Ancient Grain Artisan Sourdough Bread (No Dutch Oven)

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This rustic bread is crafted using traditional sourdough techniques and incorporates ancient grains, resulting in a flavorful artisan loaf. Its high hydration content means no Dutch oven is required to bake this delicious, beautiful bread!

The Italian Roots of This Artisan Bread

This artisan bread is a ciabatta style loaf, meaning it has a high hydration content, a flattened shape, and a delicious, airy crumb. The name ciabatta comes from the flat, oval shape if the bread meaning “carpet slipper”, and originated in Italy in the 1980s as an Italian alternative to the French Baguette. (Source)

The texture and shape of this style makes a perfect sandwich bread, as it has the ability to hold juicy sandwich fillings without becoming overly soggy. The fresh bread is also perfect to enjoy with a generous serving of butter!

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Easy

This homemade bread is a very simple sourdough recipe. Combine flour, water, salt, and an active sourdough culture. After a few stretch and folds, (this a no-knead bread recipe) let the dough rest at room temperature for a few hours. Shape and let the dough rise one last time, then preheat the oven and bake for a little over half an hour. With its high water content, the sticky dough bakes perfectly without the need for using a Dutch oven! Just a few simple steps and no fancy equipment required – it’s a good bread for beginner bakers and seasoned bakers alike. 

Healthy

This delicious bread is made with ancient grain whole wheat flour, giving it a higher protein content as well as higher vitamins and minerals than all purpose flour. While you can certainly swap out the flour for regular flour with some modifications, keep in mind that it won’t be as nutritious. 

Delicious

This artisan bread recipe has a delightfully moist and chewy texture with large holes throughout, making it perfect for holding butter, sauces, sandwich fillings, or for dipping in a thick, creamy soup. It’s one of my favorite bread recipes for soup season!

Why Use Ancient Grains?

Modern wheat has been hybridized and is not quite the same as it once was. It is believed by many that modern wheat is not as well digested as ancient grains are, since humans have been eating these older grains for so much longer. 

My favorite type of heirloom wheat is einkorn, which is the oldest form of wheat. While it bakes a little differently than modern wheat, it has a nutty, buttery flavor that makes einkorn baked good extra delicious. 

Another great ancient grain to use in this recipe is spelt. It is not as “ancient” as einkorn, but it’s a great alternative to modern wheat. You will need to tweak the recipe a little if using spelt or regular wheat, since I made this recipe originally with whole grain einkorn wheat. 

You can either use 100% whole grain flour for a hearty and more dense loaf, or add partly all purpose einkorn or spelt flour for a slightly lighter and fluffier loaf. 

Tips and Tricks

• This dough is extra sticky, especially if using einkorn flour! Be sure to wet your hands for each stretch and fold to reduce the amount of dough that gets stuck to your hands. 

• Be very generous with extra flour when shaping the dough, if you don’t use enough flour it will stick to everything! You can use a gluten free flour like sprouted out flour for this if you want to avoid unfermented wheat flour. 

• I originally made this bread with parchment paper, but I actually don’t recommend it for this recipe. The dough was very stuck to the piece of parchment paper and I ended up having to throw away the crust of the baked bread. It’s better to be generous with flour and bake directly on a preheated pizza stone or baking stone.

• You will need a kitchen scale for this recipe.  

How to Store This Bread

After fully cooling, store baked bread in a zip-lock bag and keep it at room temperate, or pre-slice it and store it in the freezer for up to 4 months. I don’t recommend storing bread in the refrigerator because that tends to dry it out quickly. 

How to Make Ancient Grain Artisan Sourdough Bread

Add sourdough starter to a large bowl and place it on a kitchen scale set to grams. Tare scale to 0. 

Add warm water until scale reaches 300 grams and combine water and starter with a wooden spoon. Tare scale to 0.

Add flour until scale reaches 500 grams, then add salt on top. 

Combine ingredients with wooden spoon until a very sticky dough forms. 

Cover bowl with a plate and lest rest for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, uncover the bowl and wet hands. Stretch and fold the dough about 10 times by pulling up one side and pushing down onto the opposite side, going around the ball of dough. 

Cover the bowl with a plate and let rest for 20 minutes. 

Repeat stretch and fold process 2 more times with 20 minute intervals.

Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature for 4 or 5 hours. 

After the dough has risen for the first time, generously flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. 

Generously flour the top of the dough, and push down into a 10 x 6 inch rectangle. 

Roll each side of the long sides of the rectangle the center and push down.

Flip the dough over, seam side down and tuck the ends in underneath.

​Generously flour a large linen cloth and carefully transfer dough onto it. 

​Dust the top of the dough with flour and cover with the cloth. 

Let rest for 60 minutes for a second rise. 

Preheat a large, flat cast iron skillet or pizza stone in center rack of the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. 

​Uncover dough and carefully transfer to preheated pan. 

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until slightly golden brown. 

 Once baked, wrap in a clean cloth and let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing. The bread bakes more after it’s out of the oven! 

This bottom crust can be a little hard, so wrapping it in a cloth while it cools helps to soften it. 

After resting for at least 1 hour after baking, enjoy!