No Knead Sourdough Bread With Yogurt | Easy Bread Recipe
The magic world of sourdough is extensive, you can make so many variations of ingredients and tastes. You can also vary the type of yeast that will make your dough rise, by changing the type of flour, or changing your location, country, continent.
You will not have a consistent result compared to the commercial yeast, but you will gain in complexity of flavor and texture, and in excitement to see how your bread will surprise you. You will watch through the oven door like a child excited to see the wonders of baking.
You will then suffer because it smells so good and you know you have to let the bread cool off before cutting it. And sometimes you will cave in, because you see and feel and smell the crust and you imagine how wonderfully chewy it will be, and what a perfect carrier it will be for the salted butter you will spread on top.
Old times
For me the smell of bread gets me to childhood era. My grandmother used to bake bread in her village, in her wood fired stone oven. She would prepare the dough the night before and she would wake at 4 AM to start the process. By 9 when we, the kids, would wake up, the bread was taken out of the oven. So there was everywhere the smell of bread that would just make you happy.
I remember she was also using sourdough, and additionally brewer’s yeast. And before forming the bread she would save some dough in a jar, for the next batch of bread, in two weeks. She would bake around 20 huge bread loaves, to last for 2 weeks for the big family. And the magic of sourdough bread is that it lasts a long time. Yes, it will not be fresh in the end, but you can toast it, or eat it with soup.
Modern times
The good news is, one does not need a wood fired oven now. I have excellent result with a mediocre oven and with a good Dutch oven that will simulate baking with a professional steam oven for a good oven spring. I dare say, my bread is even better than my grandmother used to bake. It is fluffier and more complex in flavor. And I can experiment with lots of additions inside it.
This recipe adds yogurt, but I also baked breads with potatoes, the liquid of lacto-fermented pickles, buttermilk, quark and other experiments. And they turned out great and unique in their way.
No Knead Sourdough Bread With Yogurt | Easy Bread Recipe
Equipment
- Dutch oven or cast iron pot
Ingredients
Levain:
- 30 g active sourdough starter
- 100 g room temperature filtered water
- 100 g all purpose flour
Dough:
- levain made the night before
- 700 g all purpose flour
- 80 g natural yogurt
- 16 g salt
- 390 g water filtered, warm(not hot)
Instructions
- The night before baking, feed the starter with the water and flour to make the levain.
- Leave covered at room temperature, at least 18°C.
- Next morning, in a bowl, add the flour, the levain made the night before, the yogurt and the salt.
- Add warm water (~36°C), not all at once. You might need more or less water than the one in the recipe. The dough has to just barely come together, but no flour left dry. You can mix it with a wooden spoon or your hands.
- Cover and leave in a warm place.
- It will need at least 2 stretch and folds: after 1/2h and after 2h 30min. I did 3, with an additional one after an hour.
- Fold by grabbing the dough from the outside, stretch the dough a little and then fold it on top. Turn the bowl 90° and continue folding about 8 times in total.
- The total rising time will vary based on your room temperature. mine took 4h30min at 18°C. In summer it rises faster. It should have risen at least 50%, but not doubled.
- Prepare a parchment paper that will fit inside your Dutch oven(cast iron pot), and heat the pot with the lid on, without the paper inside, in the oven at 220°C. I use 250° because my oven is very weak. My Dutch oven has a diameter of 28 cm, 26cm would also be fine.
- Meanwhile dust with flour a banneton, or a bowl with a kitchen towel inside.
- Flour the work surface and turn the dough on it.
- Fold from the exterior to the center and press a little in the center. Do this 8 times turning 90°.
- Then pick up gently the ball of dough and put it seam side up into the banneton.
- Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise 45 min.
- Check if the dough is ready by pocking with a finger. If the dimple rises slowly, it is done.
- Get the Dutch oven out.
- Turn your dough, seam side down, onto the paper that lies on top of a big cutting board.
- Score the bread with a razor or sharp knife (e.g. a cross, or square) with quick and decisive movements. The slits will allow the bread to rise without breaking the crust.
- Take the lid off from the pot with the help of oven mittens.
- Transfer the parchment paper with the dough inside the pot, cover and return to oven for 30 min.
- After 30 min remove the lid and continue to bake for 15 min.
- Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.
- Let the bread cool completely, it is still cooking while it rests.
Video
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