture is more important than quantity)

Cover and wait ~60 minutes

Salting

10:00am - add:

17gm salt (3 teaspoons)

mix into dough, breaking the gluten strands and fully incorporating the salt

Cover and wait ~30 minutes

First fold / proofing

10:30am - Scoop and fold the bread 4-8 times from all sides

Cover and wait ~30 minutes

Second fold / proofing

11:00am - Scoop and fold the bread 4-8 times from all sides

Cover and wait ~60 minutes

First shaping

12:00pm - Tip bread out, divide roughly into two loaves and pull together into two compact mounds

Final shaping

12:15pm - Fold bread and shape loaves into desired style

Put into bread basket or flour dusted tea towel and wait ~60 minutes

Baking

Around 1:15pm (longer if the room temperature is cool, shorter if the temperature is warm)

Turn oven on to 250 degrees centigrade (or lower if your oven does not reach this heat)

Around 1:30pm (or whenever your oven reaches temperature)

Turn out loaves onto tray or stone and slash with a very sharp knife

Bake at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes (it should get some colour at this stage)

Around 1:40pm – Turn oven down to 180 degrees for another 25 minutes, turning the loaves around if the back of your oven is hotter than the front

Cooling

Around 2:05pm – Take loaf out and place on wire rack for at least 40 minutes before slicing with a good bread knife

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Sourdough starter - where to find and how to make

Get some from a friend

If you know someone who already bakes sourdough, ask them if you can have some! You only need a tiny amount - a 10th of a teaspoon is enough to start your own. We have shared with friends over the years, which is a great way to make sure your starter lives on if something catastrophic happens to yours. Get some from a sourdough bakery

Is there a sourdough bakery near you? They might be willing to share too, particularly if you buy a loaf or two! Make your own starter

There is good bacteria and yeast for sourdough everywhere in the environment, but particularly on grain and in flour. To start with just mix good quality flour and water together in equal proportions, then leave it in a jar with the lid off for 12 hours, and cover with a lid for another 12 hours.

Then on the second day remove half the starter (you can make pancakes or include it in other baked goods) and feeding it equal parts flour and water again. Keep repeating this for 5 days or until you start to see bubbling in the dough and slight rising.

Congratulations, you captured good bacteria and yeast! It's unlikely you'll catch the wrong kinds of bacteria and yeast, as the ones that do best on flour will outcompete others that want to spoil food.