No Knead Artisan Bread

I love to bake bread, and this no knead artisan bread is one of my favorites to make.

 

no knead artisan bread

You want to know why this bread is one I just love to make?  Because it’s absolutely the easiest bread I’ve ever made in my life, but it looks so rustic and fancy.  Not only that, but it pairs well with basically any food you can think of – soups, roasted chicken, stews, chili – or you can use it to make the best sandwich you’ve ever had.

Maybe that sounds dramatic, but I’m telling you, this bread has changed my life. 🙂  I make it a lot.

I also love to make it when company is coming over.  Or I’ll make it for a potluck.  Basically, this is my go-to recipe for everything. 🙂

But, there is a sad side to this recipe.  I’ve had to avoid bread (and all grains) for the past 2.5 months as I try to resolve some health issues.

Do you know what it’s like to bake bread for your family, to smell that glorious bread smell, and not be able to eat a bite of it?

homemade artisan bread

Torture. Pure torture.

If my kids ever complain that I don’t love them, I’ll remind them of this time in my life when I baked them copious amounts of bread while I ate a salad.

Anyways, I digress…

There’s a few ways you can make this bread.  You can mix it all together the night before and then bake it in the morning the next day.  Or you can mix it in the morning first thing and bake it at dinner time.

I tend to do the overnight thing.  I find it easy to whip up all the ingredients in just a few minutes, cover it up, stick it on the counter, and let it do it’s thing while I sleep.  Then it’s ready to bake the next day when I wake up. It’s a great way to start the day as well, having warm bread slathered with honey or jam on it for breakfast.

I’ve definitely played around with this bread too.  This recipe uses white flour but I’ve mixed in spelt and einkhorn flour before.  I’ve also put olives in it, or my favorite – dark chocolate pieces and dried cranberries.  (That will be the FIRST thing I make when I am eating bread again. 🙂 )

I’ve had a lot of people ask for this recipe when I posted a picture to social media.  I mentioned that I had whipped it up before church and people were definitely wondering how I had time in the morning to bake bread before church.  I was going to say that I had been up since 3 a.m. mixing and kneading and letting my bread rise and then baking it.  🙂  But no, that just isn’t the truth.  I like bread, but there’s no way I could be THAT committed to a fresh morning loaf of bread.

If you’ve never made bread before this is a good starting point as well.  It’s just so simple.  I can’t say enough good things about this bread, as you can see.

So, let’s get to making some bread!

NO KNEAD ARTISAN BREAD

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You will need:

5 1/2 cups white flour

1 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups of warm water

Grab a large bowl(definitely larger than the one I used as it’s going to rise and you want it to have space to do that.  For some reason my large bowls have disappeared.  How you lose a giant bowl, I’ll never know. )

In the bowl mix together the flour, yeast, salt, and water.  Make sure the water is WARM – not too hot and not too cold.  If it’s too hot it will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise.  It should be lukewarm to the touch.

Stir it together really well.  You don’t want flour chunks at the bottom that get left behind so be sure to get all that flour underneath it.

It will look like a shaggy mess – not like a smooth, ball of bread.  That’s okay, that’s what you want! 🙂

Put a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl and let it sit for 8-24 hours, or overnight.  My preference is overnight. 🙂

When you have let it sit long enough, whether that’s all day or overnight, scoop the dough out onto a floured surface.  Form it into a nice ball and let it sit for 45 minutes.

While the dough is sitting, preheat your oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit.  Put your dutch oven with the lid on in the oven during this time to heat it up nice and hot.

When the 45 minutes is up make some slits into the top of the bread.  I use this handy dandy bread tool called a bread lame specifically made for this purpose, but you can easily use a sharp knife. I tend to make a either a cross or three parallel lines.

Now gently pick up the bread dough and then drop it gently into the dutch oven.  Alternatively you can let the dough rise on parchment paper and then just put the paper and the bread right into the dutch oven as it makes it a little easier.  I don’t mind the method without parchment paper so that’s what I usually do.

Put the lid back on and put it in the oven to bake for 40 minutes.

After the 40 minutes take the lid off and bake for another 10 minutes.

Take it out of the oven, and let it cool for a good hour.

no knead artisan bread

Try to not eat the whole loaf at once.

And that’s all there is to it!  How simple is that, right?  So easy!  Make it and then come back and leave me a comment telling me how it turned out. 🙂  I’d love to hear about it.

bread with butter on it

 

artisan bread

No Knead Artisan Bread

Easy bread recipe that anyone can make!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Resting Time 8 hours
Course Side Dish
Servings 8 people

Ingredients
  

  • 5 1/2 cups White flour
  • 1 tsp Yeast
  • 2 3/4 cups Warm water
  • 1 1/2 tsp Salt

Instructions
 

  • In a bowl mix together the flour, yeast, salt, and water.  Make sure the water is WARM – not too hot and not too cold.
  • Stir it together really well.  It will look like a shaggy mess – not like a smooth, ball of bread.
  • Put a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl and let it sit for 8-24 hours, or overnight.
  • When you have let it sit long enough, whether that’s all day or overnight, scoop the dough out onto a floured surface.  Form it into a nice ball and let it sit for 45 minutes.
  • Now gently pick up the bread dough and then drop it gently into the dutch oven.  Put the lid back on and put it in the oven to bake for 40 minutes.
  • After the 40 minutes take the lid off and bake for another 10 minutes.
  • Take it out of the oven, and let it cool for a good hour.
Keyword baking, bread

 

 

 

14 thoughts on “No Knead Artisan Bread”

  1. I feel your pain. I could not eat bread for about 20 years. Now I cannot get enough of it! I will choose bread over any other food if I can! My husband does all the bread baking in a Zojirushi machine but we get tired of the same old bread so I am going to give this a try soon. Thanks for the recipe!

    1. I would be so sad if I had to make it 20 years without bread. 🙁 almost 3 months has been hard enough. We don’t use a bread machine here because I found the loaves were too small for our whole family. If it was just my husband and I it would make sense but my kids eat A LOT! 🙂 I hope you like the recipe. 🙂

    1. Definitely with white or whole wheat. I would go out on a limb and say almond flour probably would NOT work. But you can always try. Let me know how it goes. 🙂

  2. I don’t have a Dutch oven…could I use an oval enamel roaster pan with a lid (the one that’s blue with white speckles)?
    Also, is it typical to have a little moisture form on the plastic wrap?
    (I’m trying the overnight method.)
    Thanks in advance!

    1. It should be fine to use a roaster pan, you may just find the texture of the crust different. And yes, totally typical to have moisture form on the plastic wrap. If you find the dough a little too wet when you form it tomorrow, you can always add a little more flour. I’ve done this before when I found it didn’t shape the way i wanted into a nice round ball as opposed to a flatter loaf of bread. Each kind tastes delicious though. 🙂

    1. I do not. But my dutch oven gets a layer of oil every time I am done with it because it’s cast iron so you can always grease yours if it isn’t cast iron just to be sure.

    2. I don’t but my dutch oven gets a coating of grease after I wash it every time because it’s cast iron. You can always lightly grease yours just to be sure.

  3. Amanda my ceramic/cast iron dutch oven is only good to 400F but I have a Paderno metal one will that work just as well?

    1. I’m not sure the exact size, but it’s quite big. A small dutch oven would work, you’d just have to make a smaller loaf of bread, so try halving the recipe.

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