Easy Beginner Sourdough Bread Without Weight Measurements
Yes, I was one of those girls who hopped on the sourdough bandwagon in 2020 when the world shut down & we all thought we may never get to the store to buy bread or even yeast again. That’s not exactly why I started, but I did buy a huge brick of yeast that’s still unopened in my freezer to this day. I just LOVE sourdough bread! That slight chew, the little it of tang, and those air pockets that hold your butter so nicely, are all reasons I love it! So when I saw that people were making it at home, and I was home all day every day with a newborn baby, I figured I’d might as well take the time to learn!
Sourdough is super basic with only a few key ingredients. But something I found is that nearly all the recipes I looked at, used weight measurements for everything! And I am not someone who likes to measure things at all, let alone down to the gram, so I wondered if there was another way to do it, and there is! It’s not the technical side of sourdough baking, but it produces just as amazing bread, without all the weighing.
Starter
The most important element of your bread is your sourdough starter! This is a mixture of just flour & water that creates a natural yeast that you will use in your bread! You can make your own like I did, or you can ask around and see if any of your friends or neighbors have one and can share with you! All you need is a tablespoon of someone else’s starter & you can have your own! So if you can, this is definitely the easier option & you can be baking in a matter of days instead of weeks! If you want to start your own, I suggest checking out @simplelifebykels on Instagram! That’s where I learned how to make my own starter! Another great resource is @amberskitchen on Instagram! She has some great videos on feeding your starter & answers all sorts of questions!
Flour
I like to use plain ole unbleached white all purpose flour in my bread! A lot of recipes call for bread flour, which you can totally use if you have it, but I just don’t buy it very often & always have regular flour, so that’s what I use and it works great! I’ve also subbed out some of the flour for fresh ground red wheat flour & that works too! But I would master the recipe with regular flour before you start playing with it.
Water
Any plain water will do! I use bottled water usually, but tap water works well too if it’s not chlorinated. If it is, then just measure it out & let it sit on the counter for a little while for the chlorine to dissipate & you’re good to go!
Honey
Just like a little sugar added to regular bread, the honey gives the yeast something to feed off of, and adds a great taste to the bread! Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste like honey at all, but just adds some flavor.
Salt
Any dough needs some salt. This just adds a little flavor and makes your bread not bland. Any salt works! I just use Kosher salt.
Let’s make some bread!
This recipe makes two loaves of sourdough! If you’re going to spend all day making bread, you might as well make two instead of one!
Start with a peaked sourdough starter. I like to feed mine late at night before I go to bed & then it’s ready for me when I wake up, but every starter will grow at a big of a different pace. You will just want to make sure that it is full of bubbles and has at least doubled in volume from when you fed it last.
Then we’re going to measure it out & mix it with our water, honey, salt, and 4 cups of our flour in a mixing bowl. I find that a danish dough hook is the easiest way to mix it, although you could also use a wooden spoon or even your hands if you’re up for it! I love this danish dough hook because it’s all metal and totally dishwasher safe! The wood ones are super cute, but I’m all about the dishwasher and that would definitely ruin it before too long.
The dough will be super wet, don’t be alarmed! We let this dough sit for 20 minutes to let the flour absorb as much water as it can before we add the rest of the flour. This helps you not add too much flour & get a dry, dense loaf.
After the 20 minutes, add the other two cups of flour & it will come together into a firmer dough. Then turn it out onto a floured surface a knead it just until it comes together in a ball.
Then put the dough in a large metal bowl that you’ve sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure it’s big enough to handle the bread when it’s risen and doubled in volume. The bigger the better. Then cover it with a clean towel & put it in your oven with the light on.
Then for the next hour, you are going to fold the dough every 15 minutes for a total of 4 times(15, 30, 45, 60 minute marks). And then after that, you’ll fold every hour for the next 2-3 hours.
To fold, wet your fingertips(this keeps them from sticking to the dough) and grab one “corner” of the dough. Stretch it upwards, and pull it over the boule(dough ball) and press it into the opposite side. Do this with all four “corners” of your dough. Then cover with the towel & put back in the oven until your next fold. And don’t worry if your timing is a little off, it’ll work out! I promise!
After all your folds & all the time, you’ll see that it has risen quite a bit & you can see lots of air pockets in it. Take it out of the oven & do your last fold, making sure to press as many of those air bubbles out as you can as you fold it back onto itself. Then put your dutch oven in the oven & preheat it to 450º F. Set a timer for 1 hour.
Then turn the dough out onto a floured surface & cut in half. I think a bench scraper is the easiest way to do this, but a knife or even just your hands work well too!
Then you’re going to do the same folding technique you did earlier, with each of the dough halves, again, pressing out as much air as you can.
Then we’re going to build up tension in the dough. There’s two ways to do this. One is to set the dough, seam side down, on a barely or not floured surface, then cup your hands around the back of it and gently pull it towards you. Then barely pick it up and put it back where it started and do it again until it forms a round ball with a tight surface. This is probably the best method, but there is another that’s easier when you’re just beginning & it’s the way that I did it for a long time. Basically you pick up the dough and tuck in the sides, then turn it and repeat until the top is nice & tight. Try not to over do it, if you do, you’ll have pockets of flour in the middle of the your loaf, which isn’t the end of the world, but not ideal. SO just try to do it a few times.
Then set the dough balls on a well floured surface a few inches apart from each other. Cover with a towel & let them rise until the timer goes off.
Once the timer goes off, take one of the dough balls and build the tension up again really quick & then set it in the middle of a piece of parchment paper. These precut parchment paper sheets are amazing! I’m never going back to the roll. Then dust the top with some flour and brush off the excess.
Now you get to be creative and score your loaf! When it bakes, a bunch of steam builds up inside the loaf. By scoring it, we are basically telling the steam where to go so it doesn’t bust out the side of a loaf. The deeper the cut, the more steam escapes from it and the wider it splits. So remember that if you don’t want a design to split as much, just do a shallow cut. You can buy a lame specifically for sourdough to score, but a knife or blade works just as well if it’s nice & sharp.
Then pick up the sides of the parchment paper and place the dough into your heated cast iron dutch oven. Put the lid back on and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take off the lid & continue to bake it for 10 minutes.
When the 10 minutes are up, pull it out of the oven & move the loaf to a rack to cool. Then put the dutch oven, with the lid, back in the oven to reheat for at least 10 minutes while you do the same process with the second dough ball, using the same piece of parchment paper.
Now you’ve got a gorgeous, golden loaf that I’m sure you can’t wait to slice into! But patience is in your best interest here. As the loaf cools, the steam that is still inside is continuing to cook the center of the loaf. If you slice into it & let that steam release, then you risk the center being doughy and undercooked. So wait at least 20-30 minutes before slicing! Then feel free to slather that thing in butter and eat up! There’s nothing better than a warm slice of sourdough bread with some cold butter.
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Easy Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Active Sourdough Starter (doubled in volume & full of bubbles)
- 2 Cups Water
- 2 Tbl Honey
- 1 Tbl Salt
- 6 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together starter(make sure to stir down before measuring), water, honey, salt, and 4 cups of flour. Mix with danish dough hook, wooden spoon, or with your hands.
- Let sit for 20 minutes. Spray a large bowl with oil while you wait.
- Add in additional 2 cups of flour. Mix the best you can in the bowl, then turn out onto clean, dry surface.
- Knead the dough until it just barely comes together & forms a ball. Don't worry if it seems a little sticky.
- Add the dough to the oiled bowl, cover with clean dish towel & place in the oven with just the light on, or a warm windowsill/countertop.
- For the next hour, fold your dough every 15 minutes(4 times total)
- *To fold, uncover dough & wet fingertips of one hand. Grab a side of the dough & gently pull & stretch it. Then fold it over the top of the dough & press it down. Repeat this a total of 4 times, rotating around your dough until all 4 "corners" have been folded.
- Cover with towel & return to the oven after each folding.
- After four times(1 hour), you will fold every hour for the next 2-3 hours, pushing down on the dough to pop any bubbles that have formed.
- *Dough should be rising & building up air. If, at 2 hours, it doesn't look like that, then add an hour and do 3 hours. Often, if your house is cooler, it will take longer to rise.
- At your last fold, remove dough & bowl from oven & set aside.
- Turn oven to 450 Degrees F & put your dutch oven(with lid) inside to preheat. Set timer for 1 hour.
- While it heats up, turn dough out onto floured surface & split in half.
- Fold each half of dough like we did earlier.
- Turn dough over & add tension to the top by lightly cupping the far side of the dough with both hands and gently dragging it towards yourself, -or- by picking it up & tucking the sides underneath several times, until it is rounded.
- Place back on floured surface.
- Repeat with second half and place at least several inches from the other dough ball. Cover with towel.
- After timer goes off, take one dough ball & lightly build some more tension by one of the previous methods, then move to the center of a piece of parchment paper. Dust the top with flour, brush off the excess.
- Using a sharp knife, blade, or lame, score the top of your loaf in your desired design.
- Remove dutch oven from oven carefully & place parchment paper with dough inside. Replace the lid.
- Return to oven & bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove lid & bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- When done, carefully remove bread by picking up the corners of the paper. Put the hot loaf on a cooling rack to cool.
- Put dutch oven & lid back in the oven for 5 minutes.
- While it heats back up, repeat the process with the second loaf, using the same piece of parchment.
- Allow to cool completely(or at least 30 minutes) before slicing.
Nutrition facts are just an estimate & will vary depending on ingredients used.
