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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 you freeze this? And how would you recommend defrosting and reviving?
Yes you can absolutely freeze this loaf. You can see how I do it in this article – how to freeze sourdough bread.
Highly recommend. I adjusted the flour to water ratio for more started and everything went great. Don’t forget to heat up that Dutch oven lid. Saw a noticeable difference in the browning in my second loaf. Added lemon zest to the first one, tasted great. No need to adjust salt levels imo.
can i use a regular bread pan wth a cover for this recipe? My dutch oven is too large.
Yes that should be fine 🙂
loved it! taste great good texture
an so easy
I’ve been wanting to use up my large volume of discard, and this was perfect! I used active, not instant yeast, but it still doubled in less than an hour! This would be a great recipe to use for dinner rolls as well!
Can I use part whole wheat flour and all purpose flour to substitute the bread flour?
Yes that’s fine, but you might need to lower the water 🙂
This was so easy and came out very well. I will definitely make it again. I used white whole wheat flour. I really like the measurements by weight. Mine got a little over done, so I will cook it a couple minutes less next time.
Just one question, Is the temperature to be 430 degree the whole bake time you said earlier but when you read on 430-30 minutes, then 10 minutes 390? thank you,I went with the last bake time you said,turned out great,will find more recipes you have,Thanks
Glad you love the recipe. Yes I generally reduce the temp once I take the lid off the Dutch Oven 🙂 xo
First time making sourdough discard bread. Easy recipe to follow, bread was perfect!
This was the first recipe I’ve ever tried using my sourdough starter (discard) !!!
I was nervous that it wouldn’t come together but I was wrong! It was so unbelievably simple, my dough proofed for 1.5 hours and it was nice and FAT 🙂 !!
I ended up popping mine in a loaf tin and used another tin to cover the top. I was sooooo nervous to see what it looked like underneath the tin but when I took it off I gasped! It was so beautiful!
It tasted very nice, slightly tangy! The crust has a wonderful delicate crunch and the inside was fluffy and perfection.
I am so pleased with this recipe!! Will be using again and again <3
So good! My house is often cold (Scotland!) and sometimes I just can’t be bothered to wait all day for my sourdough to do something. This recipe was so quick and tasty. Will definitely make again.
Regarding putting it in the fridge, would it be beneficial to shape the loaf first and use a Banneton?
You can definitely do this, however, it’s often a wetter dough so can be tricky to get into a banneton. However if you’re isn’t that wet, you can of course use a banneton in the fridge. The other issue you might run into is that because you’re using yeast, the dough will continue to grow, which can sometimes be a bit tricky as it will become bigger than the banneton 🙂
Thanks Kate. The turn around on this bread was so quick, I probably won’t need to cold proof anyway.
I halved it and used a loaf pan. Perfect for just me and hubby.
Love this recipe!
Hi Kate, I was anxious to use this recipe as I have lots of extra discard. Don’t we all? I used 100g of Whole wheat flour and 350g of Bread flour. I left all other ingredients as is. I baked it at 430F for 30 mins and then for 18 mins at 390F.
I just took it out of the oven and it looks great! It will be difficult to wait an hour before cutting into it.
No stretch and folds?
No, they aren’t necessary for this recipe 🙂
Hi,
I’m currently waiting for my bread to bake. I swapped out 150g of Bread flour for Whole grain Rye and used 300g of Bread flour. I. Used less water too – 300g.
I’m loving this recipe. Thank you.
This recipe is very easy and has become my favorite loaf to make. I like to add garlic and rosemary. I make it a couple times a month.
This recipe right here has been my go-to! I usually don’t post comments on recipes I find, try, or use…but this one is absolutely fantastic. I have made it exact to the outlined recipe but I also use it for my inclusion loaves. So far they have ALL been a hit.
Made cheddar jalapeño, Italian herb and cheese, chocolate cherry, cinnamon sugar swirl, dill pickle, and currently letting my French onion soup dough rise.
I always make triple batches at a time because my family will devour a whole loaf in a blink of an eye!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I’ve literally made a loaf a day for the last week. It’s just that good!
Kate, is it helpful to do a couple of stretch & folds with this dough? I don’t see it in your directions but just wondering if it will make any difference, or will it just knock out too much air? Thanks!
You definitely can, if your dough isn’t too wet. It’s not essential though and this recipe will still work without it 🙂
I am often too lazy to do a “proper” sourdough and this recipe is perfect. Also a bit softer for sandwiches than traditional sourdough. I make this at least weekly. Thank you!
Thank you so much! This was actually SO easy. All I had to do was buy plastic wrap, bread flour, yeast, and rice flour since I didn’t have those.
This recipe is GREAT! My family and I love the texture of bread after it is baked, it resembles the bread that sometimes served at a restaurant prior to the meal being served. Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. I also love that it doesn’t take a couple of days to make (proofing) and it is very hard to resist not cutting into before letting it sit for an hour, but truly well worth the wait!
when you do inclusion loaves, do you add the extras right from the very beginning?
Yes you add them with all the other ingredients, these instructions are in the post above 🙂 x
So easy, and tastes great! I’ll definitely be making this again.
Thanks!!
Such a great recipe! Followed it exactly. A beautiful, quick and delicious bread!