It’s been a weird year. I took up a new hobby (watercolour painting) in the early months of the year which seemed to overpower all other hobbies including baking and further into the spring, gardening. But even when the boil of my new hobby slowed to a low simmer I still felt completely disenchanted by the things that typically brought me joy. Namely, baking bread or cakes or whatever… and planning the garden, planting seeds and generally tinkering around in the backyard.
The strangest thing for me to wrap my head around is I still feel that way. Most of the year has been spent dragging my starter out of the fridge for a weekly (sometimes every 2 or 3 weeks) feeding so it doesn’t die or get moldy on me and cursing myself at the tasks I need to complete in the garden so all the veggies I planted don’t go to waste. I thought by now things would have shifted again, especially for this blog. I haven’t posted since January, I’ve been feeling guilty all year about it and I still couldn’t care less. I have thought on an off about simply shutting it all down knowing that it doesn’t bring me joy anymore, but I can’t seem to pull the trigger. Instead I log on for the first time in months, see how many people have visited the blog this year (peanuts compared to the big guys I’m sure) and I just can’t do it. I can’t even seem to formulate all my thoughts around this into something coherent, but whatever.
Not even going to try a segue this time, because, honestly I am totally done trying to make what I write before the recipe be SEO friendly or sound polished. Perhaps if I care a little less I won’t put so much pressure on myself for this blog to BE something and just write whatever the hell I want to write and share whatever recipes I want to share, including this bread. I have made it countless times in the past two years since my daughter came home from daycare one day to announce that she likes the bread they have better than the bread I make. Sigh. Of course it was grocery store sandwich bread and at the time I had it bad for sourdough so I figured there must be a way to make sourdough sandwich bread that did not require me to haul out the Kitchenaid, knead the crap out of the dough and have extra annoying things to wash. Alas, this bread was born, however, in the past year (or more) I have exclusively made the yeast version because 1. it is even easier, 2. sourdough and I are not longer mutually exclusive and 3. I actually prefer the taste of it *gasp*!
I have made all white flour versions of this bread along with multiple versions combining whole wheat or spelt or rye. All taste great and I have included those variations in the notes below the recipe. I have yet to experiment with adding seeds, mainly because its an extra step and this year an extra step would have meant not making bread at all so I haven’t quite gotten there.
Here’s hoping this bread recipe allows you a moment of respite in this crazy world. It is minimal effort for maximum reward to have a warm slice slathered with butter where that first bite just takes you away. Glorious.
Happy baking and all that jazz.
Sophie
No Knead Sourdough (or yeast) Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
Sourdough Version
- 52 g sourdough starter
- 240 g water at room temperature
- 32 g honey
- 16 g olive oil
- 400 g all-purpose flour
- 7 g sea salt
Yeast Version
- 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 266 g water at room temperature
- 32 g honey
- 16 g olive oil
- 426 g all-purpose flour
- 7 g sea salt
Instructions
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Mix starter (if making the sourdough version), water, honey and olive oil in a large bowl. Add the flour, salt and instant yeast (if making the yeast version) on top of the liquid. Mix the dry ingredients together briefly with your fingers, then mix all the ingredients together into a shaggy dough. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
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After 30 minutes, do one set of stretch and folds in the bowl and then cover the bowl, allowing the dough to proof overnight.
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In the morning line a loaf pan with parchment paper so it overhangs the sides a bit (I like to crumple the paper up and then smooth it out again so it fits into the loaf pan better). Empty the dough onto a lightly floured surface, flattening it into a rectangle with your hands until it is about the same width as the loaf pan. Roll it up tight, pinch the ends together and fold them under, then place the dough into the loaf pan seam side down. Cover (I use a shower cap) and proof for 2-3 hours or until doubled. When you press a wet finger into the crown of the dough it should either spring back slowly or stay depressed.
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Uncover and place the loaf pan and dough the fridge while the oven heats up (makes the dough easier to slash, but is totally optional). Heat the over to 350F. Remove the dough from the fridge, slash 4-5 times across the top and spray liberally with water. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and remove the parchment paper. Allow it to cool for a couple of hours before slicing.
Recipe Notes
25% Whole Flour Version:
Replace the all-purpose flour amount with the following:
Sourdough:
100g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
300g all-purpose flour
Yeast:
106g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
320g all-purpose flour
10% Whole Flour Version:
Replace the all-purpose flour amount with the following:
Sourdough:
40g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
360g all-purpose flour
Yeast:
43g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
383g all-purpose flour
10% Miche Version:
Replace the all-purpose flour amount with the following:
Sourdough:
30g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
10g whole rye flour
360g all-purpose flour
Yeast:
30g whole wheat or whole spelt flour
13g whole rye flour
383g all-purpose flour
