No-Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe

No-knead sourdough bread. Photo by Getty Images/vanillla.

Yields 1 loaf.

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1-3/4 teaspoons salt
• 2/3 cup sourdough starter
• 1-1/2 cups water
• Bread flour, for dusting
• Coarse cornmeal, for dusting

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine sourdough starter and water. Add to flour mixture, and mix with a rubber spatula until have a thoroughly mixed, wet, sticky mass of dough.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours. After this time, your dough will be dotted with bubbles and should have more than doubled in size.
4. Dust a wooden cutting board with a little bread flour. Scrape the dough loose from the sides of the bowl, and turn it out onto the board in one piece. The dough will be loose and sticky, but don’t add any additional flour. Dust the top lightly with a sprinkling of bread flour, and cover it with a clean tea towel. Let dough rise for 1 to 2 hours.
5. About 30 minutes before the rise is complete, place a 3-1/2-quart cast-iron Dutch oven on a rack positioned in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F.
6. Once the oven has reached 450 F, remove the Dutch oven and sprinkle about 1 teaspoon coarse cornmeal evenly over the bottom.
7. Uncover the dough and, using plastic dough scrapers, shape it into a ball by folding it over onto itself a few times. With the scrapers, lift the dough carefully and let it fall into the heated Dutch oven by slowly separating the scrapers. Dust the top of the dough with a little coarse cornmeal.
8. Cover the Dutch oven with its lid, and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover, rotate the Dutch oven, and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the loaf is nicely browned.
9. With a metal spatula, pry the loaf from the Dutch oven, and transfer it to a cooling rack to cool for 1 hour.

For more baking ideas, visit Sourdough Recipes.