[soperj]

As someone who bakes bread and other doughy items weekly and has for over a decade, bread machines are more work than making by hand and make bread that sucks. If you use less yeast, and let it slow rise there's no kneeding involved and it tastes way better.

[hendricius]

Agreed! Bread machines don't make sense. You can make a very simple dough in 1 minute of work. I recommend 500g whole rye or wheat, 400g water, 100g sourdough starter, 20g salt. Mix all with a spatula for 1 minute until no chunks of flour are left. Put into greased loaf pan. Wait until roughly doubled in size. Bake in the oven at 200°C until core temperature is 92°C.

[soperj]

I do 1.5 cups of water, 3 cups of flour, sourdough starter and some amount of salt that it around 1 or 2 teaspoons. Mix with a spatula for a minute as well, and then put a lid on it and leave it on the counter overnight. Bake at 500°F for 45 minutes in a dutch oven or a ceramic cookware that's loaf shaped.

[danielovichdk]

Sure. But with sourdough the dough needs to build gluten when mixed, hence the window-test. More gluten gives a stronger and airy loaf. You can do that by hands but it takes too much effort compared to a machine. Imo

[jan_k_]

You can make excellent sourdough without any kneading using the fermentolysis technique. No machine needed and absolutely not "too much effort".

[soperj]

I leave it on the counter overnight. I don't kneed it at all and end up with a nice airy loaf.

[AlanYx]

It's interesting that there are such different perspectives on whether to knead sourdough. The book linked to here recommends it, while other authors like Forkish, Prueitt and Robertson rely more on time and a small amount of "folding" rather than kneading.