No-Knead, No-Stretch and Fold, Sourdough Bread Recipe

A loaf of no knead no stretch and fold sourdough bread on a cutting board with jam and butter.

5 from 2 votes

No-Knead, No-Stretch and Fold, Sourdough Bread Recipe

An easy sourdough bread recipe without any kneading or stretch and folds. Yields 2 short loaves. Overnight sourdough bread made simple!

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Rise Time8

Servings: loaves

Calories: 1479kcal

Author: Alicia Pyle

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter (172g) active and bubbly
2 and 2/3 cup water (632g) lukewarm
6 cups all-purpose flour (798g) spooned and leveled
3 teaspoons salt (15g)

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl (one that is easy to cover with plastic wrap) use a whisk or wooden spoon to mix the sourdough starter and water. Add in the flour and salt and use the wooden spoon to combine the ingredients until the dough is well incorporated and there are no pockets of flour left.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours. The dough should double in size and be full of bubbly air pockets.
When ready to bake, place a Dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven and get it preheating to 450°F. You want the Dutch oven to be hot for baking. Once fully preheated, remove the pot from the oven and use an oven mitt to remove the lid.
Sprinkle flour over your hands and onto a piece of parchment paper (if not using parchment, then flour the bottom of the pot). The dough will be very sticky, but do your best to split it roughly in half; it doesn't have to be precise. Grab half of the dough and plop it onto the floured parchment. Lift the corners of the parchment to drop both it and the dough into the hot Dutch oven.
Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes with the lid off, or until golden brown. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely before slicing. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.

Video

Notes

Watch my video version of this recipe for a better visual of how to work with this sticky dough.

Splitting the dough. Because this dough is very sticky, the trickiest part is splitting the dough in half when you are ready to bake. There are two ways to do this:

1st Method: Grab two bowls and divide the recipe in half. Mix up two batches of dough — 1 bowl for each loaf. This way, you won't have to split a sticky bowl of dough in half, and each loaf will be precisely the same size. Into each bowl mix up:

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 and 1/3 cups water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

2nd Method: If, like me, you prefer to dirty only 1 bowl and you don't mind getting your hands sticky, then mix the dough in one large bowl. After it's finished fermenting, use a sharp knife to split the dough in half. The dough will fall back in on itself, but with floured hands, you can scoop up roughly half the dough and plop it on a piece of floured parchment paper. It's easy to pinch the sticky dough off your fingers if you need to get more or less.

To shape the dough into a rough ball, gently scoop the edge of the dough up and fold it back onto itself, going around until you've got a nice enough shape. Try not to pop all the bubbles. This recipe is a dump-and-bake loaf, so don't worry about getting it tight and pretty. You can even skip the shaping entirely. Because there's little to no tension in this dough it doesn't work very well to score the bread; bake it as is.

Storage: Store fully cooled sourdough bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. I prefer pre-cutting and using plastic bread bags—it's not fancy, but it works for our large family!

Nutrition