Seriously, this crusty, rustic, no knead bread is THE easiest bread I think you can make. I used to be terrified of making bread, it always goes back to this one time a couple of years ago that I tried to make an Italian loaf and it turned out like a skinny rubber snake. An experience like that can scar you into just buying bread because store bought loafs won’t give you nightmares.
I came across this no knead bread recipe on Pinterest here, and she found it on a couple of other sites, but as far as I can figure out it originated from Le Creuset. Makes sense seeing as it bakes in a Dutch oven.
No Knead Bread Origin Update:
Hayley messaged me with the actual originator of this recipe. It’s Jim Lahey and his recipe was featured in The New York Time’s Minimalist column here. It’s definitely worth a read because there are some tips and tricks for working with the loaf that I hadn’t seen on the Pinterest versions. Great find Hayley, so thank you! And thank you to Jim Lahey, my husband is now your biggest fan!
Now Back The The No Knead Bread Recipe Making!
I was a little nervous as first. It seemed too simple, you know? But the pictures looked amazing and seeing as it was only going to use up 5 minutes of my time, I figured I’d be an idiot not to try.
Yes. You read that correctly.
This will only take 5 minutes of hands on time to make.
And there’s no kneading.
Seriously, it’s like magic or something.
Throw your flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. I really like glass bowls for rising dough, easier to gauge what’s going on.
Whisk it up.
Add the water (use room temperature water, you’re aiming for warm, but not hot).
Mix it up with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise. Now, directions say to let it rise for 12 to 18 hours. That doesn’t work for me who wants to prep it in the morning and eat it with dinner. I put this in the oven, with the oven light on. It works perfectly and rises in about 6 hours. Then just take it out and let it finish on the counter until you’re ready to bake it.
Beautifully risen dough.
This is the moment I started believing it was actually going to turn out.
Throw a bunch of flour down on your counter, put the dough on it, then put more flour on top of the dough.
Quickly shape it into a ball. This takes 1 minute. That’s it. At this stage, if you wanted too, you could mix some stuff in. Looking for ideas: rosemary, grated cheese (I’d go with an old cheddar), some roasted garlic, a combination of them, or anything else you can think of.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes. While this is resting put your Dutch oven, lid and all, into the pre-heated oven for the 30 minutes.
Put the ball of dough into the pre-heated Dutch oven, put the lid on it, and put it in the oven. I sprinkled some sea salt on top first. I suggest you do the same. Side note: this is one of the worst pictures I’ve taking in a long time, so sorry for the blur. I had a dog playing between my legs and was cooking dinner at the time too so no chance for a re-take.
After 30 minutes take off the lid; this is what the bread will look like at this point. Continue cooking for 15 more minutes. I’m new to the bread game, so I worry about the inside being done. There are two ways to gage this: first, when you knock on the loaf it should sound hollow. While a nice fact, I don’t trust myself to accurately gage “hollow”. I stick an instant read thermometer into the side of the loaf, if it registers 190ºF – 200ºF we’re good to go.
And this, my dears, is what I ended up with. I was just as amazed as you are. This is like, the perfect loaf of rustic artisan bread, only it’s a no knead bread. I didn’t know before this moment that could be possible! It was great too, a nice chewy interior and a super crisp exterior. Bo was in absolute heaven and his only comment: I wouldn’t be upset if you made this every night. On that note, I’ve got one rising in the oven for tonight as I type.
Want More Delicious Bread Recipes?
This Cheesecake Factory Bread copycat recipe is the most popular recipe on my blog, and one of the ones I’m most proud of! It’s definitely a couple notches up from this no knead bread, but you won’t regret giving it a shot (I mean, if you’ve eaten at the Cheesecake Factory before you understand that the bread is the best part of the meal!).
Here’s the printable:
[mpprecipe-recipe:107]
Samantha
I am glad that you tried it…I was nervous at first too!!!
It makes sense that it would have originated from Le Creuset…I tried to find the original in my search but I guess I didn’t dig long enough!! 🙂
I have been making this bread and bringing it to friends and they seriously think I am some expert baker until I explain how easy it is!!! 🙂
Katrina
Hey Samantha, it is fabulous! My husband is such a fan of it, and a true bread lover, so that’s saying something. I’ll be making a bunch for Easter this weekend and bringing them too, I can’t get over how easy it is, and how delicious. Thank you for the introduction to the recipe.
PS – love your site!
Samantha
THANKS!! 🙂
Hayley
This is Jim Lahey’s no knead bread first featured in the nyt’s minimalist column & went viral..? Yours looks beautiful 🙂
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?pagewanted=all
Katrina
Hey Hayley, Thanks for the link! I did a bit of searching after I saw it popping up all over Pinterest, but it just kept turning up Le Creuset. I love seeing the workings behind the bread, and it’s nice to find the rightful author too, I’ll add it to the actual post. There are some great tips in the article for a second rise, and adding more yeast if you don’t have a lot of time (and don’t use my oven with the light on cheat). Thanks again!
Karla
What can I use if I don’t have a dutch oven or am I out of luck?
Katrina
Hey Karla,
Try it in a lidded casserole dish, like corningware, as long as it’s ok in 450 degrees F. If you had a large pyrex dish with a lid you could use it as well. If you don’t have a large dish, just split it up into 2 smaller loafs. Next time I make it I’ll double the dough and try some out of the pot, just on a stone or baking sheet and see what happens. I think the only issue without having a lid would be the crust, it might not develop as well and get as crispy, but that’s just a guess. I’ll have to get back to you 🙂
Samantha
I use the insert to a crock pot!!
Katrina
Great idea! If you have any stoneware or clay baking pots like that it’ll work Karla!
Karla
Thanks guys!
Gaille
you need a tightly covered pot to keep the steam in – it’s the steam that helps raise up and toughen up the crust.
Anonymous
You can also bake it without the lid if you put a pan on the lower rack filled with ice cubes.
Ogechi
Dear Katrina, thanks a bunch for the recipe shared. I love to make home made bread but kneading puts me off. So, this no-knead technique is great. However, there’s much inconsistent power supply in my area such that we do our baking in charcoal oven. Please, what’s an alternative to ‘letting dough rise in the oven with light on for 6-8hrs’?
Anonymous
I’m in Florida so my garage is so warm, I let my bread rise in there. The oven light just gives a little more heat then room temp to help it rise (my oven light is almost too much warmth). You can use any warm space in your house.
Firinci
Made it today. Followed the recipe exactly, let it rise 6 hours in the oven. Turned out perfectly!
Katrina
Glad to hear you liked it! I tell you, learning about that oven rise was a life changer for me!
Ashley C
Just tried this recipe last night, baked it today and had my first slice. Have you made it with whole wheat before? I ask, because that is just what I happen to have in the cupboard and used and it didn’t turn out as spectacular as yours sounds or I’d hoped. It was also my dutch oven’s maiden voyage (as well as my first time using a dutch oven). Its got a lovely crust but the inside seems more dense than fluffy and despite using “whole wheat white” (a lighter, softer strain of wheat that is mean to be more similar to all purpose without any refining) came out kind of brown inside. I am thinking if I make it again but this time with the all purpose, that it will turn out beautiful, but was really hoping to keep up with the whole wheat in our diet. I just graciously buttered a slice and its tasting much better, but on its own it was a bit reminiscent of a pretzel that got smokey LOL this could also be my fault bc I’d just seasoned the dutch oven before heating it for the dough and had to let it clear of smoke before using X_X doh!
I will try again, and report back!
Katrina
Hey Ashley, I haven’t tried it with whole wheat flour… I know that a lot of people online have found the recipe from a ton of different sources, so I’ll take a look and see if I can find anyone that’s gotten the whole wheat flour to work. I wouldn’t worry about the dutch oven though, or that it was your first time (think is starting to sound so dirty), I haven’t been able to screw anything up in a dutch oven, and the site it called kitchen trials for a reason.
I don’t necessarily see it tasting similar to a pretzel as a negative either, though I get that when you want bread, you don’t want it tasting like a pretzel. Ok, I’ve really got to get a blog post up, but straight after that I’ll try and hunt down a solution for you!
Katrina
Ok, here are a couple of people who have found success using whole wheat flour for their no knead bread. Good luck!
http://www.myhealthyeatinghabits.com/2012/03/21/my-favorite-no-knead-whole-wheat-bread/
http://www.pbs.org/parents/kitchenexplorers/2011/04/16/healthy-bread-in-five-minutes/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/devouringseattle/2008/12/11/no-knead-whole-wheat-bread/
Herman
I baked a loaf of this bread today following your instructions very carefully–except for using bread flour and instant yeast. The interior was good, but the crust was very hard. What do you think I did wrong?
Katrina
Hey Herman,
A couple questions for you. First off, what kind of pot did you bake it in? Next up, was the yeast you used still the granulated kind, or did you use fresh (usually in a block). I’ve made the bread with instant yeast (granulated), and with bread flour before without having a terribly hard crust. The bread usually comes out with a hard, crusty shell, but not what I would think of as very hard, and certainly not inedible. We’ll figure this out, promise!
Herman
Katrina, thank you for responding!
On the bottom, I used a Lodge cast iron deep skillet, and covered it with another cast iron skillet.
The two skillets are the same size at the top and seem to seal tightly.
I used Fleischmann’s packaged RapidRise Highly Active Yeast. (Says instant yeast on the back of the package).
My crust was inedible.
Katrina
Ok, I’ve started to do a little digging around (as much as I could before the kids got up, lol). I found a bunch of advice on a few different sites. The two most popular suggastions were to:
1 – no preheat your pan for as long, because it’s that first blast of heat that starts setting the crust. So try pre-heating the empty pan for only 10 minutes.
2 – turn the oven temperature down a bit, to say 400 or 425.
3 – mist a bit of water on the top of your loaf just before putting it in the oven.
I would maybe start with trying the shorter pot pre-heat and the misting with water, but keeping the temperature at 450, then if it’s still a little too hard, try turning down the heat too.
Here are a two of the sites I found that just seem to be a great general help to the baking of all breads.
http://www.breadtopia.com/cooks-illustrated-almost-no-knead/
http://www.thefreshloaf.com
Let me know how the next one turns out, to see if we need to keep tweaking this!
AJ
Hi! Can I use a 3.5 quart braiser with this recipe? This is what I have. Thanks! 🙂
Katrina
Hey AJ,
I had to google to see a picture for the size = I’m a horrible food blogger. I was a little nervous about how shallow the pan is, but you’ll never know unless you give it a shot! My suggestion would be to shape the dough more into a disk, then a ball. I think you’ve got about 5-6″ in depth in that pan right? So maybe make the disk about 3″ high, still a bit rounded in the center. Just form it quickly like I do for the ball, don’t worry if it’s not perfect. I’d check it a bit sooner too, thinking that being thinner it should back faster. I would start with baking it covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes and check the temperature with an instant read thermometer if you have one (you want 190℉)
Let me know how it turns out!
Marlane
This is really a great bread. I’ve made it over and over and tweaked out some process adjustments …
But still I have the following challenge – the bread is cooking way faster than the time(s) given.
I am using a new enameled cast iron dutch oven. I bought it specifically for bread.
It is was not expensive – and seems to work very well. (almost too well)
I am baking in a fairly new convection oven in Europe and converting the temperature to Celsius.
So 450F is aprox 230C
I usually preheat for the 30 minutes (I am thinking this should be shorter for my circumstances)
I bake with lid on for aprox 20 minutes and then lid off for about 10-15 at max
the thermometer reading shoots up to 190+ very very quickly.
So do I lower the over temperature, pre heat time and cooking???
I am very new to baking and just moved to Sweden – so I have little experience to call upon.
Thanks for any suggestions.
ps – the crust can be a little hard (I read this in prior posts) but not inedible… I will try a spritz of water as mentioned….
and – it has stuck a few times on me….
Anonymous
I’ve been making sour dough bread and in a blog I read from a baker, she puts her bread in a cold oven and keeps the lid on the entire time, rather than warming the pot before hand and doing it covered, then uncovered. I’ve tried that and it works great. If you do that and it isn’t brown enough for you, you could then take the lid off and bake a few minutes longer to brown it.
Haus
Trying this for the first time. I couldn’t get the results you did when mixing the ingredients together. Mine was a powdery mess. I added 1/2 cup of water but it still seemed gritty and dry. It is in the oven now attempting to rise. I will let you know how it turns out.
Haus
Ok, so far so good. It looks like it rised ok. Going into the oven shortly.
Haus
This recipe turned out awesome! Thanks.
Katrina
Good! I’m glad to see that it ended up ok for you, I was worried when I saw the first comment this morning 🙂
Chris
It is soooo good. My doctor is not going to be happy, lol!
Katrina
Lol! I hear you! I haven’t made it in about a month now… but I probably will tomorrow now.
Amanda
Hi!
I just made my first loaf following this recipe to the letter. However, I found it to be quite dense for my taste. I let it rise about 16 hours in a cold oven (no light or anything). So I don’t believe that was the problem. If I added a touch more yeast would this help? If so, how much do you suggest?
Thanks!
Katrina
Hey Amanda,
I’m honestly not sure if adding more yeast would help you get a fluffy crumb, this is a pretty dense and heavy loaf when it’s finished. I’m still somewhat new to the whole bread baking thing, and I haven’t been able to get a soft loaf (like Italian) just the way I like it yet, so I haven’t posted anything. If you like soft and fluffy bread though, this roll recipe is incredible. Just leave the brushed topping off for traditional, non-sweet dinner rolls.
SM
Hi Katrina
I am very new at bread baking. Would you please clarify couple of things. Does recipe uses instant yeast or active dry yeast. I think there is difference in rising time if one used over other. If substituted what will be the amount and will it compromise the results?
Will love t try it. This is what exactly I was looking for.
Thank you
Katrina
Hi SM, Sorry I didn’t see this sooner, it’s been a hectic week!
Ok, so, the recipe uses instant yeast, but if you’ve only got active dry yeast than go ahead and use that. A couple of points though.
1. Add the yeast to a couple of tablespoons of the warm water and let bloom for 10 or 15 minutes before adding to the flour for mixing. Also, add a little bit more yeast if using active dry than called for, I would just use a heaping measuring spoon.
2. The rise time is where I’m not positive. If you’re doing the over night, 18 to 24 hour rise then you shouldn’t have any issues. If you’re doing the quick rise in the oven with the light on, it’ll probably take a bit longer. Just watch it the first time to see how long it takes. You want the dough to double in size, and be somewhat wet and very bubbly looking.
Good luck! I hope you enjoy it. I love sprinkling on a bit of flour and kosher salt just before it goes in the oven to bake, it gives the crust a great kick of flavour.
Haus
It’s been almost 2 years since I found this recipe… I still make it almost every Sunday for dinner. Everyone who asks me about it… I send them here. LOVE IT!
Tessa
Has anyone tried this with rye flour? I’d love to hear your input on the matter! Would it be the same exact process, but just with rye flour or is rye flour different in some way? What about with a sour dough? Mmm the possibilities.
Natalie
Followed recipe almost to the T and it came out perfectly! I thought the transfer from the counter to the dutch oven would cause it to deflate. Thought it would be one of those flat ugly loaves I’m so used to making! Not at all! Thank you!
Val
I made the bread 6 times now, it’s much better than any other recipes I used before. one problem – the crust comes out perfect, but the inside is a bit too moist. I tried to put in a bit more flour, a bit less flour, increased time of keeping it on table before putting to the oven to 1 hour, kept it longer than 30 min and 15 min in t he oven – nothing helps. any suggestions?
Rhonda
I have found that checking the internal temperature of the bread has improved my results with bread baking. When you think it looks done, put a meat thermometer in the center of the bread. I aim for 190-195 degrees F. I have not perfected this recipe with whole wheat flour, but with white flour it is wonderful. Also, allowing the bread to cool before cutting is an important but difficult discipline to improve the end result.
Katrina
Couldn’t agree more Rhonda (especially with waiting to cut into it!)
Stephanie
I made this bread today, I was very unsure about the whole concept. When I turned it out of my Dutch oven it seemed hard and dense. I left it to cool then picked it up… It was light, soft and crispy! I couldn’t wait to cut into it I waited a few more minutes and grabed my two kids, I cut in and it was a glorious sound. Smeard a little butter and cut the first peice into three, we all lot out a little “mmmmmmm!”
Hands down the best bread I have ever made, dare I day ever eaten?! I did cook it at a lower temp and dusted with sea salt and aittle must of water before baking it. Thank you got an amazing recipe, I will make this every day off!
Sonia galea
Just tried this absolutely fabulous…definitely my favourite bread recipe thsnks
Katrina
Thanks Sonia 🙂 I LOVE hearing back from people!
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Willa
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は私がFYIグーグルリーダーを使用しています、私はあなたのフィードを購読カント少し問題を抱えています。
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Search Engine optimization is very much a reality in the world of online business today.
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Keepcalmandmozarton
Best. Freaking. Bread. Ever.
Katrina
Love this!
Renan
My bread didn’t grow. What may have happened? Maybe my flour wasnt good enough?
Katrina
Hi Renan,
Where did you put it to rise? Was it on the counter? Or did you put it in the oven with the light on? And how long did you leave it for?
Renan
I left it on the counter for about 20 hours and it grow just a little. I tried to warm a bit, but it wasnt even close to yours. It was really moist and sticky. I’ll try with another flour and later i tell you how it was. Thanks!
Tee
I just made the dough and it never really formed into a ball. It is very sticky and goopy. I tried adding a little more flour and that didn’t help much. Any idea why?? I’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Wilma Jenkins
Was disappointed I couldn’t just print your recipes and would have to download a ‘my way’ page to do so. I expected to just click on ‘printable page’ and have the recipe come right up. I don’t want to download another home page.
Katrina
Wilma – It is absolutely supposed to just open up a printable recipe for you. I’m looking into this right now to find out what’s going on.
update – It’s printing ok for me Wilma. My guess is that you clicked the button beside “print recipe” which opened up a different web page. To switch the recipe card template tonight to stop this from happening again.