One thing you could do is mix up the dough with your active starter and leave it at room temperature until you’re ready to go to bed, and then put it in the refrigerator until you get home from work.
Unless it had a fair amount of time before refrigerating, I think if you took it out in the morning to shape, it might not be ready. On the flip side, if you took it out to room temp all day it would be too far gone by the time you got home from work. Thus the “leave it in the fridge” suggestion.
When you get home from work, pull it out to room temperature and let it expand to close to doubling before bedtime. Then shape it, put it in the proofing basket overnight in your refrigerator, and bake it the following morning. Straight from cold.
This is a lot of refrigeration but it’s a way to bake on weekdays when you’re gone all day.
Here’s a blog post about weekday baking that you might find interesting.
Hello. I have made about 10 loaves of the Artisan Sourdough No-Knead Bread and coming out pretty great. Following the tutorial exactly except was too watery compared to how it looked in the video and reduced to 416 grams of water. Using the Breadtopia Clay oven and 500 degrees. Bread looks great and tastes great but I notice that it is too dense. I noticed it when I tried to toast it the following day and doesn’t really toast like other bread. I thought it was rising properly and even the proofing looked good and had bubbles etc. after about an hour. Not sure why or what to do?
Hi Melissa,
for gluten development, is it necessary to do folds directly after mixing or could this process work with overnight frig first before tending to the dough?
• 8PM: mix ingreds, then 12hr frig
• 8AM: 30min countertop rest to reduce chill
• folds for 2hrs @ 30min intervals
• long ferment 70F 6-10hrs???
• shape & proof rise 90min-ish
• score & bake
Ok I’m depressed, first time making sourdough no knead bread, thought it had risen well but when baked, flat as a pancake!! i am a beginner definitely, one thing I noted the dough was really wet and sticky, a bit better after 12 hour proofing but then still very sticky…any ideas??
Nice rise but with flat results usually means over fermentation. If your 12 hours was in warm temps or your starter very active, the dough probably used too much of the “food.” Try letting the dough expand less in the bowl by about 20%. This could be a range of time, depending on if you keep the dough cooler or use a less starter.
Thanks Melissa for the information? Another question for you…can you use your sourdough starter that is with whole wheat flour and use it for a white sourdough bread?
Thanks for your help melissa this is definitely a journey. Im trying to find a no knead white sourdough recipe but cant seem to find one on your site? I have ordered your book as well which will help my knowledge base but would like to try again and i think would prefer the white sourdough if you can point me in the recipe direction. Janet
Its quite high hydration but it needs to be if it’s no knead. Whatever happens if you dump it in a loaf pan it will work and be delicious. If its fermented right and the gluten is fully formed then it should make it easier to handle. Try the plain one as the other is a conversion for add-ins. Good luck.
Using this recipe with all white flour is fine as long as you reduce the water. White flour absorbs less water than whole wheat flour. With kneading/gluten development, a wet white dough can be manageable, but you’re not aiming to do all those dough interventions right now so I’d stay under 75% hydration.
Abe is recommending 70% hydration, which should definitely feel manageable. Over time you’ll get a feel for what % feels good to you with which flours.
Hydration % is water divided by flour.
Eric’s No Knead Sourdough is
438g water / 520g flour = 0.84 or 84%
(Because half the flour is whole grain, it probably feels like 78% hydration in an all white dough.)
The no knead variation Abe just linked you to is
350g water / 500g flour = 0.70 or 70%
The neat thing about No Knead recipes is that you can easily see how much your dough has risen. In contrast, when you stretch and fold the dough a bunch, this is harder to see unless you use an aliquot jar (search the forum on that term if you’re inclined : )
I just added a photo gallery to a recipe, with “before and after” dough expansion photos of a no knead variation. I think I took the fermentation a little too far (warm lit oven rise, more than doubled), but I refrigerated the proofing basket immediately and loved the results.
I almost forgot to add thank you for getting the book! There is a white no knead (first recipe) and a lot of tips, including how to make any of the recipes more or less whole grain. Eric and I are always here to answer questions you have about the recipes too.
Yes im looking forward to the book coming!! Feeling a little shell shocked with my first flop atttempt can only get better! Im still working so will have to wait for Friday night to try the white sourdough recipe will keep you posted.