No-Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe

No-knead Sourdough Bread. So easy and fast that anyone can do this!

Ingredients for this Sourdough Bread

• 4 cups All-Purpose Flour (You might substitute ½ cup dark rye flour for ½ cup all-purpose flour for a more sour flavor.)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Celtic Sea Salt
• 1 cup active (very bubbly) Sourdough Starter
• 1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
• 1 cup Room-Temperature Water, combined with
• ½ cup Room-Temperature Milk
• 2 tablespoons Organic Salted Butter (melted but not hot) 

Directions for making no-knead Sourdough Bread:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
2. In a two-cup sized measuring cup, combine the room-temperature water, milk and dry yeast, stirring to incorporate the yeast.
3. In an electric stand mixer with the flat beater, stir the water/milk/yeast mixture with the sourdough bread starter until no bits of starter remain.
4. While the starter/water/milk/yeast is mixing, add ½ to one cup of the flour mixture and then, add the melted butter.
5. Continuing to mix: add the remaining flour a little at a time. Mix until it all just comes together. You don’t want to see major dry spots, but don’t worry about getting everything perfectly combined. *Using the electric stand mixer stretches the gluten fibers replacing the need for kneading and folding.
6. Transfer the rather wet, sticky poolish/levain to the medium bowl which has been lightly oiled with olive or vegetable oil.
7. Cover the bowl of bread poolish/levain with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature overnight (8 to 12 hours) until it has approximately doubled in size. *I once slept in and left my poolish to rise for 13 hours, with no problems. *On cold winter nights, I set the bowl of poolish/levain to rise on a rack several feet from our wood burning stove.
8. After this rise, I scoop the rather sticky sourdough bread poolish onto a piece of parchment paper and set it in a 2-quart cast iron Dutch oven. I trim off the excess parchment paper, so it doesn’t extend beyond the lid. After setting the oiled lid in place on the Dutch oven on a piece of parchment or plastic wrap lightly oiled on the downside, I set the Dutch oven in our preheated (slightly warm) electric oven with the light on, where it rises for 1 ½ hours… until it is puffy and almost doubled in size. *It has risen to almost touch the lid.
9. Just before the end of the rising time, remove the Dutch oven from the baking oven and heat the baking oven to 425°F.
10.  Cover the Dutch oven with the lid and bake the bread for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, until the top crust is a light golden brown or the internal temperature is a bit higher than 190 degrees F. Remove from the oven and flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.