as good as bread
a no-knead overnight sourdough(ish) boule
Welcome to mama eats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, whole food meals with a focus on plants. This newsletter is my labor of love, and it means so much that you are here. If you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here. This gives you access to all the archives and recipes (find the recipe index here), as well as cook-along videos which go along with most recipes. This post contains affiliate links to a few kitchen tools I have used for years and find incredibly durable and helpful for making bread.
Note: I originally published this in 2020, and have recently edited it for clarity and to reflect slight adjustments I’ve made over time to improve the recipe. It is still a loaf that I make often when I want to bake up an easy loaf that is ready the next day. Since I recently shared a text and video guide on how to begin a sourdough starter from scratch, which you can find here, I wanted to re-share this recipe as a next step, as some of you asked for a beginner’s loaf. It is very forgiving and requires less “feel” for the dough, which makes it easier for new bakers. There is also an accompanying video so you can see the whole process- normally these cook-along style videos are just for paid subscribers, but this one is for everyone, enjoy! I hope you find this recipe as useful as I have, and that it brings the joy of bread to your home. Also, I still have the same thoughts on social media, time, and the benefits of mostly analog living.
Give us this day our daily bread. Lately I have been baking almost a daily loaf, spurred on by love for good bread and a flourishing sourdough starter (he’s named Billy Bob, and I name all of the loaves too… this one was Claudette). I haven’t been on social media for months, perhaps you’ve noticed, perhaps not. Thank you, truly, everyone who has written to say hello and enquire how I’m doing. The short answer is I am wonderful, really. I stepped away originally just for a week as an experiment to see how heavily I relied on having my phone, and honestly I loved not using my phone so much, that I kept going…. and going. Time has marched steadily on, as it does, and now I am here. Things I previously thought I didn’t have time for, now I “magically” do, like baking daily bread, making fresh pasta weekly, reading, gardening daily, going to bed early, having long and juicy conversations, journaling... the list goes on.
I’m toying with the idea of simply having a landline house phone and ditching the cell phone altogether, or perhaps having a flip phone to have for necessary calls when out. Joel teases me that I’ve become a little old lady, which I don’t mind at all. I do have some gray hairs, after all, and I love a good dried prune, and I do start yawning past 10 o’clock. I don’t know when or if I will be back to Instagram, but not because of any drama or bad feelings, and not particularly about Instagram at all. Just simply because I do not feel the desire to use a phone regularly, or share as often, and I’m honoring that. I really do appreciate you dearly, and the community there, and your support over the years. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I continue to write here regularly, where things seem slower and I have plenty of room to unfold and unfurl all my thoughts. I write in when I have something nice to share, like posting a letter off to a friend to share some good news or good recipes. Such as Claudette, and how you can make your own lovely loaf.
There’s a little kind of saying in Italian, to be “as good as bread”, like the English idiom of being as good as gold. Bread is much nicer than gold, I think, especially the good crusty kind, honest and not too perfect to look at, with the most humble ingredients. Flour, salt, water, and yeast. The alchemy of time transforming these most simple things into something as good as gold. It connects people. I’ve given little dollops of starter to friends and acquaintances and strangers, freshly birthed into new households, connecting us in a simple but profound way, through the universal language of food. Last night, I had a dear friend over, I showed her how to make this loaf, and today I thought to share here as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and that when it graces your table it brings you all the simple pleasure in the world. In a little way, we will be breaking bread together, no matter how near or far, companatico companions.
no knead sourdough boule
notes: This is an extremely easy loaf with very little hands-on time, making it completely doable to make, even if you’re a new or a just-sometimes bread baker. You can make this! You can add the small amount of commercial yeast noted if your starter is less vigorous, it lends an extra reliability. If you have a nice, active starter, there’s no need to use it- just use the 80g of active, bubbly starter and no commercial yeast. To know if the starter is strong enough to rise the bread- it should be fed and be able to double within about 6 hours. Conversely, if you aren’t fond of the idea of making/keeping a starter around, you can just use the yeast (no need to increase the yeast amount, just omit the starter) and it’ll work just fine still. A scale is essential for precise baking and eliminates so much guesswork (and measuring cups to wash!)- I have used the same OXO one for over a decade. The dutch oven I currently use is this relatively inexpensive and forever lasting fully cast iron one. I use these very cheap razor blades for scoring the bread. Also, this bread makes excellent toast, especially with homemade marmalade. Just saying.
450 g flour (I use King Arthur AP)
9 g sea salt
1/4 tsp active dry yeast* optional- see note above
315 g water
40 g active, bubbly starter if using yeast; OR 80 g sourdough starter if not using yeastextra flour for dusting the loaf and the proofing bowl or basket (I prefer to use rice flour, whose gritty texture allows the bread to not stick to the basket, but all purpose is totally fine, too, if that’s what you’ve got to hand)
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, mix together the water with the starter to dissolve. I use a fork for this. Pour the liquid into the flour mix and, using your fork or your hands, mix throughly to form a shaggy dough. No kneading, just as long as everything is mixed and there’s no flour at the bottom of the bowl, you’re good. Place a well fitting plate over the top of the bowl and let sit on your counter at room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 18 (I make mine before bed and continue in the morning before breakfast).
An aside- after I’m done mixing the dough, I also feed my starter while I have the scale out, 30g water and 30g flour, I feed mine once or twice a day because I bake frequently. If you won’t bake again that week, you can put your starter in the fridge. Feed it, let it bubble up and rise again, then place in fridge till the night before you will use it. Take it out of the fridge then, stir it and feed it, and let it fully rise and bubble before using for bread again.
Flour your hands and a smooth work surface (counter, table etc) and scrape the dough out onto it. The dough will seem quite wet. Form a boule (watch this and this first if you need to learn). Set the shaped dough, seam side up, into a well floured banneton (proofing basket) or medium sized, deep bowl with a floured kitchen towel lining it, and dust a fine layer of flour on the top.
Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise about two hours- this amount can fluctuate depending on how warm or cold your house is. In the summer, its much less time, and in the winter it can be longer. The best indication that the dough is ready to bake is to press down gently on the surface with your index finger to make an indent- if it springs back again right away, it’s not ready yet, if it springs back about halfway it’s perfect, and if it doesn’t spring back at all, it’s a bit overproofed.
About 45 minutes before you bake, preheat the oven, placing in it an empty dutch oven with the lid on, to 500f/260c. This preheat is really important to the initial rise, or oven spring, of the loaf, so don’t skip.
When ready to bake, score the dough with a sharp razor blade, bread lame, or very sharp knife. Pick up the parchment with the bread (use the corners like a sling) and transfer the whole thing, parchment and all, to the dutch oven. Replace the lid and place in oven. Bake for 25 minutes with the lid ON. Remove the lid, reduce the heat to 450f/230c and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes with the lid off, until the loaf is a deep golden brown- perhaps toastier looking than you would think. Using the corners of the parchment as a sling, carefully remove the bread to a wire cooling rack.
Let it cool at least 1 hour, preferably 2- this is a matter of the utmost importance, do not disregard. The bread is finishing “cooking” on the inside and if you cut too early, too much moisture will be trapped and you will end up with a gummy, dense loaf.
In this video below, I show the whole process. On this day, I used the added commercial yeast as my starter was young and a bit weak/unpredictable. The process is the same with the fully sourdough loaf. Also, I still regularly wear and love the Doen sweater I’m wearing in this video, and it looks just about the same as it did 5 years ago. The joys of a well made garment!
I used to make this and had forgotten about it I'm glad for the reminder. It's such a lovely gift to bring someone and my kids love it. I am so with you with my phone. We've experimented quite a lot with lite phones and no phones and such and for now I turned my smart phone into a dumb phone with a few extra features like maps and while not the cheapest I have to say it's my favorite experiment yet.