📘 Put the bag back

What you’ll learn

1. Put the bag backChoose Rutledge's no-knead sourdough over a supermarket sliced loaf, Maurizio's levain loaf, or Janjigian's long counter rise, and scale a first batch.Put the bag back. This weekend is one cup of ripe starter, lukewarm water, bread flour, and salt. An adult owns the pot. You mix.
2. The jar is a farmName a starter as flour and water that hosts wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and recognise ripe as doubled, bubbly, and just sagging.Yeast makes the holes. Bacteria make the sour. Feed 1:1:1. Wait for the sag. Discard is extra farm.
3. Mix a sticky lumpWeigh or spoon-and-sweep the flour, mix to a shaggy lump, fold once an hour for three hours, and name autolyse as later work.Spoon and sweep. Mix, then fold. Salt is the brake. Autolyse waits.
4. Fold, chill, shapeCold-ferment 8 to 48 hours, shape a tight boule, warm until a poke springs back slowly, and treat temperature as an ingredient.Fridge is flavour. Shape, then wait. Poke, don't punch. Lukewarm is enough this weekend.
5. Steam, score, waitScore half an inch, bake in a preheated pot to 210°F, cool at least an hour, and discard a moldy loaf whole.Lid is steam. 500 then 450 until 210. Rack, then cut. Mold means the whole loaf.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Charlotte Rutledge, No-Knead Sourdough Bread, King Arthur Baking, 1 cup (227 g) ripe fed sourdough starter, 1 3/4 cups (397 g) lukewarm water, 5 cups (600 g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, 1 tablespoon (18 g) table salt, 2 teaspoons diastatic malt powder optional, mix to a sticky rough dough, rise 1 hour then fold, repeat for a total of 3 hours, refrigerate at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours, rest 15 minutes after a rough ball, shape boule or log, warm 2 1/2 to 3 hours until it relaxes and expands, preheat 500°F one hour before baking, score 1/2 inch deep, cover and bake at 450°F for 45 minutes, uncover 10 to 15 minutes until deep golden and at least 210°F, cool completely on a rack, store well wrapped at room temperature several days or freeze, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-sourdough-bread-recipe
• Maurizio Leo, How to make no-knead sourdough bread, King Arthur Baking, 27 April 2020, walkthrough of the same no-knead formula, mix with wet hands or a dough whisk, three stretch-and-folds during a 3-hour bulk, lift the dough about a foot and fold each side under, refrigerate at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours, preshape and rest, gather sides to the middle and tighten a boule, proof about 2 1/2 hours, poke test springs back slowly and not completely, preheat Dutch oven to 500°F, score, bake 450°F for 45 minutes lidded then 10 to 15 uncovered to at least 210°F, cool at least an hour, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2020/04/27/how-to-make-no-knead-sourdough-bread
• King Arthur Test Kitchen, Sourdough Starter, King Arthur Baking, day 1 is 50 g whole wheat or pumpernickel flour plus 50 g cool water, then keep 50 g and feed 50 g all-purpose flour and 50 g water, two feedings a day from day 3, ready when it doubles in 6 to 8 hours with a tangy aroma, usually day 5 and up to day 7, whole grain starts faster because wild yeast likes the mineral-rich bran, tap water is fine unless it smells heavily treated, ideal about 70°F to 78°F, discard so the yeast is not fighting a huge mass, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe
• King Arthur Test Kitchen, Feeding and Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter, King Arthur Baking, 50 g starter plus 50 g lukewarm water plus 50 g all-purpose flour, 1:1:1 by weight, daily on the counter or weekly in the fridge, to bake from the fridge discard to 50 g and feed every 12 hours until it doubles in 6 to 8 hours, then build the amount the recipe needs, grey liquid on a fridge jar is hooch, stir in or pour off and feed, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/feeding-and-maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-recipe
• Susan Reid, Ripe sourdough starter: Here's what that means, King Arthur Baking, 17 May 2016, ripe means recently fed, doubled or tripled, then slowed, usually 6 to 8 hours after feeding, under-ripe has not doubled, over-ripe has peaked and sunk, measure starter by weight because bubbles change how much a cup weighs, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2016/05/17/ripe-sourdough-starter
• Maurizio Leo, Beginner's Sourdough Bread, The Perfect Loaf, updated 15 January 2026, wild yeasts make carbon dioxide and ethanol, lactic acid bacteria make lactic and acetic acids for flavour, texture, and keeping quality, levain is an off-shoot of the starter, autolyse is flour and water resting without salt or levain, treat temperature as an ingredient, desired dough temperature 78°F, 72 percent hydration, 3 sets of stretch and folds, cold proof about 16 hours at 38°F, bake 450°F 20 minutes lidded and 30 uncovered to about 208°F, cool 1 to 2 hours, longer cold and more whole grain make more sour, https://www.theperfectloaf.com/beginners-sourdough-bread/
• Andrew Janjigian, Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread 2.0, America's Test Kitchen, published 25 July 2016, updated 10 July 2020, levain of 28 g bread flour, 28 g water, 14 g mature starter, dough is 520 g bread flour, 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, 312 g water and 57 g levain, about 62 percent hydration after the update, 12 to 18 hours until just doubled, shape, 1 hour room temperature then 12 to 24 hours fridge, preheat covered Dutch oven 475°F for 1 hour, bake 20 minutes lidded then 425°F until 210°F, cool 2 to 3 hours, store cut side down up to 3 days, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/9076-almost-no-knead-sourdough-bread
• Kye Ameden, Bread baking in a Dutch oven, King Arthur Baking, 21 February 2017, a preheated lidded pot traps steam like a professional steam-injected oven, steam keeps the crust soft for oven spring, gelatinizes surface starch for gloss, opens scores into ears, and lets enzymes keep making sugars that brown, preheat the empty pot about 30 minutes, same dough bakes taller and darker in the pot than on a sheet pan, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/02/21/bread-baking-dutch-oven

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