How to make simple no-knead whole wheat sourdough bread

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My simple no-knead whole wheat sourdough bread recipe is easy enough for anyone to learn and can be adjusted to fit into any schedule. You and your family can enjoy the benefits of freshly baked sourdough while saving money and mastering new skills.

Is it worth the effort to make your own sourdough bread?

After trying (and often failing) to make consistent sourdough bread for many years, I began to feel frustrated and discouraged when I struggled to get it right. Even though I searched high and low for the ‘perfect recipe’, I wasn’t able to get a consistent product and I felt as though I was wasting time, money, and so. much. flour. I was also tired of having to turn the flat, gummy results into breadcrumbs over and over! We went back to buying sourdough bread from the store or the local café, which never really sat right with me (both physically and figuratively).

Although the bread we were buying looked beautiful and tasted great, it was costing upwards of $9 for one loaf of bread, which to me is simply too much when I knew I could make sourdough bread for closer to $2 a loaf.

As the cost of living sharply rose in 2023, I decided it was time to get a bit more serious, and I did a deep dive back into the basics and played around with a few different recipes.

What are the benefits of baking your own sourdough?

There are so many benefits of making your own sourdough from scratch. The main ones for us include;

• Knowing all the ingredients – when buying bread from the store you will often find many ingredients that simply shouldn’t be in bread. Real bread is made with flour, water, salt and sourdough starter that contains wild yeast.
• It’s so much cheaper – as I mentioned before, homemade = $2/loaf, while store bought = $9/loaf. You really can’t argue with that!
• Health benefits – sourdough (or any fermented products) have plenty of health benefits. I notice that I’m able to digest sourdough more easily than non-fermented grains, and knowing that all the ingredients used are organic and free from chemicals and pesticides is a necessary bonus.
• Low waste – no plastic wrapped loaves of bread here. I purchase my flour in bulk and it comes in paper bags. These bags are composted at the end of their life meaning no plastic waste.
• Master valuable skills – while we all know it is convenient to pop to the shops and grab a loaf of bread, I truly believe that losing these valuable skills would be so detrimental. Knowing how to make real food from scratch with simple ingredients may just come in handy one day.

Why is it so difficult to get sourdough right?

The thing with sourdough is that unless you’re working in a fancy kitchen that gives you control over the many different variables, you’re often working with a whole host of moving targets.

When taking into account the starter maturity and activity, flour type, room temperature, timing, stretching, folding, bulk fermentation, cold retarding, scoring and oven temperature, baking delicious sourdough can seem like a mammoth effort! But I can tell you that once you find the right method that fits into your routine, you can easily rely on a weekly bake to meet your family’s supply of nutrient dense sourdough bread.

Sourdough culture is a living, breathing organism that has specific needs, and it can sometimes feel unpredictable and delicate. In all my experimentation, I’ve actually realised that sourdough culture is incredibly resilient and seems to do better when it isn’t ‘fussed over’. Yes, you do need to keep in mind the variables that may affect the sourdough fermentation process, but once you’ve had some practice, you will notice the patterns that can help or hinder your loaf.

How should I look after my sourdough starter to keep it active?

This may seem a bit mean, but I keep my mature sourdough starter in the fridge 24/7. She lives in a jar with the lid on tight and gets no special treatment. This same jar also acts as my sourdough ‘discard’ jar.

Even though I refer to it as ‘discard’, I rarely ever discard any starter. In fact, I use sourdough discard in many recipes.

When I’m ready to bake bread, I take a small amount of my mature starter from the fridge and place it in a clean jar. I add a small amount of luke-warm filtered water and some rye flour to create a thick peanut butter-like batter. I place the lid on loosely and pop it on the counter or in a warm-ish place. After 4-8 hours (depending on the temperature of the room), my starter has at least doubled and is ready to use in my Simple No-knead Sourdough Bread Recipe.

After feeding, your starter is ready to use once it has at least doubled in size. You can see that my starter here is super bubbly and active, and it’s ready to use in my sourdough bread recipe.

Reasons your starter may not be this active include immature starter, cold temperature, or the wrong type of flour for feeding.

To learn more about how to care for a no-discard sourdough starter, click here.

What kitchen equipment do I need to make sourdough bread?

A common misconception that I find people getting caught up on is that they don’t have the ‘right’ equipment. I’m here to tell you that you don’t actually need a fancy dough whisk, stand mixer, banneton, bench scraper, or bread lame.

You do, however, need a couple of things to get the basics right including a cast iron dutch oven with lid, kitchen scale, large bowl and filtered (or at least de-chlorinated) water. You can read more about filtered water and how to de-chlorinate water here.

I like to make my sourdough in a glass bowl for a couple of reasons. One is that glass is generally a low-tox cookware option when compared to something like plastic. Another reason is that I can see the activity of the sourdough through the glass. It’s important to use a scale when measuring out sourdough ingredients, as weight is more accurate than volume when dealing with dry ingredients.

How to make simple no-knead sourdough bread

Making the dough

Start by measuring out 380g filtered luke-warm water in to my glass bowl. I then add about 150g active, bubbly active sourdough starter. A sufficiently active starter will float when placed into the water (his is called the ‘float test’). Stir these well to combine.

To the starter and water mixture, add 500g organic whole wheat flour.

Add 10g sea salt and stir well to combine. The ingredients will come together and create a shaggy dough that is a little sticky – this is good!

Note that I don’t autolyse the dough before adding the salt, I find this works out fine for my recipe.

Resting, stretching and folding

Cover and rest the dough for approximately 1 hour. I like to cover my bowl with a clean shower cap. I just rinse, dry and reuse it. You could also use a damp tea towel, beeswax wrap or plastic wrap to stop the dough drying out.

After 1 hour, wet your hands and perform the first set of stretch and folds. If you’re not sure how to stretch and fold, there are many great videos on Youtube which will explain this step. The dough should be sticky but hold together and start to feel ‘stretchy’.

Allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes, then wet hands and perform another ‘stretch and fold’. Repeat this roughly every 20-30 minutes for 2-3 hours. You want to complete 4-6 sets of stretch and folds to help with the gluten formation and create layers for air bubbles to form.

Bulk ferment the dough

After 2-3 hours of stretching and folding, allow the dough to rest on the counter or in a warm place for a 4-6 hours or until bread doubles. The warmer the temperature, the faster the bulk fermentation process. If the temperature is really cold and your dough seems inactive, a heating pad can really help. The dough should start to rise and you will see air bubbles through the bowl if using glass.

Shape the dough

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto the counter. I don’t flour my surface as I don’t feel that I need to. If your dough is very sticky you may need to add a little flour to your work surface. Shape into a ball, allow to rest for 10 minutes, then shape for the banneton basket. If you’re not sure how to shape your dough, there are many great videos on Youtube which will explain this step.

Dust a muslin-lined banneton basket with rye flour and place dough seam side up into the basket. Place in the fridge for at least 12 hours or up to 48 hours. I like to cover my shaped loaf with a damp towel or place the whole proofing basket in a plastic bag.

If you don’t have a benneton or muslin cloth, you could use any vessel that is roughly the shape you want your loaf to be, and a clean tea towel dusted with flour.

Baking your sourdough bread

One hour before baking, preheat your oven at the highest temperature with cast iron dutch oven inside. Carefully flip the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and score the top of the loaf as you wish with a very sharp knife or razor blade. It could be simple like mine or you could get creative. Just make sure you work quickly at this stage.

Carefully remove the hot dutch oven and lower the dough in using the parchment paper. Place the lid on and return to the oven, turning the temperature down to 220 degrees Celsius.

Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on at 220 degrees Celsius. Remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. If the bread is starting to brown too much, it helps to put a baking sheet on the top rack above the bread to reduce the amount of direct heat on the top of the sourdough loaf.

Cool, slice, and enjoy your simple no-knead sourdough bread

Once your bread has finished baking, carefully removed it from the dutch oven and cool on a wire cooling rack.

As tempting as it may be, make sure you wait your whole wheat loaf is completely cool before slicing. Slicing too soon will create a gummy texture, and we wouldn’t want that after all your hard work!