Easy Overnight Sourdough - Owen Kessler

Real sourdough that fits your actual schedule: 15 minutes of hands-on work, then let the fridge do the rest overnight.

If every sourdough book you’ve tried assumes you have a free afternoon to babysit dough, this one is different. Easy Overnight Sourdough is built entirely around the overnight cold retard and no-knead stretch-and-fold method: a short burst of active work in the evening, then your refrigerator quietly develops real flavor and structure while you sleep, work, or live your life. No kneading. No all-day countdown. No guesswork about whether your dough is "ready."

This beginner-friendly guide teaches you to read dough by feel and sight instead of a rigid clock, so you can plan backward from when you actually want fresh bread on the table, understand exactly how far you can push a retard without ruining it, and adapt the same simple method to loaves, pizza, rolls, and sweet breads.

What’s inside:

- The science of slow, cold fermentation vs. fast, warm fermentation, explained simply

- Step-by-step no-knead stretch-and-fold technique, replacing traditional kneading entirely

- Building a starter on a realistic evening-feeding schedule for busy people

- Planning backward from your target bake time, plus how flexible the retard window really is

- Troubleshooting over-proofed and under-proofed dough, with visual and tactile cues

- A minimal-equipment approach: no stand mixer, no bread machine, no specialty tools required

- Nearly 90 recipes across seven chapters: Overnight Classic Loaves, Weekday-Friendly Small Batches, Weekend Project Breads, Overnight Pizza Dough & Flatbreads, Overnight Rolls & Buns, Make-Ahead Sweet Breads, and a Troubleshooting Fixes & Rescue Recipes chapter that turns common mistakes into good food

- A printable-style "plan your week of bread" schedule template and a full temperature and timing quick-reference chart

Perfect for busy beginners who want genuine, from-scratch sourdough without rearranging their day around it, anyone who has struggled with rigid same-day sourdough timelines, and home bakers who want a flexible method that bends around a real week rather than the other way around.