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Are you ready for the easiest sourdough discard bread recipe you’ll ever make? Baking true sourdough bread is certainly rewarding, but with our busy lives, we don’t always have time for a 2 to 3 day process, right? So I’ve created the easiest sourdough discard bread you’ll ever make – seriously it’s so so simple with very minimal prep! This recipe is perfect if you’re still building your sourdough starter, but you really want to bake sourdough bread. This is why this recipe has become one of the most popular sourdough discard recipes on The Pantry Mama site!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
Super Quick Discard Recipe – You can make this easy sourdough discard bread in under 2 hours if your house warm enough. It does use a little commercial yeast – but you will still get some of the sourdough tang from your discard.
No Kneading, No Stretch and Folds – this recipe is completely hands off and requires no fancy equipment!
An Easy Way To Use An Immature Sourdough Starter – This easy sourdough discard bread will also work for you if your starter is not quite ready to start baking true sourdough bread, just like this sourdough discard sandwich bread. The commercial yeast will create the rise that is lacking in your sourdough starter. If you’re having trouble with your sourdough starter, check out these tips to boost your sourdough starter.
Ingredients
- Bread Flour – I recommend using bread flour for this recipe as it makes the dough less sticky. If you want to use all purpose flour, I recommend using a little less water, or you’ll end up with a big, sticky mess! You could supplement some of the 450g of flour with rye, spelt or even whole wheat flour for a more complex flavor profile.
- Water
- Salt
- Instant Yeast – I prefer to use instant yeast because it doesn’t need to be bloomed in water, but you can use active dry yeast if you prefer. Just add it when you add the water to this recipe.
- Sourdough Discard – This recipe uses sourdough discard, which is basically unfed sourdough starter. As always, you can use active sourdough starter if you prefer. You can then choose whether you add the yeast to speed things up or not.
Make This Sourdough Discard Bread In Under 2 Hours!
To make this easy crusty sourdough discard bread, start by adding the flour, warm water, instant yeast, salt, and sourdough discard to a large mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to gently mix everything together until a shaggy dough forms. You don’t need to knead it or make it perfectly smooth, just make sure all the flour is moistened.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours and let the dough rise until it’s doubled. The exact time will depend on the room temperature of your kitchen. While the dough is rising, place a Dutch oven into your oven and preheat it to 220°C/430°F about 45 minutes before you plan to bake.
Kate’s RECIPE Tip
Bake It Later
If you don’t want to bake your bread immediately once it’s risen, you can pop it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Just put the whole bowl in the fridge, covered with some plastic wrap to stop it drying out. This is a great idea if you want to have it freshly baked for dinner for example or when you first wake up.
When you want to bake it, let it sit out on the kitchen counter for around 30 minutes before you shape it and bake it (so preheat the oven when you take it out of the fridge).
Once the dough has doubled, lay a sheet of parchment paper on your counter and sprinkle it with a little rice flour or fine semolina to prevent sticking. Gently scoop or pour the dough onto the paper. If the dough is manageable, lightly shape it into a rough round by folding the edges over themselves. If it’s very wet, simply guide it into a loose shape without worrying too much, rustic works perfectly here. Score the top if you like, or leave it to naturally split in the oven.
Carefully lift the dough using the parchment paper and place it into the hot Dutch oven (we don’t actually need any further proofing once the dough is shaped).
Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes at 220°C/430°F, then remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes at 200°C/390°F until golden brown. Allow the bread to cool on a cooling rack for at least an hour before slicing for the best texture. And now, just add butter!
I’ve included step-by-step instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Bake in a Dutch Oven
To get the best results for your sourdough discard bread, bake it in a Dutch Oven. It keeps the steam inside the pot and enables your bread to get the rise before the crust starts to harden. Keep the lid on your Dutch Oven for the first 30 minutes of your bake, then take it off for the last 10 minutes to give it some crunch and colour. Just like baking true sourdough, the Dutch Oven really is a game changer.
Want To Give Your Sourdough Discard Loaf A Flavor Boost?
You can add lots of different flavor combinations to this sourdough discard loaf. It’s up to you whether you go sweet or savory. It’s best to add the inclusions to the dough when you first mix it, that way you can leave it alone to rise rather than have to disturb it to add in the flavors. Some of my favorite inclusions for this sourdough discard loaf are:
- Jalapeño Cheddar
- Bacon & Cheddar Cheese
- Olives (you can use whatever olives you love)
- Chocolate chips and orange zest
- Cranberries and walnuts
- Cinnamon and Raisins
How To Store and Freeze
This loaf is is designed to be a quick bake and made to eat the same day you bake it. It can be stored in a ziplock bag at room temperature for up to 3 days after baking, however it’s definitely better eaten the day of baking. Storing it in a ziplock bag will keep the loaf interior soft, but it will also give you a soft crust (which you can refresh in the oven). Otherwise, it’s perfect for making toast with!
This loaf can be frozen. I recommend freezing as a whole loaf in a large zipock bag for up to 3 months. When you want to use it, remove it from the freezer and allow it to thaw at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend using a Dutch oven for this loaf because it traps the steam around the loaf, giving it time to bloom in the oven, giving it maximum oven spring and a gorgeous, crusty exterior – without it being rock hard. You can open bake, however, I recommend spraying the loaf with water before placing into the oven.
No you don’t need to. Because this bread has instant yeast added you can place the shaped dough straight into a hot oven. If you really can’t bake it straight away, you can place it into a well floured banneton if you want to, but I recommend keeping it in the fridge and baking it within 12 hours.
I don’t recommend making this loaf in a stand mixer. The dough is really sticky and can be really hard to clean from the dough hook attachment. Plus, there’s such minimal mixing and kneading for this recipe, it’s really not worth messing up your stand mixer for!
Easy Sourdough Discard Bread
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Digital Scales
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 450 g Bread Flour
- 360 g Water, (warm)
- 10 g Salt
- 7 g Instant Yeast
- 100 g Sourdough Discard, (unfed sourdough starter)
Instructions
- Take a clean ceramic or glass bowl and add your flour, warm water, instant yeast, salt and sourdough discard.
- Use a wooden chopstick or end of a wooden spoon to gently bring all the ingredients together into a shaggy dough. You don't need to it be fully smooth, just ensure that all of the flour is wet.
- Cover the bowl in cling film and set it somewhere warm for 1 – 2 hours. It really depends on the temperature of your house with this one. If your house is warm, 1 hour will be plenty. In the depths of winter or with air con, you may need more than 2 hours. You just want it to double in size, no more or it won't rise in the oven.
- Around 45 minutes before you want to put your bread into the oven, you'll need to put a dutch oven into the oven and preheat it to around 220ºC/430ºF.
- Once your dough has doubled in size, grab a piece of parchment paper and lay it out on your counter. Sprinkle on a few tablespoons of rice flour or fine semolina flour (this is just so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands).NOTE – If you are wanting to put your bread in the refrigerator to bake another time (usually within 24 hours) then just pop the cling film over the bowl of doubled dough and put in the fridge. You don't need to do anything to the dough before it goes in.
- Scoop your dough out with your hands – if it's particularly wet it's perfectly fine to pour it onto the paper.If it's not too wet, use the flour and your finger tips to gently bring it into a round shape – you will need to pull each side over each other to do this. If your dough is too wet – don't fret, just try and bring it into some kind of shape without getting too messy.
- Score your dough if you're able to – otherwise just leave it and it will open up naturally in the oven.
- Carefully take your dutch oven out of the oven and remove the lid. Use the parchment or baking paper as a handle to gently place your discard bread inside the pot and put the lid back on.
- Bake in the oven, with the lid on for 30 minutes at 220ºC/430ºF. Then remove the lid of the pot and bake for a further 10 minutes at 200ºC/390ºF. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Try to let it cool for at least an hour before cutting it. It will still taste great if you cut it hot, but it's so much easier to cut if you let it cool!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
Can I use active dry yeast in place of instant?
Yes you can use active dry yeast instead of instant.
Can you do this recipe in a bread machine?
I used Chrome, then tried again in Safari, and when I click the “Print Recipe” hyperlink it opens a new tab with the same webpage instead of a simple page that prints just the recipe. Just wanted you to know more than one person is having an issue with that link. I’d also love to be able to print it instead of needing to keep my phone running 🙂
I’m new at your website and excited to try your recipes. But is there a way that you can give the U.S measurements to cups instead of grams? I’ve tried looking for conversions online but they seem to be different, so I don’t really know which one is accurate.
I only bake using grams because it’s accurate. You can read more about why you should always weigh your ingredients here. It’s much better to get a scale, rather than try to convert the measurements 🙂
I just made this bread the other day and it is so good! I stepped away from my dough for about two hours and I guess the kitchen was hot because my dough doubled and pushed outside the plastic wrap haha! The only diffuculty I had was the stickiness of the dough. I also made a lousy choice to use wax paper instead of true parchment paper which totally stuck to my entire loaf. It still tastes great even with the pape, though!
Curious about why the hydration level of this recipe is 75%?. My starter is always 1:1. I guess the high hydration is so the mix can be stirred up and no kneading? Also, using unfed, immature discard in a bread recipe, is the flour spent already and won’t provide enough food for the yeast in the bread dough if counting the amount of flour and water in a discard as a part of bread recipe. Say, a recipe calls for 400g flour, 60% hydration. I’d use 100g discard, 1:1. 350g flour, 190g water. The amount of flour and water in the discard at 1:1 makes up the total of 240g water:400g flour. Thank you for all your help.
Thank you so much for this awesome recipe! I followed the recipe to a ‘T’ and everyone was pouring on the compliments as to how delicious it tasted. This is definitely my favorite recipe as it is also very easy and quick. Will be baking bread with this recipe and will add other goodies. Thank you again!
I’m struggling with the texture of this bread. I’ve now made it about 5 different times. It always ends up a little gummy (not underbaked). I’ve done it where it doubles or even triples, but it always ends up less cakey more gummy looking. It’s shiny inside. Is that right? It’s delicious when toasted, just chewy when untoasted.
Hi! Why do you need a glass or ceramic bowl? Is a plastic bowl fine too? Also my dough doesn’t really seem to double in size, not after an hour and not after 2,5 hours. Am I doing something wrong? I don’t want to wait too long so it doesn’t rise in the oven anymore. It just grows a tiny bit.
I prefer to use glass as I can see what’s happening underneath the surface of the dough 🙂
I too, am wondering about giving the dough a second rise after forming the loaf? Your thoughts?
What temperature is ”warm water” cirka 37 C or warmer ?
Thanks for lovely recepies!
Can you leave out the instant yeast and use live fed starter instead ??
Yes you can 🙂
How much live fed starter replaces the instant yeast?
How much starter would you use to replace the instant yeast? Does the rest of the recipe/directions stay the same?
How much would you use?
If you’re using active starter instead of yeast, do you add more of the starter or just omit the yeast and use 100g of active starter? Would you follow the rest of the recipe as written or would it need a longer rise?
How much of the live fed starter would you use?
Of the 7-8 times I’ve made it, this last one was the BEST:
115 g Sourdough Discard unfed sourdough starter (Three weeks old, totally unfed, slightly starving judging from the slight vinegary smell)
400g acid whey (three to four weeks old, from Greek yogurt making)
11 g Fine Sea Salt
10 g Rapid Yeast (for Bread Machine)
50g wheat bran
450 g Bread Flour
1 hour rising outside on porch, covered with dish towel, at about 30-32 Celsius
Scored with kitchen shears
Convection oven, single rack covered in big hard-anodized Dutch oven on parchment paper, 430F for 45 minutes (I forgot I had it in the oven!)
Then 390F uncovered for 10 minutes.
I find it is a somewhat forgiving recipe, and it is always a big hit, but this was on a different level.
Oh my gosh! This is a wonderful, easy bread and ready sooooooo quick! I’m making risotto and shrimp tonight for dinner and needed a bread to go with it. I didn’t plan ahead to make a full-on sourdough artisan bread and just happened upon this recipe this morning. I had plenty of discard on hand, so I decided at the spur of the moment to make this recipe. I am so glad I did! It has beautiful texture and crumb. The holes are perfect! Not overly sour, which my hubby prefers, although I’m working on him to learn to love sourdough as much as I do! Thank you, Kate, for this great quick recipe!!!!!
Just wanted to add that I did some coil folds every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours (just like a standard naturally leavened dough) and it pulled together very nicely! Was able to shape no problem and it is in the fridge now so I can score it cold in the AM and bake it. Hoping it comes out great, it looks promising!
Nikki, how did your bread turn out? I use that folding technique on my regular sourdough recipe so I’m curious about your results. Thanks!
Consider including volume measurements for people who don’t have kitchen scales.
Volume measurements are inaccurate, using a scale is the best way to bake with consistently good results every time 🙂 This is a good explanation as to why: Benefits of Weighing Sourdough Ingredients: Why Not To Use Cups When Baking Sourdough
Not sure but after you get the first rise do you have to let it rise again or just shape and cook?
Made this bread today from 8 day discard. Very pleased with the taste! My bread was a teeny bit dense and think it could have used another 5-10 minutes more on the bake. Like others, I had a difficult time with scoring. Read your tip for using scissors to accomplish this. Will
use scissors next time. Overall, a dynamite sourdough loaf!
I LOVE THIS RECIPE. Of the about 12-15 times I’ve made it with different flours, proportions, times, the following was the BEST:
About 125-129 g unfed about a month old refrigerated sourdough starter
A little over 400g acid whey from homemade Greek yogurt
11 g Instant Yeast
Mixed first and left for a while to come to room temp. Didn’t really bubble but almost.
In a separate bowl:
12 g Salt
50g wheat bran
30 g ground flaxseed
About 210 g whole wheat flour then completed with bread flour to a total of 450 g flour. Mixed dry ingredients well, then mixed the wet ingredients in with a Danish whisk (super helpful).
About 2 hours rising inside, covered with dish towel, at about 22-23 celsius
Then overnight in the fridge.
Next morning when oven ready at 430F, folded about 12 times over rice flour, made a firm ball, scored with bread lame in square top + heart
Baked covered in hard-anodized Dutch oven on parchment paper, 430F for 38 minutes
Then 390F uncovered for 15 minutes. I wish I could post a picture. The most beautiful loaf, and the tastiest.
To anyone asking about doubling the recipe to make 1 large loaf. Works great. I did cook it for 35 minutes with lid on, then 20 minutes with lid off. Nice and crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle
Delicious! I added cheddar and jalapeños. I used a 5 qt dutch oven and the loaf spread a little too much since it’s so wet. What size Dutch oven do you recommend?
We made this tonight and it was amazing!!! Followed the recipe to a tee. Thank you!
Would this still work with discard starter that has not been fed for 3 1/2 weeks?
I’ve been wanting to try making sourdough bread, but have been having trouble just jumping in, so when I came across this recipe I decided to try it, since it’s a lot easier process. I don’t have a Dutch oven but decided to wing it. Apart from the dough being very wet and sticky, it was very easy to make the dough. I adjusted the cooking temperature and time to compensate for the lack of Dutch oven, it was on about 190C for an hour. I’d thought I would put a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to create some steam, but I forgot to do that, and I was sure it was going to be a brick. Turned out perfect! I was so pleased! Will definitely be making this recipe again!
This is my go to recipe!! My family loves this recipe as much as I do!! Thank you so much for sharing ♥️ I love all of your recipes and will continue to learn from them!!
This was the easiest, yummiest bread to make!!! I made one as the recipe states, one jalapeno cheddar, one rosemary Parmesan and one garlic and they are all AMAZING!!!! This is the bread of my dreams! Thank you Pantry Mama!!!!
Made once and turned out wet and gummy but still delicious! Trying again but without the give or take in measuring! Question, does it have to double before placing in fridge, or can it double in fridge?! Added some garlic salt this go around! The anticipation is killer to taste this time!
Thank you <3
First attempt at ever making any kind of bread… not sure I will attempt trying to make the real sourdough as easy and good as this is! Wondering if this freezes well, if so, any suggestions?
Can I bake this in a loaf pan? Any changes?
Hello! Question, when you use active starter, do you still only put 7g? I followed the recipe a couple of times using active starter and it only rose a little bit and then it didn’t rise in the oven. Should I use more starter?
Thank you!
This is the best and easiest sourdough I’ve ever tried! I follow the recipe exactly and it comes out perfect every time.