a lot more time to spend in the kitchen and tons of people have been making more sourdough for the first time. Since I’ve been making sourdough for years, I have a whole set of different types of equipment for baking the perfect bread, but some of you are just getting started. You may not have all the equipment to bake the “perfect” sourdough bread and that’s okay. Since I’ve been moving around a lot over the past two weeks, I couldn’t take all my kitchen gear with me… and not even my sourdough starter! With everyone making sourdough bread at home using what they have at home, I want to help them by showing some cool tricks for making a great sourdough without equipment. No bench scraper, banneton or Dutch oven? No problem!

Also, don’t forget to check out my sourdough checklist so you can make sourdough at whatever time you are now. In my recent video I’m following the flex bake checklist!

Make a starter from scratch

:

Ingredients

: 8 – 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, total 2 cups

• total estimated 8 – 1/4 cups water, 2 total cups

• estimated

Note: You really only need equal parts of flour and water by volume. At first glance and texture, you are looking for a cake dough as a consistency for your starter.

Directions:

1. Start by combining equal parts flour and water by volume (about 1/4 cup of flour) in a jar and let it sit on your countertop for a day. You’re really looking for a cake dough consistency. After a day, you should start to see small bubbles start to form.

2. Then feed it again with equal parts of flour and water and let it sit for another day. By the second day, you should start to see even more bubbles, but it probably doesn’t smell too sour, which is totally fine.

3. For the third day, give him another equal parts feed of flour and water and let it sit on your counter overnight

.

4. On the fourth day, you should see it really increase. Discard half of your starter by making a sourdough pancake and feeding another equal parts flour and water. You should also be able to start smelling some sour notes coming in.

5. Start feeding your initiator twice a day so that he starts to be really active for about two to three days. After that, you have a brand new starter and you’re ready to start your sourdough journey.

Sourdough without equipment:

Ingredients

: 4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups

• whole wheat flour

• 3 1/2 cups water A couple of large pinches

or 10 grams of

• salt A large balloon or 150 grams

• of active

sourdough starter Directions

:

1. For the start of the autolysa, combine 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 3 1/2 cups of water. At this point, it should be super sticky, so let it autolyze for 45 minutes.

2. Next, add the salt and sourdough starter

.

3. Let it sit for 30 minutes before beginning your stretching and folding process. During the next period of 2 – 2 1/2 you will give your mass 4 stretches and folds. Watch how I stretch and fold my dough here.

4. Once you have finished stretching and bending, you can begin your bulking for about 5 to 6 hours. You will see that the texture of the bread actually changes at the end of this step.

5. Now you’re ready to start shaping your dough, so lightly flour your surface and cut your dough in half with a knife. Shape your dough into a tight ball using the stickiness of the dough to create tension. Click here to see how I do it.

6. If you don’t have a banneton, take a large enough bowl lined with a clean towel. Sprinkle with flour and your makeshift banneton is ready.

Before moving the dough to the banneton,

7. sprinkle some sesame seeds and poppy seeds on a plate and roll the dough over the sesame seeds. This helps with the flavor and makes your dough more non-stick!

8. Take a large metal spatula, which will act as your makeshift bench scraper, to transfer your dough to your banneton. Let it be tasted in the fridge overnight.

9. Once your dough has been tested and passed the poke test, you can turn your oven to 500 degrees

.

10. Start with your makeshift Dutch oven. I used a pizza stone to bake my bread and a baking sheet underneath with some ice to create steam. See how it turned out here.

11. Turn your bread over on parchment paper, with a sharp knife and bake for 40 minutes.