Part 2 of Bread Making is No Knead Bread – the kind of part-sourdough, part-yeast loaf we make almost every other day. It doesn’t require any kneading.
I hope your sourdough starter is doing well – this is your chance to use it. Our Everyday Loaf really is that – we bake it every other day, and we ended up with it because it takes very little of our time and effort, and we’ve made it so often that we literally don’t have to think about it at all anymore. It uses both sourdough and yeast, and we usually mix everything at night and bake in the morning – this long rising period means it needs practically no kneading, just a bit of shaping, and comes out great every time.
A caveat before we start: your first few loaves may turn out a bit weird, and that’s because the temperature of your kitchen, where your dough rises, might be different to ours, and your oven will be a different temperature. It takes a bit of experimentation to get it just right, and please just message or comment with any questions – we’ll do our best to guide you through it. Our kitchen counters are 18-20C – we usually have the bowl of dough next to the aga, so closer to the 20C end of things. Our cooker doesn’t have a temperature setting but we think it’s about 220C, so that’s what we’d recommend as your base temperature.
You’ll need
- 350g strong white flour
- 100g strong wholemeal flour
- 100g sourdough starter
- 300ml of lukewarm water
- a teaspoon of dried active yeast
- 10g of salt
It’s also possible to make this with just white or just wholemeal flour – it tastes nice any way. If you make a loaf that is entirely wholemeal flour you might need to add a tiny splash of water.
The night before you want to bake mix all your ingredients in a big bowl – we usually do this with a fork. Once it’s mixed with a fork use your hands to bring it together in a ball shape – it’s kind of hard to explain this, but easy to see in the video. It’s not kneading as such, it’s really more shaping. Cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and leave it overnight.
In the morning, preheat your oven to 220C and take your dough out of the bowl and place it on a floured chopping board or your work surface. Run your hands along the side of the bread to get it out of the bowl, and then rotate it to shape it in a smooth round bowl on your chopping board. Transfer it a floured baking tray and add some cuts to it – deep ones – so that steam can escape.
Bake it for about 40 minutes at 220C. You’ll know its done when the crust is a nice shade of brown and it makes a hollow sound when you knock on it – you’ll see this in the video, too.
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