Crusty Homemade Artisan Bread is so easy to make with NO KNEADING required. Soft on the inside with an irresistible chewy crust!
A no knead bread recipe without special equipment, stand mixers or dough hooks. YES! If you’ve never made artisan bread before, you will LOVE this easy bread recipe. Bread lovers will appreciate the thick, chewy crust and soft open crumb, similar to Ciabatta and can be taken to the next level smothered with some of our easy garlic butter.
Have warm, homemade bread from scratch on your table in less than 3 hours! Make it sweet by trying our Nutella stuffed French toast, enjoy it savoury in a caprese grilled cheese or simply lather it in some rich, salty butter.
ARTISAN BREAD
It looks too good to be true, I know. Fluffy, crusty homemade bread with no effort? No way. But ever since we first saw this recipe a few years ago, we have been baking bread just about every week. Now you will too! Beginner bakers rejoice: NO KNEAD to feel intimidated!
Nothing beats homemade bread fresh out of the oven, tearing it apart like our cheesy pull apart pizza bread, to the steamy scent of warm, cosy carbs.
Dip crusty bread pieces into a hot bowl of chicken soup or chili for bread soaked in wholesome flavours or turn your freshly baked artisan bread into cheesy garlic bread.
HOW TO PREPARE BREAD AT HOME
All you need is:
FLOUR: Bread flour results in a softer, fluffier bread because of the higher protein content. Regular all purpose or plain flour also works really well, only altering the texture slightly. If you’re substituting with wholewheat flour, use about ¼ cup less flour and add more as you go, if needed.
SUGAR: Yeast feeds on sugar and starch, the perfect pairing for bread dough. The mix releases carbon dioxide gas, causing the bread to rise while baking. The bubbles push the dough up and out, creating a soft and spongy texture.
YEAST: We have tried this recipe over the years with dried, instant and rapid-rise. We found the dried yeast did not need activating before mixing it through the dry ingredients. If hesitant, feel free to activate it first in warm water and oil for a couple of minutes before adding the rest of your ingredients.
WHAT MAKES ARTISAN BREAD SOFT AND PILLOWY?
OIL is what makes our bread even softer. You need this sneaky little addition to create a silky, soft crumb.
WARM WATER: Not too hot or it will kill your yeast. 130°F or 55°C is the perfect temperature. You can also do the finger test: if you dip your finger in the water and it’s nice and warm, it’s perfect. If it burns, let it cool down until warm.
Mix all of your ingredients together until you get a wet, sloppy mess.
RISE BABY!
Cover with plastic wrap and place in a draft-free warm place for about two hours. The dough will double in size; the surface will become dotted with bubbles. The texture will look like jelly and will feel super sticky. Keep going, you’re on the right track!
PREHEAT YOUR OVEN AT THIS POINT! You want to place your dutch oven in so it gets nice and hot!
SCRAPE OUT AND FOLD INWARDS
Lightly flour your work surface and spatula with up to 1 tablespoon of flour. Scrape dough out of your bowl and onto your work surface, sprinkle with a little flour and fold inwards over itself about 5-6 times.
Don’t use too much flour! You still want it quite sticky for moist, fluffy bread.
SHAPE DOUGH
Transfer dough onto a large piece of parchment paper and shape it into a rustic round shape with your spatula. You’re mainly doing this to get some of the air out of it!
Carefully remove your hot pot using oven mitts. Then, grab the ends of your parchment paper to lift the dough into your pot.
BAKE
Don’t forget to put the lid back on. This creates steam to bake your bread in before the crust sets in. To get that golden, crunchy crust, remove the lid and bake for a further 12-15 minutes.
You won’t believe how good it looks when it comes out of the oven. Cracks and all!
Let it cool before cutting into it to let the centre of the bread finish cooking. Slather with butter and prepare to have your mind blown! If you love bread, this no knead dough recipe is truly life changing!
You can then lather your beautiful bread in creamy butter or use it to put together a steak fajita grilled cheese, caprese garlic bread or some shrimp avocado garlic bread for lunch!
FAQ’s
If you plan to eat the bread over the next few days, store the loaf in an airtight container and leave it out. If you don’t plan to consume the bread over the next few days, slice it up, pop it in an airtight container and store in the freezer.
When you are letting the dough rest before baking, leave it covered in the dutch oven pot for longer, which should help the bread to form air bubbles.
Unfortunately, you shouldn’t freeze the dough as it could kill the yeast.
MORE BREAD RECIPES
Easy Soft Dinner Rolls (NO MIXER + EGG FREE)
Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread
Soft Cinnamon Rolls
Hot Cross Buns
No Knead Artisan Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour or plain/all purpose
- 1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried yeast instant or rapid rise
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil, mixing to incorporate all of the ingredients together. Dough will be wet, sticky and shaggy.
- Lightly spray the top with cooking oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and place a dry tea towel over the top.
- Leave in a warm, draft-free place for 2-3 hours, until doubled in size. Dough will have a lot of little holes or bubbles and be wobbly like jelly.
- Place a large (10-inch or 26cm) dutch oven or heavy based pot in the oven with a lid. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C) 30 minutes before baking.
- Lightly flour work surface and plastic spatula with up to 1 tablespoon flour. Scrape dough out of bowl onto work surface with spatula. Sprinkle the top of dough with a large pinch of flour and fold it over on itself with the spatula (about 5-6 folds). Roughly form a round shape.
- Measure out a large piece of parchment paper, large enough to transfer the dough into the pot. Place paper next to the dough and roll dough onto the paper, smooth side up. Carefully move it to the centre of the paper and reshape if needed, or shake pan a couple of times to evenly distribute dough. (It will even out while baking.)
- Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest while oven is preheating.
- Use oven mitts to carefully remove hot dutch oven from oven. Grab the parchment paper from each end to pick up the dough and transfer it into the pot.
- Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully golden browned.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
Beth says
This is my go to artisan bread recipe. It’s delicious and wonderful and so easy to make. How do you store your bread. My husband usually eats ours within two days but I would like to make some to give to family and I know they will ask me. Thanks
Dan McNally says
I’ve made this bread a few times, now – at seventy-six my hands don’t knead, well, without lots of pain. This bread is amazing, and it is what I will always make, from now on. It is super easy, and the end results are great. Thanks for such a good recipe.
beginner baker says
i NEVER comment on reciped and ive been baking for a very long time. this is my first ever artisan loaf of bread and ive impressed everyone in my family, my friends… its so good with everything ive tried it with. jam, cheese, LAYS CHIPS… it might be the most delicious thing ive ever made. this recipe seems intimidating at first if youve never made an artisan loaf (like me), but it is SO easy. SO SO EASY AND WORTH IT!!!
if youre reading this and wondering if u should try it, literally do it. theres no going back after. i didnt have a dutch oven, so i did it in a cast iron and did a pan of water for steam. be very careful of letting steam out if you choose to follow my way.