No Knead Artisan Bread

If you love a good loaf of artisan bread but don’t have the time or desire to stand there kneading bread for 15 minutes, try this recipe. Time and the oven do all the work.

I know it’s is all over the internet, but I still have friends who haven’t heard of it and ask me for the recipe, so this is for them. This is truly the easiest baking you will ever do. I takes about 3 minutes to stir the ingredients together, then you cover it and let it rise overnight, about 12 to 16 hours. No kneading. Then you bake. What is easier than that?

I’ll give you the basic recipe here, but there are so many things you can add to make this even better. I’ve done many delicious versions of this. Here are some to try:

Half whole spelt flour or rye flour

Half Einkorn flour, an ancient wheat low in gluten

Roasted garlic and rosemary

Cheddar cheese and thyme

Sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds ( about 1/2 cup each) I’ve added all in one loaf, delicious!

Sprouted grains like spelt or farro ( soak overnight in water, then drain before adding to the flour mixture)

Romano cheese and olive

Dried cranberries and walnuts or sliced almonds (orange zest is great in this too)

Sprinkled with a flaky sea salt

I don’t really measure the amounts of these, just a good handful will do, more or less, to your taste. One thing though, you need a Dutch oven or large stainless steel pot with lid. Make sure it can withstand the high heat, no wooden handles or knobs.

Basic recipe:

3 cups all purpose flour, organic if possible

1 1/2 tsp good salt

1/2 tsp dry yeast

1 1/2 cups water

Mix all together in a large bowl with wooden spoon until combined. Add any extra ingredients in with this now.

Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 to 16 hours. (I put it in my oven, not turned on). The next day it will look like this, doubled and bubbly.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. When it’s ready, put your Dutch oven in with the lid, and heat for 30 minutes. Don’t need to grease it. While it’s heating, flour your hands and take the dough out of the bowl. Shape into a round loaf, remember, no kneading!

Let it rest, covered with plastic wrap on a floured board for the 30 minutes that the pot is heating.

When the buzzer goes off and 30 minutes is up, remove lid (remember your potholder!) and plop the bread into the hot pot. Put the lid back on and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove lid. (Now is the time to sprinkle generously with sea salt if you like). The bread will have risen quite a bit, bake it for another 15 minutes. This last 15 minutes will give it that nice brown crust. That’s 45 minutes total baking time.

And that is it. Hot, crusty, golden brown homemade artisan bread, from your own oven.

A few tips:

I haven’t tried using all whole grain flour yet, when you substitute for the all purpose flour it doesn’t rise quite as much. I find using 1/2 all purpose works fine.

Be careful of the hot lid! I burned myself after taking the lid off (after the first 30 minutes of baking) and forgot it was hot, really hot! Now I leave my potholder on it to remind me.