Hi There. I found the original No Knead Sourdough recipe in a YouTube search many years ago, and have made many wonderful loaves of sourdough bread. It looks like the tutorial and accompanying recipe for the original No Knead Sourdough Bread has changed. Do you still have the original tutorial available?
Thanks, and I am happy to be a part of this forum!
@schmolley, I have the same question too! I discovered Breadtopia and Eric’s incredibly easy no-knead sourdough recipe early 2018 and have been baking it successfully ever since. Now that recipe and video is no longer on the website. It indeed appears a new one has taken its place.
While I understand techniques and baking styles may change over time, I humbly ask our esteemed bread leader, @eric to please restore, or at least archive, the original video and recipe to our cherished Breadtopia website for those of us who want to continue using it.
Many thanks,
Leah
Amen! 
Hmmmm…. so did you three try the current recipe … and it failed ???
I’m thinking not, my apologies if I’m incorrect.
But … what if, I mean … imagine IF, you got an even better loaf of bread with the current recipe and technique. And that would mean you learned something new also 
Sorry folks, I thought the only thing good about the old video is that I was a lot younger then. It’s still on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHFWAkKnkXg. You might want to write down the quantities and times, but you’ll only have to do that once.
@anon66425146, @eric Liz and Eric, I haven’t tried the new recipe yet. Though I am going to try it soon. I have learned so much about the art and science of sourdough baking from the members of this forum. And I have favorite sourdough bread recipes from this site that I keep in my permanent bread baking repertoire. I do love the ease and simplicity of the original recipe though; no extra steps, no extra “folding” etc. I do have to admit to being a “lazy” baker, LOL. I want to bake as simply, easily and uncomplicated as possible and still have a lovely loaf of bread to enjoy. That being said, I love learning and who knows, the new technique may end up being as simple and easy as the older one. I will give it a try soon.
Leah
@eric - Thank you for the reply! Yes, I found the original recipe on YouTube. And if it means anything, you’ve aged well! I made my first loaf of sour dough last weekend after a few years of no bread baking. It was mostly a disaster, due to mistakes on my part. The dough was way too wet (I added 12 oz. total of flour instead of 16oz.) The flavor was great, but it looked like it had been hit by a truck, and the center was under baked.
I am looking forward to trying the new recipe, hopefully this weekend. Thank you for this website!
I have particular fondness for that video. It was the very first time EVER that I was successful in downloading a complete video of anything. Living at the back of beyond with only a hesitant dial-up connection to cyberspace, my many overnight attempts to actually SEE sourdough techniques, rather than just reading about them, always would end in disappointing line drops before morning.
Then, miraculously, one morning I woke up to find night Eric’s video on my computer screen, whole and complete! It changed my (baking) life forever!
So, thank you, Eric (The Younger/The Elder) for your generosity then and now.
~ Irene the Elder, who now relies on dependable DSL and wifi to quickly deliver all things Breadtopia.
Hi everyone! I did bake the revised no-knead sourdough bread recipe today. My experience with the newer technique was definitely interesting.
I followed the measurements by weight exactly as written in the recipe. I used Breadtopia’s high-protein organic bread four for the white bread flour component and a mixture of Breadtopia’s Red Fife and Heirloom Turkey Red whole wheat berries that I milled in my Mockmill 100 for the whole wheat portion. The flour component was indeed 50/50 bread flour/whole wheat.
I do reduce the amount of salt to one-third the amount in the recipe for every bread I bake for health reasons. I find that particular amount of salt is enough to amp the flavor to where it needs to be while at the same time keeping the bread lower sodium. On a side-note, I’ve not noticed a change in the flavor of a finished loaf of bread when using the reduced amount of salt as compared to the amount of salt written into the recipe. So for me, it’s a win-win. I can still bake a tasty loaf of bread while maintaining a lower sodium requirement.
For me as far as the newer technique goes, let’s just say the jury’s still out. Wetting my hands to engage in the stretch and fold of the dough made my particular dough too wet. After doing the stretch and fold it did not resemble Eric’s dough in the video. It was more of a wet, shaggy mess. Perhaps if I had used the “stretch and fold” technique with the dough whisk as in the rye bread video my dough would have looked more like Eric’s as it wouldn’t have gotten wetter. I may consider that if I try this recipe again.
After an overnight rise on the kitchen counter for about 8 hours (my kitchen’s ambient temperature hovers around 78-80 degrees currently) the dough was ready for me to release from the bowl and attempt a coil fold. Let’s just say that was rather comical. The dough kinda-sorta cooperated but was significantly wetter than the dough in Eric’s video. Turning the dough over in my hands to put it into the lined proofing basket was almost an exercise in futility as it oozed through my fingers seemingly embracing a life of its own. Forget about pinching a seam. I swear the dough was laughing at me.
I covered the basket in plastic and let it rise about 45 minutes. It rose but was still loose and wet. Thankfully I use a parchment paper technique to transfer my dough from the basket to the preheated clay baker. Otherwise I think the dough would have just oozed out of the basket onto the floor. The dough plopped into the clay baker deflating it a bit. I tried scoring the top but the dough was so wet it wouldn’t score.
I baked it at 500 degrees for 17 minutes covered and then another 17 minutes uncovered.
I did get a bit of an oven spring but wish it had been more. The bread temperature reached 205 degrees so I knew it was sufficiently baked.
Will I bake this recipe again? Perhaps when I’m feeling ambitious. But when I need to whip up a “plain” sourdough bread, I will probably stick to my “tried and true” original Breadtopia NK sourdough recipe I first learned from and have always had success with.
Keep baking!
Leah
It’s always a learning experience to try something new Wetter dough is indeed harder to handle and it can ferment faster. I’m guessing that 8 hours 78-80 F was a bit too much, and gets the most credit for the difficult handling. Good job wrangling it!
Melissa, believe it or not, 7-8 hours on the kitchen counter in my home and weather conditions is the basic normal timing for my dough to rise overnight. With the exception of just a couple of loaves over the last year and a half of baking, that timing has worked perfectly for me. If I prep a dough earlier in the day, I cover it and put it into my refrigerator until about 11:00pm when I put it on my counter. I then set a morning alarm so that I wake about 7:00am to check the dough. It’s typically perfectly ready for me to continue with it.
The problem I noticed is with needing to wet my hands before handling the dough. No matter how careful I am, I seem to add too much water to the dough when doing that. That’s what happened when I tried to bake the challah early last year. What a disastrous failure that loaf was! Now, in Eric’s artisan sourdough rye recipe, a similar stretch and fold is accomplished by using the dough whisk instead of one’s hands. On the video it appears to be a very similar motion with what looks like an expectable end result for the dough before rising.
I thought of something else too. I’m curious as to whether I can substitute the coil fold before placing the dough into the proofing basket with the simple “squish and tri-fold” method in the original recipe. That way I’m not adding any additional water to the dough yet again.
I do like the hearty flavor of the resulting bread I baked yesterday and even though I felt like I was handling a misbehaving amoeba rather than bread dough, my finished loaf was definitely acceptable. I will enjoy eating it.
Leah
I love the idea of refrigerating for a bit so you get the perfect overnight bulk fermentation.
You can shape the dough however you prefer imo, and you can try coil folds with dry hands too.
Sweet! There is something satisfying and rather forgiving about working with sourdough because even when you think you’ve royally messed it up, usable tasty bread still happens; unless you’ve REALLY messed it up that is, LOL!
I may end up trying this recipe again at a later date and try subtle changes at a time to see if I get an even better result. The first change I would make would be in the stretch and fold technique. I wouldn’t use my hands, but would use the dough whisk so as not to make the dough any wetter. When releasing the dough from the sides of the bowl after overnight fermenting I will try that without wetting the dough scraper first and I will attempt the coil fold with dry hands. If those changes work well for me, then awesome! If I feel the resulting dough and finished bread still isn’t exactly what I want it to be I will tweak things up a bit more on subsequent loaves by doing the “squish and tri-fold” versus the coil fold. As long as I get a tasty usable loaf of bread it’ll be worth the bit of experimenting to know what method works the best for me.
What’s funny is even though I still consider myself to be a rather novice bread baker (after a year and a half, LOL) I’m actually thinking about ways to change up recipes and techniques to accommodate what seems to be more my personal bread making style. In the past I would “religiously” follow a written recipe and not deviate from it at all. Now I’m starting to change things up to suit me. I certainly didn’t anticipate that!
I love this site and this forum. What a wonderful group of bread baking enthusiasts and wonderfully accomplished bakers who are so willing to help others out on their bread journey.
Thank you all!
Leah
Leah, I always appreciate your comments on this site! I wonder if you’ve tried shaking off the excess water after dipping your hand(s) or running them under the faucet. I use this method often to knead or handle dough and I don’t see a change in texture. I’ve noticed my hands don’t need to be super-wet to keep the stickiness at bay, thus the shaking off excess. Just a thought!
@Arlo48 Thank you, Arlo for your kind words. I honestly only wet my hands a little, or so I thought. I wouldn’t have thought of shaking the excess water off of them. Silly me! That being said, I’ve had 2 for 2 bad experiences wetting my hands to handle dough. The first time was trying to make a challah. The debacle that bread was is practically legendary! In fact, somewhere on this forum my attempt to make that bread, including pictures, is thoroughly documented. I just don’t remember where, LOL. It’s quite embarrassing.
On the up-side, I’ve been enjoying the bread I baked that’s pictured on this thread. It toasts up quite lovely and is delicious with a smear of almond butter and some pumpkin butter, apple butter or apple cider jam. I bought the almond butter, pumpkin butter and apple cider jam at Trader Joe’s. It’s a yummy breakfast or snack with a hot cuppa tea or coffee.
Leah
Ah memories 
I need to try my epic fail again someday, with a few modifications.
