When my husband sees me nurturing the dough, stretching and folding before I let it sleep overnight, then shaping the dough the following morning he wonders why I go through the trouble when I can buy one.

My three-year old sourdough starter is the heart of each loaf I bake and I can’t help but feel proud about that, too. This recipe deserves to be shared because it always rewards me, despite my imperfect efforts. Update 4/21/20: Please click here for my Sourdough Starter Recipe that calls for much less flour than other recipes and should have you baking in a week. Update 4/8/20: Please click here for my Sourdough Baking Guide to answer any sourdough questions you may have. If you do decide to follow this original method, you can consider cutting the starter amount, maybe by half, to avoid over fermentation if your kitchen temperature is warmer. The first one is just a direct scale down of the original recipe in the book for one loaf instead of two.

This is the method I recommend you follow if overnight temperatures in your home are on the warmer side. The modified recipe is the second one at the bottom of this post. Over time I’ve adapted a daytime schedule and reduced the starter amount to make this recipe more suitable for using year-round. I’ve since learned that the overnight bulk fermentation method is not as friendly when the temperature in my kitchen is in the low 70✯ and above, increasing the risk of over fermenting the dough. When I first shared this post to document my experience with the Ken Forkish recipe for his Overnight Country Brown Bread, I was only baking bread during the winter months at much cooler temperatures. (Update, Please Read: Due to the unexpected popularity of this post since first publishing it in January 2018 I’ve updated this page to include a second printable recipe as an alternative to the book’s instructions for overnight bulk fermentation. There’s no kneading required to get full flavor that would beat any store-bought loaf. This sourdough bread recipe is as easy as it gets. Jump to Recipe Sourdough Bread, Ken Forkish Method

Ken forkish bread book