A recipe so easy, a 4-year old can make it! My son will show you how, step by step.
It’s been almost a year since NY Times unveiled the secret to the revolutionary No-Knead Bread. And while fads come and go, this certainly is a recipe that has transcended the fickleness of foodies. It’s time to revisit the bread…. as many of us have been brainwashed by this summer’s ice cream! We’ve made close to 60 loaves since last November and I’ve got to tell you, it is still one of our family’s favorite things to eat.
I firmly believe that every person should bake a loaf of bread at least once in their lifetime. Granted, it’s easy to just drive to your local bakery to pick up a loaf, but have you ever experienced the intense joy of smelling freshly baked bread coming from your very own oven?! Foodgasmic, eyes-roll-to-back-of-head, soul softly moaning as you tug a piece of warm, pillowy mound gently with your teeth. In case you’ve not heard of No Knead Bread….let me tell you about it. Baking bread does sound intimidating…all that kneading and loaf-shaping business is best left to pros. But what if I told you that you don’t even have to knead or shape, that it is so easy my little son makes it.
No Knead Bread recipe so insanely brilliant – no sticky fingers, no doughy mess, no intricate measuring, no complicated kneading. Totally hands-off. The crust is thin, crisp and snaps as you cut into the loaf. The interior of the bread holey, chewy, airy and light. If bread could sing, this would be an angelic choir. In Dolby digital surround sound. Now, with that, how could you not try No Knead Bread? It only takes 3 minutes to mix and a wooden spoon. You can’t even boil spaghetti in 3 minutes!
So, without further blabbering, I’ve pimped out my son to demonstrate that baking No Knead Bread is so simple a 4-year old can do it.
Of course I had to bribe him with 2 temporary tattoos. Cheap labor. 10 cents apiece. There is nothing that says, “I’m a kick-ass no knead bread baker” more than a tattoo of a killer whale. Move over Bourdain, here comes someone cuter…
So, let’s start. 3 cups of bread flour in a big bowl.
secret: I sometimes use 1/2c whole wheat flour + 2 1/2c bread flour
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast:
1 teaspoon of table salt
(secret: I use 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt. Why the difference?)
Add 1-1/2 cups of lukewarm water. Sorry no pic – he dumped water before I could pick up camera. But you know what “dumping water” looks like! Stir. Use those muscles, boy. Stir like a badass-baker with whale tattoos would stir!
See? This is what it is supposed to look like…a shaggy, goopy mess.
Wrap up the no knead bread dough
Give it a kiss good night and let the no knead bread dough sleep for 12-20 hours on counter or in a nice, warm, cozy place.
secret: I’ve let it sit for as little as 8 hours and it still tastes great! I did knead with wet hands just a little tiny bit to make up for the time OR you can add a touch more yeast.
After sleeping, the no knead bread dough should look like this: (better than what I look like in the morning.)
Dump out on floured surface:
Wet your hands. This will prevent the very sticky dough from sticking to your hands. If you find dough sticking to your hands, wet again. Why not flour your hands? You could, but you want to keep the flour: water ratio pretty even. Since we are adding flour to the surface, I balance it out by wetting my hands. It is the high water content that makes this bread so deliciously light and the crust very crisp. With wet hands, grab the dough and fold over all ends towards the middle. Turn dough blob over so that you get a nice, smooth, tight surface. Try to tuck the dough ends under to get that taut surface.
Gently move dough onto a piece of parchment paper (I used a floured towel, but it can stick to the towel easily, so I recommend parchment.) Cover. Let nap for 2 hours. It should puff up nicely and double in size.
secret: When I run out of time, I sometimes let it sit only for 1 hour! If you let it nap in a tall, narrow bowl (pictured below), the dough rises nice and tall, about 6″ high. If you leave it out on the counter – that is fine too, the dough will rise up and also out….making a flatter No Knead Bread loaf, about 3″-4″ high.They will both taste the same, just looks a little different.
A half hour before the nap ends, we will need to begin preheating your baking vessel. Slip a covered pot into the oven. Crank up the heat to 450F. Let it pre-heat for 30 minutes or longer.
The perfect pot for No Knead Bread
Let’s talk about the pot. So, you know you’re going to put the pot into a very very hot oven. Make sure that the pot can withstand 450F. Generally, if the pot is cheap, flimsy, has plastic handles and a remnant from your poor college days, it’s probably not going to be safe to use in that hot of an oven. Use a 5-qt or larger cast iron, ceramic, Pyrex, stainless steel or enamel pot.
Just check your pot collection – look for large, heavy, no plastic.
Round, oblong – doesn’t matter. Should be at least 4″ tall. I use my Le Creuset emameled cast-iron. Yes, my cover has a thick plastic knob – but I did call Le Creuset’s customer service and they said while their literature says safe to 400F, it is still fine at 450F. Now, I don’t know whether the gal who talked with me really had the authority to tell me such a thing….but after over 30 loaves, my pot is still unblemished. After pre-heating, remove the hot pot from oven.
Time to bake No Knead Bread
If you’re using parchment, just lift the entire parchment with dough and place into the pot with the parchment paper on bottom.
If you’re using a floured towel, place a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of your pot. This prevents the dough from sticking to the pot. Lift the towel, turn it over and just plop this wobbly dough into the hot pot. Doesn’t matter how it lands – actually, the messier it lands, the more “rustic” it looks. Shake pot a bit to even out the dough.
“It looks like a belly button!“ ~Andrew
Cover and put back into the oven. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Photo below is peeking through oven door after 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake further for 15-20 minutes. To check – you can either tap the bread (should sound low, hollow, like a drum) or take its temperature (should be 210F in middle).
Here is No Knead Bread just after baking. See? I told you that “messy” turns out “rustic!” Kids- don’t you DARE tell me that your toy room looks “rustic!!!” GO CLEAN YOUR ROOM!
Remove and let cool. The No Knead Bread really does sing – the crust crackles as it cools. Listen to it!
secret: Because the bread has such high water content- the crust will not stay crisp forever. If you aren’t eating soon, you can re-crisp the crust by re-heating it in a 350F oven for 10 minutes.
Thats it! You will be rewarded with a thin, crunchy brown crust, large, open holes. The bread is slightly chewy, flavorful and perfect texture. Making your own bread is deeply soul satisfying, it makes me feel like I am so close to the earth. Eat with good butter – like Kerrygold or Lurpak – splurge on your butter for this loaf!
Just a little story for you: The first time Andrew and I made this bread together, I let him mix all the ingredients together the night before. We watched it bake together. When it came out of the oven, Andrew wanted to cut into it immediately. But we had to wait until it cooled. Then it was time. As I placed the tip of my knife into the bread and moved down through the crust, the snap and crunch of the crust gave way to tender, spongy body. I knew even without tasting it, that it was the most perfect loaf of bread that I have ever made. Andrew and I slathered butter on our slices. We sat on the kitchen floor, my hands still with traces of flour, and had a wonderful moment of just enjoying bread that we made together. Just like his Po-Po, Andrew loves bread. Each time, he would come ask, More bread please with arms outstretched. I would place a warm buttered slice in his small hands – he cradled it so gently, carefully ran to the stairs, never taking his eyes off the prize. He sat on the third step and ate his bread, wiggling his toes between bites. Three times he did this. Yes, this is my son. Perhaps one day when he is older, he will read this recipe and story and remember how his Mommy taught him how to eat homemade bread – with lots of butter and with eyes closed, totally savoring every single bite.
Recommended Equipment for No Knead Bread
See the kids make German Oven Pancakes 
Also try: 
Dip bread in Olive Oil and Dukkah
Dip in Bagna Cauda
Sop up juices in Killer Cajun Shrimp
No Knead Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour (I like Harvest King bread flour)
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon fine table salt (or 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel...something that can go into a 450F oven.)
Instructions
- Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop.
- Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Place a large sheet of parchment paper on counter. Plop your dough onto parchment paper. Lift parchment paper up with dough and place into a large bowl. Cover bowl with a towel. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you've got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F.
- Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven. Grab the ends of the parchment paper and lift entire wobbly dough blob out of bowl into pot. Doesn't matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F. Remove and let cool on wired rack. If not eating right away, you can re-crisp crust in 350F oven for 10 minutes. Best way to eat it? Smear a warm slice with some good butter (Kerrygold and Lurpac are both found in your grocery stores, usually on top shelf)
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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Very nice good work thanks for sharing information
February 1984. My now husband takes me home to meet his parents for dinner at their home. I asked if I could bring something, and I was instructed to bring dessert. I am 22 years old. I found a pretty cinnamon roll wreath in a magazine. Followed the directions. We go to cut it for dessert, and it was hard as a rock. Over the years, I have tried several more times to make what everyone says is a foolproof bread recipe and they never turn out. My two girlfriends visited last month, and one gave me this link. She made it and I watched. It was great. The next night I made a loaf all by myself and it was AWESOME! I have used this recipe 3 more times and they all turned out just as great as the first one. Tonight, I made the recipe but in the last stage where you pat out the dough and then fold it, I added some drained, sliced kalamata olives (I also wrapped them in paper towel to get as much liquid out) and 2 bulbs of roasted garlic pieces and then let it rise the last 2 hrs. The bread tasted great but even though the olives and garlic were folded in they all ended up at the bottom of the loaf and not spread out evenly. I’m wondering if I can mix them into the dough at the beginning.
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Outstanding recipe!! I’m not that good at baking but let me tell you something this bread tasted amazing!! My family asks for it all the time and now i can say i make one of the best No-Knead Bread in town!! Thank you so much for this post.
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Thank you.
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Been lurking and sending your site to all my friends!!! You are the next Paula Deen, I am predicting. I hope that Gordon Elliott is checking out this site. He discovered Paula. That demo of the No Knead Bread with your 4 year old is simply the best. Love it and plan to make it!!!
Remember the No-Knead Bread… Filed under: Grains , Recipes , Baking , Newspapers , On the Blogs , Rea
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So if a 4 year old can do this, you’re saying I can? Oh the pressure. I have to actually bake a loaf of bread for once in my life? Deep breath…bookmarking…maybe next month…I can I can I can.
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Wow Superr!! looks absolutely amazing.. beautiful pictures too.. thanks for sharing..
Literally an amazing information is shared here and really useful for the people like me who work day and night to themselves eat and not get leisure time to do these stuff at home.
Amazing! what a great recipe to share soon I will try it home and will share the experience.
very easy and cook recipe. I will definitely try it at home even my son can also make it so easy thanks for sharing
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This sounds amazing!! I was actually sent this link by 2 different friends when I mentioned I have had no luck baking bread. Bread has always been my nemesis which is extra embarrassing because I’m actually a personal chef for a family. I’ve mastered all my pastry skills but yeast bread continues to haunt me… I was wanting to add dried figs, gorgonzola and walnuts and was wondering when you thought that was best to do so. Congratulations on creating something that is clearly wonderful and has made so many people happy!! This is exactly what we need at this time.
Thanks for sharing.looks nice recipee.
good recipe like it…. thanks for sharing
You had me at Popo!
I’m totally not a cook (typical old man who has spent his life buying bread products) but I’ve made bread and buns repeatedly because of the covid crisis. My son loves the dense objects I’ve been making, but I yearn for the fluffy airy sorts of bread I would normally buy. This was the first recipe that didn’t make dense bread. I have the added problem of having to use whole wheat flour because I have a mass of Wheat berries and can grind it at will, not so of white flour which is a difficult commodity to come by. I used 1 cup of whole wheat as a result and will increase that to even more next time. But this bread was superb, the first bread I’ve made that I would eat to enjoy rather than eat to not lose weight. It also is good enough it doesn’t have to be covered up by jam, peanut butter, or even butter. It tastes good just as a snack all on it’s own.
I can’t figure out why? All the recipes are similar, maybe it’s the 20 hours sitting and additional 2 resting, maybe cooking it at a hot temperature… maybe cooking it covered… I have no clue? I made it in a pyrex baking dish with a lid, put tin foil under the parchment since parchment really hates 450 degrees. If only I could get it to work with all whole wheat and still have it develop enough gluten to rise and be airy, it would be perfect for my situation. But, since it is possible to get white flour again, it’s still pretty darned perfect. Thanks for the recipe. About to start my second loaf today.
You are precisely the first personality to ever motivate me to make bread myself! That seems so doable and great that I will have to go purchase yeast and bread flour. I’ve always hesitated touching flour for any reason so I may have to grit my teeth a bit.
Love this recipe and as you know it’s not easy to find yeast these days 🙁 I have active dry yeast and was wondering how much you would use of that to equal 1/4 tsp instant yeast? I googled it and it says to use active dry yeast instead of instant (bread machine) yeast in a recipe, multiply the amount of yeast by 1.25. So would that be just a little bit more of the active dry yeast? 1/4 tsp of a 1/4 tsp?
Hi! I would just use the same amount. I’ve interchanged active and instant many times in this recipe!
The crumb structure looks tighter that other no-knead breads, I like that, thank you, for sharing, Jaden.
I was wondering if it is possible to leave the dough out for longer than 20 hours (no more than 24) would this stil be ok
I have….it’s fine.
What gift to share with your son. I love that he learned how to make bread which must of made him feel fantastic and you had the joy of doing it together and sharing it together. Those are some of the best memories. Just sharing a moment of satisfaction. Also, so glad your son was able to convince me that maybe I could give it a try too!
My dough was made last night. It rested for 14 hours. When I turned it on a floured surface, it came out so sticky that I wasn’t able to even touch it. It stuck to my wet hands, to the surface and the dough scraper. I finally flipped the blob on a piece of parchment paper and let it rise for 2 more hours. It turned out ok but i’ve watched numerous video on different websites to see how the dough is turned and none of them had such a sticky dough. What did I do wrong?
Love this bread, I used all purpose flour as this is what my Mom used when she bake d bread & buns . I also have always used all purpose flour. Love your recipes.
Thanks so much Patricia! Jaden
I love this recipe and the bread came out perfect! I want to make these into individual rolls..any recommendations on how to go about doing this as far as weight/size per roll, covered uncovered in a cookie sheet and for how long? Thank you so much. Either way I’m going to experiment!
Thank you!! jaden
Thanks for sharing this recipe and for all your tips. Can’t wait to slather it in good New Zealand butter!
Great recipe, and so easy that I want to get at it again! I reviewed in more detail on Yummly!
I made this tonight. First time I ever attempted to bake bread. I missed the fact that it said Bread Flour, so I used white all purpose flour and it came out amazing! Followed all the other directions exactly, including the baking time and after 45 minutes in the oven it was exactly 210 degrees. It even made those crackling noises while cooling. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
That’s great Marian! Thanks so much Jaden
This bread came out great, I’ve been cooking bread for 30 years, this is a really good recipe.
I tried this bread from yesterday (mixture) and did the baking today. Followed your instructions step by step. After the 20 hour period there was no bubbly or water.The dough did not rise properly. After the 30+15 minutes baking the iside was very leathery and did not cook.
Hi Bangar – if the mixture did not bubble, and the dough did not rise, then your yeast was probably bad. Try again, with new yeast! Jaden
Thank you. Will try again with new yeast.
Wow, this recipe is indeed very easy! No wonder a 4-year old kid can do it. Keep this up, I will be anticipating your other recipes as well! Thank you!
So… I just realised that I didn’t use instant yeast. I just used the regular one…. Will it make a difference????? . I mixed the ingredients and left for work and hoped to make bake it after work for super… Now not sure if it will rise lollol.
It should be fine!
You are officially the first person to ever inspire me to make bread myself! That looks so doable and good that I will have to go buy yeast and bread flour. I’ve always hated touching flour for some reason so I may have to grit me teeth a bit. 🙂
I have a 5 quart crock pot that the insert is able to come out. Can I use this and cover with aluminum foil as my cover ?
Yes!
Didn’t work at all for me, and sadly, I think I’m done with no-knead recipes… maybe it’s my kitchen/ambient temperature (runs pretty warm I guess?), maybe it’s my flour (local, organic, amazing, can’t be that), maybe it’s something else, but I’ve been baking bread (inc. sourdough) for years with amazing results, and never ever had success with a no-knead recipe. WHYYYYY??? It’s driving me nuts! Complete waste of ingredients every time. 🙁 I’m at the post-overnight fermentation stage and have total goop on my hands, there’s no way in Hades I could get this mess shaped into anything! It’s like wetting my hands in an effort to shape pancake batter. There’s simply no structure to it at all, and I’ve already added an additional two cups (if not more) of flour just so it’s not plastered in a goopy sheet to my counter. Sighhhhhh…. I would highly recommend anyone trying a no-knead recipe to at least go by a recipe that uses weights rather than cups (though I failed at those too). :(((((((((
Hi there, don’t give up! Try adding 1 cup extra of flour, and do not try to give to it a shape before baking. The result is really yummy.
Strange. It’s the only bread I can make and have been doing so for several years now.
Mine did exactly the same thing. But it came out great!!! From now on, I’ll just turn the dough from one bowl to another, let it rise 1-2 more hours, then scrape it on parchment paper and let it bake.
I was wondering if you cook this seam side up but rise it seam side down. The original recipe has you rise the ball seam side down then flop it over into the pan. Like you I have better success with parchment, bit was wondering about the flipping issue vs just setting the parchment into the pot.
Flipping so that the seam side is “up” when cooking actually has a purpose. The seam allows the steam to escape evenly (thats why you see artisan bread with slashes on top of loaf)
I have made this bread with great success several times and have been asked the recipe a lot too
I want to make 7 loafs this year for gifts. I made 4 of the dough batches today and am hoping to cook tomorrow morning. If it naps more than 2 hours the second time around, will that be okay?
Sommer – yes it should be fine!
Okay, so I haven’t been successful with using bread flour or all purpose flour for rustic bread. I’ve been successful using Bob’s Redmill Artisan flour though. I decided to give this recipe a try and am so glad I did! This is fantastic. Thank you!
Thanks so much Lilian!
That is just about the most precious thing I have ever seen.
Don’t forget that you can make up a bunch of this dough and keep it in the fridge in a sealed bucket or air tight container. I make a triple batch, right in the container and then we add fresh garlic, Parmesan, and herbs. It’s sits overnight on the counter nothing different, but when I’m ready around 9 am, I take out a softball shape to have for lunch. The rest go into the fridge, it’s as simple as that, it can stay for two weeks. After the week and 5 days it lasts in my home I mix up a new batch with whatever little bits are left. The dough is again made into the same container and has a bit deeper flavor, a bit like sourdough. You can clean out the container if you want to in between every new batch, I’ve only ever cleaned the container I use every 3 months I find it keeps very clean and I just quickly scrape everything out into another bowl to wash with soap every three months or just rinse if I can tell it really doesn’t need it. The remaining dough goes back in before I make more. I know some people may just toss the old, but it’s usually a baseball size or less and I’d rather fold it in to the new.
Hi! Does that mean that you make rolls from the recipe? I wanted to try that but thought it might not be a good idea because of the crust being so crispy.
You can certainly make rolls, just shorten the bake time.
Thank you for sharing this !
Thank you so much, both for the recipe and your words. We loved the bread, and my wife actually started crying when I read what her what you wrote about savoring the bread with your precious Andrew. Thank you so much.
I love the taste of this bread!! Thank you for sharing. I have made this loaf 4 times now and run into the same problem every time.
When I initially stir the ingredients together, the dough looks perfect. After letting it sit overnight and I dump it on a well floured surface the dough it very wet with water sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Any suggestions??
My dough turned out the same way…very wet. I live in a really hot and humid climate so I was wondering if it’s because of the humidity and temperature that’s causing the dough to be this way.
Can someone help?
Hi Amanda – you can add more flour to adjust for your climate and flour. After making the dough, have a 1/4 cup of flour nearby. Dust the surface of the dough on all sides, just enough to help you handle the dough. Wet hands will help you shape and prevent sticking. The dough should be sticky and a bit saggy – it’s ok!
Hi Jaden, Thanks for replying. I actually did try adding more flour, but I just couldn’t get the dough to firm up enough into a ball…it just kinda ended up as one gloopy “gel”. After I baked it..it didn’t rise and ended up tasting like british crumpets instead of bread. Ah well, still delicious though. I think I’ll just reduce the water and probably not let it the dough sit for 20 hours the first time around.
Had the same issue, so the next time I reduced the water by 1/4 c. and used Hard White flour from the bulk store. The results were really noticeable. Much easier to manage the dough after rising (18 hrs.) No pouring batter like the first try with all purpose batter.
Cute I might try this with my 9year old shes been wanting to learn how to bake. and thank for the idea of using a regular pan i never thought of that. Were I was wasting money on baking pans.
What does heating the pot first do? My first loaf is in the oven now.. Smells wonderful.
How can i keep the crust. Crispy?
You said to cover the pot while the bread is baking inside. What exactly am I using as a cover? Thanks!
The pot’s lid.
Consider putting dough bowl in a cabinet with under cabinet lighting. I notice our dishes are slightly warm in those areas.
Hi,
Have just made no kneed loaf, crust perfect, inside the loaf very stodgy and felt wet, any help appreciated
Thanks
Have you tried freezing and reheating this bread? How does it work out?
Love it! Can you follow up to the recipe with additional ingredients ideas, techniques? Roasted garlic, olives, cheeses, herbs, etc. Can you just fold them in when initially mixing?
Hi Greg – yes, you can all fun ingredients. Here’s the recipe – for No Knead Baguette, topped with tomatoes, olives or garlic.
Am I better off using bottom heat only or fan oven?
I put cheddar cheese and diced jalapeno in a loaf. It was great!
I was just thinking of doing the same thing!
My family loved the bread. I let my my dough rise for 15 hrs. I did wish I had paid closer attention to the bread after I took the lid off b/c 15 min. was too long and my crust was a bit too hard and dark but the inside was perfect and tasty. I’ll make again soon.
I have tried this recipe twice with ordinary flour and found that it is sticky but does not rise to twice its size so remains like a flatter loaf – I have followed every other step of the process and just saw on your recipe that bread flour is preferred – do you think that ordinary flour made my bread not rise substantially?
I bake in a cake pan, lightly oiled with olive oil, which adds to the taste and crispiness. I bake with it fully uncovered and the secret of the crust is moisture. I place a metal pan in the oven beneath the bread and put in a litre of water. Some use ice, but I have found that if I put the water in when I heat theoven, then by the time the bread goes in it is very steamy. That does the trick. My cat iron pot sits idle since I found out that this works as well.
Hi. Can I use plain flour instead of bread flour?
I highly suggest bread flour!
Hello there,
Just found you by accident for the first time and will definitely try this recipe! What sort of width pot do you use to bake the bread in please?
Are you in Cork, Ireland?
Cheers,
Hilly in Norfolk, England.
Do you have a half white/half whole wheat version?
Sorry I don’t!
I have made her recipe with 2 cups of white and one cup of whole wheat and it was delicious!!!
Hi! So I made this at 9am. I’m trying to figure out if I should start the second step at 7pm or at 7am…. I don’t really want to be baking bread in the middle of the night so it’s either before or after bed time… 🙂 If I waited till the next day the bread would have been sitting for 22 hours… is that too long? (It’s winter and my kitchen is quite cold…)
Your bread will be just fine! You can warm up your bread again when ready to eat – heat oven to 300F, wrap bread in tin foil and warm bread for 10 minutes. Sometimes I’ll do this with half loaf in my toaster oven if we are only planning to eat a few slices.
i made this in a large toaster oven using a rectangular pyrex dish with foil for a cover.
also halved the dough and made two loaves.
still turned out great!
Thank you for sharing !
We had that problem, too. Turns out the oven rack was too low, too close to the bottom of the oven.
I have a similar problem – Crust is too tough and inner core a bit more wet and dense.
How far the rack needs to be from bottom? Or are there any other suggestions?
Hi there – middle of oven is best. Check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer. If the temp is spot on, try lowering the temperature by 10 degrees and use 10% less water than in the recipe.
Can I use another kind of container like a round shape baking pan?
Yes, you can!
your son is infinitisimally more cuter than Bourdain!! i come back to this page every so often such as today after using Breadtopia’s no knead sourdough (just as easy, sub 1/4 c sourdough starter for 1/4 t yeast) recipe cuz their page had so many variables i decided to look you up again! Anyway, always wanted to tell you how much confidence your picture story with your son making this bread gave me to ‘just do it’! i’m sure your son is almost grown up by now! thanks again.
This was super easy to make, however my end product had a seriously hard bottom crust. Any suggestions on why? (This is also my first time making bread)
Is there a way to make this loaf gluten-free?
I always put mine to rise in the oven with just the light on . Takes about 5-6 hours, give or take.
Ah, great idea.
Do you know if a non-stick pot would yield the same results?
Hi Vanessa – I wouldn’t do this in a nonstick pot. The temperature in oven gets too high for nonstick to be safe.
Hi I think the recipe is great! But can I know why the bread has to be baked using a cast iron pot? Can it be bake in a cake pan and cover with the aluminium foil?
Yes, you can! The cast iron or enamaled cast iron retains heat better, so it cooks more evenly. But you can use any pot.
Hello,
On your pictures, I see that you are actually baking the bread in your pot, with no parchment paper. I tried to do the same thing today, but the bread was stuck to my pot 🙁 Any recommendations to avoid this again? I did put flour at the bottom of my pan… Thanks!
Hi Caroline – The bread doesn’t stick to my pot (my pot is very well seasoned) but I recommend in the recipe as well as in the post to use parchment paper!
Dust liberally with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Parchment paper can burn at high temperatures.
does it need to be warm/summer to do this? It’s winter her and about 10degrees most of the day especially at night. Will it still work if I leave overnight?
Yes, it does need to be warm inside the house. Try placing the bowl near a heater – that should do the trick!
Will this work if I divide the dough after mixing and bake in 2 glass covered casserole dishes? Do I need to adjust the temp?
Same temperature, but timing will change. Bake covered for 20 minutes, then uncover and go another 12 minutes. Take temp of bread (it should be around 210F in middle of loaf). You’ll have to adjust timing based on temperature of bread.
Your story at the end of the photo instructions (Andrew savoring his efforts) brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing ; beautiful memories for you both!
Thanks! The recipe and the pics of the chef making this have really inspired me!
Haha, that little dude has some sweet temporary tattoos. Also, if this little guy can make it, I should be able to pull this off without breaking the kitchen. Thanks for the recipe, hello awesome homemade bread!
this is not a recipe for the impatient. From when I made the dough last night until it was baked all I heard was “is it ready yet”. It taste good, and was really easy. It was half gone in a matter of minutes, and they want another.
Just made this for the first time and it’s delicious! My son is 13 months old and I can’t wait for him to get older so we can make this together! 🙂
Will this no knead bread work in high attitude I live in
denver colorado …. do i need to add more flour?thank you
I love this bread recipe! I have been making it for a few years now and it is always a hit. My oven just conked out and I was wondering if you think this could be cooked in the crock pot. Might be a great idea for those hot summer days when you don’t want your oven on. Thanks! 🙂
Made this yesterday, baked this morning. So. Delicious. It’s the perfect bread. Crisp edges and soft chewy center.
i made this bread tester date for the first time. It’s also my first go at no-knead bread. The results are wonderful! I ate a quarter of it last night with butter, and made a sandwich with breakfast sausage this morning. I reheated it in foil at 400 F for about 8 minutes, then opened the foil for another two minutes. It was at least at good as last night. I’ve put a quarter of the loaf in the freezer, wrapped in foil expecting it will do just fine. This will be a go-to recipe, and I will try some of the additions suggested above. Thank you.
How many grams is one cup of flour? and how many ml is one cup of water?
We have been making this recipe for over a year. It’s known in my house as Four Year Old Bread… I wish I could post a picture of my son, who just turned four, and insisted today was the day he could make bread all by himself! 🙂
oh, Betsy, I’d love to see a pic if your son! And, if it was okay, with you, I would be happy to post his photo in the post, too! I love when kids bake! mail@steamykitchen.com is my email address. Tell him we said hi!!
I have made this twice now and am amazed at how easy and delicious it is! The one problem I have is that I put the dough on a floured dishtowel for the last two hour rest period and it seems that no matter how much flour I cover the towel with the dough sticks. I guess this is why it is easier to use parchment?
Yes, parchment is much easier to use!
We absolutely love your bread! I am German, but I live in D.C. with my family and really good bread is probably at the top of our list of things we miss from Germany. Not anymore! 🙂 I baked 12 loaves in the first week alone! I use 2 cups bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour and it comes out tasting just like the bread from our local bakery back home. I can’t wait for my mom to visit this spring so i can impress her with my German-Bread baking skills!
Thank you Gabi! Let me know what your mom thinks after trying your bread! 🙂
Have you tried freezing this bread? I like to bake several batches of bread, muffins, etc. and freeze the surplus for later.
Claire – we’ve never been able to have leftovers to freeze! Fresh bread gets gobbled up so fast, even if I bake an extra loaf.
Hi, first attempt a smashing success! This is not gonna last long, this loaf…Thanks!
Tom – Great!!! I love bread….next time try the “No Knead Stecca” that’s on my site. You’ll love that too.
I didn’t have a Dutch oven so I baked it on my pizza stone and put a metal bowl over it. Problem solved.
Ah – fantastic tip!
It looks so good! My question-I have quick rise yeast, not instant, will that require different timing? I make traditional bread often but I love trying new recipes and this one looks tasty.
Karey – that yeast should be fine!
Excellent! Thank you
Fab recipe 🙂
But now the tears are flowing down my face.
I will teach my to Young girls this and also hope they 2 will be as inspired as your Son.
TY
Hi, bread was great but my parchment paper completely stuck to the bread? Am I completely losing it? I think I would like to try it without the parchment… Do you think that would work?
Clara – Not sure why your bread stuck, but next time try spraying the parchment with a little cooking spray. If you don’t use paper, then the bread will stick to the pot!
Hi I don’t have a pot at all could I use a loaf tin and pointed tin foil for lid and just rub the inside with oil as I don’t have parchment paper either
Hello from Norway! Wonderful recipe, I’ve made it five times now and it’s perfect every time. But it disappears so fast! Have you tried to double it in size? Does it twice as long in oven?
Hi Jorgen! Rather than doubling the size (which would change the baking time, but not twice as long) – I will make 2 batches, back to back.
My first attempt has not been very successful. I followed instructions faithfully except that the “nap” time was 2.5 hrs instead of 2 hrs. Oven is a fan oven set at 280 centigrade.
The resultant loaf has a hard surface, slightly separated with the inside being rather gelatinous (Or gloopy). Not a perfect loaf by any means.
Any suggestions for second attempt?
Hi Bab – your “nap” time (rising time ) is fine. Have you checked your oven temperature accuracy? You can do this with an inexpensive oven thermometer.
Started making this last year. Oh my word! Best bread ever! No substitution necessary. It stands alone. My husband ate half a loaf for lunch the first day I made it!
Thanks Pam! So happy you loved it.
This easy recipe produces a miracle loaf of artisan bread. Thank you for not only sharing the recipe but for the delightful photos of your son and baking tips along the way.
I forgot to mention a slight modification. I like to activate the yeast in 1/4 cup warm (100F) water with a pinch of sugar for a few minutes before adding it to the flour mixture. I then add 1 and 1/4 cup water warm water figuring I’ve already added 1/4 cup with my yeast. This addition of the pinch of sugar seems to make the yeast extra happy 🙂
Why do you use kosher salt rather than regular salt?
Hi Lois – you can use either, but I stock my kitchen with kosher or sea salt. So, all my recipes use kosher or sea salt measurement. The granules of regular table salt is too fine and too salty for my taste.
However, for bread or pastries, table salt is probably better – it dissolves easier than kosher or sea salt. I don’t bake much, other than this bread, so I just use what I have on hand.
I find it still comes out fine to bake bread, especially this bread, with much less salt than this or even no salt. I’m not keen on too much sodium for health reasons. Salt retards yeast growth so in the end it mostly affects rise time. It may be different for a genuine sourdough because you’d want to control the mico-flora top get a good leaven, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue for dry/fresh commercial yeasts in my experience.
There a many traditional ancient breads that don ‘t use salt (traditionally) because it was an expensive ingredient. Depending on the bread recipe, I may or may not make also some adjustment to the sugar level and/or amount of yeast to adjust for less/no salt- but this is usually based on intuition as I have been baking for over 40 years. Unless the saltiness is what you crave, you will still get a good product.
This looks like a great recipe. I have never made bread before and am itching to try it. Unfortunately I don’t really have any big, heavy, good quality pots. The only one I have is a Le Creuset 3 1/2 QT pot. Can I divide the dough and bake two small loaves?
Thank you!
Yes you can, just decrease the baking time to 20 minutes. Check temp of bread and adjust with more baking if necessary.
Hi, this recipe couldn’t be easier.The final product is amazing, i accidentally came across this website and it sounded super easy, it is, my husband and I have made 3 loaves in 2 days and keep eating just that:)Thanks for this beautiful thing.
I have been making this bread for a few years now and just love it.
A year ago I took a class on making a cob oven which was used in the local Eat Real Festival sponsored by King Arthur flour. On a whim I brought over some prepared dough (3X the recipe) and asked if i could bake it in the hot oven. The guy manning the oven was one of the instructors in class and allowed me to put put the dough (still on parchment) on the peel and placed it in the back of the oven ( i think the oven temp was around 500) we let it bake for around 30 minutes and then opened the oven door to discover that the dough had puffed up like a basketball!!
Once it was pulled out everyone in the booth went crazy and a couple of people ran to other booths and brought back olive oil and fresh made jam. It was an amazing sharing moment that everyone got to enjoy!
I just received a Romertopf glazed clay pot for my birthday and it made the bread rise just like the cob oven!!
Also I would recommend adding a little Community Grains whole grain whole milled Hard Red Winter wheat if you can find it!
Thanks for your postings.
I love this bread!! I made one modification, I mixed poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, dried onion flakes, and sesame seeds to coat the top of the bun. I love love love this recipe and the bread is delicious and super easy!
Hi Jaden,
Thanks for sharing. I was surfing for more bread recipe and chance upon your blog. My husband found the almost-same recipe and I have been baking it for the past 6 months now and it’s great.
However, I bake it after I let it rest for 12 hours. I simply floured it a little and using the spatula to get the dough together in the same bowl where I let it rest for 12 hours.
I tweaked the recipe as well, here is my personal recipe :
1.5 cup of bread flour
1.5 cup of Top flour ( Prima brand – local brand I got here in singapore )
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of instant yeast
1.5 cup of water
I mixed all the dry ingredients together, and added handful of Sunflower seeds, Golden Flaxseed, some oat ( optional ) , some wheat germ ( optional), and pour in the water and mix them well.
After that, I added a handful of dried cranberries and tear 2 slices of cheddar cheese and mix them again. Cover it and let it rest for 12 hours.
Then flour the sticky dough with spatula while heating up my Le Creuset pot in oven for 30 mins, and then pour the dough into the pot and bake for 30 mins with cover and remove cover and bake for 5-10 mins for browning.
Ps. Your son is so adorable !
Thanks
Hi Sarah! Thank you so much! I’ll let Andrew read your kind note.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!! My bread is just out of the oven and it looks BEAUTIFUL! I will never again buy a bread from a store!
upon reading your post, I felt challenged. Yeah you are right, when I like to eat a bread I just run to a bakery to buy it, but I’ve never tried in my life to bake a bread.
But I just found it. I’m waiting to put the dough in the oven. My dough doesn’t look as firm as yours but we’ll see what comes out.
Let me know how it turns out!
Hi! I have never baked before and will try this this week. What do you suggest if I want a rustic, separated, or uneven look on top of the bread?
Hi Chelsea – the “sloppier” the bread, the more “rustic” it will look. For your first loaf, just try the recipe as-is. Experiment with it after your first loaf! You’ll have fun with baking bread, I promise.
Holy Crap! This bread is GOOOD! I don’t think I’ve ever made bread before and it turned out perfect. Just follow the directions. I didn’t have a proper pot for the oven so I had to use a shallow dish pan and fashioned a tent like lid out of foil, still turned out great.
Thanks so much Bunny!
Can I use a 6-QT All Clad Stainless Steel Stock Pot (lined with parchment paper, of course) to bake this? I’ve made it in a Lodge Enameled 6 QT before, but don’t have it with me at the house I’m at now… Thanks!
Yes! I’ve used my stainless steel pot 🙂
Hi Jaden,
I tried your no knead recipe and nailed it. It’s so easy and the clean up is the best part. I upped the yeast and added 1/4 tsp of sugar to feed them. I also added a smidge of cinnamon for flavor. This rose in 8 hours, folded out and proofed and baked in parchment… Here’s a pin showing the slam dunk rustic loaf I got: goo.gl/23iBZH
Keep em coming,
Jason
Beautiful! Next, try the no knead baguette and if you love sweets, there’s No Knead Sticky Buns!
Yum-oh-lah!!! I made it tonight and the bread came out perfect! It was nice and crusty!
It’s fun to watch a 4 year kid preparing a dish. After seeing this, I realised that the recipe is very easy to cook.
This sounds great. I love making bread, but often don’t have time for the ‘traditional’ kind. We are going camping next weekend, so I am planning on doing a test run this week and then mix up a batch to ‘sleep’ while we’re travelling and bake it in my camp oven on the fire. Mmm, nothing better than freshly baked bread for breakfast while camping.
I’ve made this recipe and others almost identical to it many times. I have made the recipe with all bread flour, with all unbleached AP flour, with 1/2 bread, 1/2 unbleached AP flour, and have found so far, the all bread flour is producing a nicer loaf. That being said, although my bread has been turning out great ( the all AP flour experiment not so much though) we are finding the finished crust on the boule almost impossible to cut.
I should add, upon measuring the flour called for, I have used the spoon and sweep method ( what I was taught in home Ec years ago) I have used the scoop and sweep method (recommended & used by the authors of Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day) which for me was not at all good advice as scooped flour tends to get too compacted thus weighing more than is should. I have also weighed all ingredients needed including the flour ( advice from Jim Lahey the creator of the no knead bread recipe & found weighing the flour to be the best for a consistently good loaf. ( For me, I should add.)
It is the texture of the finished crust on the NK recipe that is perplexing. The almost breaking my bread knife blade that I’m not understanding? I have always strived to have a nice crispy crust on my breads, but this one, the crust is too crispy, as in just too darn hard and I have no idea as to the answer why?
I use my oblong or round heavy duty enamel cast iron pots with tight fitting lids to bake the NK bread, my oven temperature is spot on, it’s checked every day as I do a lot of baking. My yeast is fresh and is also tested regularly to avoid any yeast failure. The water needed is tested for the correct temperature ( via JLs book) or it is measured in a standard glass measuring that’s needed if one is going to bake by volume.
I have been baking yeast breads & my trusty sourdough bread (no yeast) for a good many years so I am not a novice ( although not an expert either) to the world of bread baking. That being said, this no knead bread recipe although a very tasty loaf if one can get through the crust, has me stumped as too why the crust could quite easily break a persons tooth if they are not careful.
Hi Joycelyn (I love your name)
For a less crust, try less steam (even omit it if you want). The high moisture content is what creates the super crusty crust.
Hi! I have a sourdough starter ready to be used. How much of it do I use in place of the yeast?
thanks!
Hi Kate – I haven’t made this with a starter, but I would halve the yeast.
would this make decent rolls for thanksgiving? love the overnight easiness of it!!!
Hi Sheila – I think there are better recipes for dinner rolls – I’m thinking something softer for rolls. This will produce a hard, crunchy crust.
Curious if you need to use bread flour? Or can you sub with all purpose flour? This bread looks sooo yummy. I would to start making bread once an week with my boys.
Thank you!
I’ve used AP flour in a pinch, but bread flour produces the best results.
It’s much better to cook yourselves home-made bread! My kitchen never smells that delicious!
I made the bread and it looks great but the wax paper got all stuck to it! I was wondering if there was anything I should do differently to keep that from happening next time?
Hi Maura- use parchment paper, not wax paper. Wax paper cannot take high heat, the wax melts and sticks.
Bread Recipe from Phyl
Just wanted to thank you for the recipe and details instruction. I just baked a loaf that we made with Kamut wheat berries we ground in the Vitamix. It’s great!
Thanks for the recipe!
My husband just ate half the loaf, the kids love it, and I’m glad I at least took a picture of it because I don’t think it’s going to make the rest of the night!!!
YAY! So happy to hear that your family loves it! Next time, give “Stecca” bread a try.
Hey, two questions.
Can I use regular all purpose flour? I don’t have access to bread flour.
And also, what about using a bread pan instead of a pot to bake in?
The pot does make a difference! See the science behind it here: http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/06/the-food-lab-the-science-of-no-knead-dough.html
Do I need to grease the enamel in the pot? If I leave on the baking paper won’t it have crinkly edges?
No need to grease the pot! Once you bake with the parchment paper, it will soften up with all the moisture in the pot, so that the dough kind of spreads it out. No crinkles!
Hi,
Just to be clear, I keep the blob of dough on the parchment paper while baking, correct?
Thanks –
Jessica
Yes!
We love this recipe!!
Would you tell us how to add flavor such as rye, sesame, cinnamon?
Thank you!
LOVE this bread and your blog of it! I’ve been making it for years (with my kids!) and it always turns out great … even when it is a bit Frisbee shaped. 🙂 I’ll be saving your recipe, though, because it’s adorable. Your son is a lucky man! xoxox
Hi! Thanks for posting such an intriguing recipe! We tried it yesterday with the plan of baking it this morning (20hours) but it was really wet and just slopped out like sticky paste onto our floured surface. We used quick rise yeast – do you think that is why it didn’t work? Thanks for any tips!
Hi Erin,
Either the yeast was bad (expired or just gone bad), too much water or too little flour — or a combination of those! Try new yeast.
Jaden
It sounds like your dough was too wet. I also had the same experience and have concluded that different kinds of flour used will require slightly different amounts of water. Therefore, use 1.5 cups of water as a rough guide.
For the flour I use, 65-70% hydration works.
Assuming 1 cup flour is 140 g, 3 cups flour = 420 g. 70% of 420 = 294 g water or 294 ml water. I would not pour all 294 ml but leave a bit, and add if necessary to achieve right consistency of dough. If it is still too dry after 70% hydration, add a tablespoon of water at a time. Good luck!
Aw, dang it. You made me cry. Reading that made me miss my little boys. My three sons are all grown up with their own kids. One is over 50, the youngest nearly 40, and I miss the children they were. I miss being a mom. Being a grandmother is second best; I don’t have much access to them, and when they come we can’t do things like this together. I miss those days so much.
I know this might be a silly question but when you put the dough in the pot do you use the parchment paper to cook with or are you letting it drop from the paper into the pot? I hope that made sense and i’ve baked this bread both ways and its fine… just different look and somewhat texture. thank you and this is a terrific recipe my family enjoys. My roots are lower Manhattan so this hits home sometimes.
I use the parchment paper in the pot! It will prevent the bread from sticking to the pot
Last year I found the NY Times recipe and made this bread several times. I told my relatives about it but they would never give try. Finally I decided to just show them. So we found your post and ejoyed reading it as much as we making the bread! There was a lot of “it’s so easy a 4-year old can do it!” going on before, during and after… of course it came out perfect, and of course they are now belivers. The only problem was we should have made two loaves because between the six of us it was enhaled within 15 minutes!
This is an awesome and THE BEST recipe i’ve ever used for bakin bread. It tastes just like the bread you buy at a local small town bakery in france!!.. thanks alot
This is one of my favourite breads recipes that I use ALL the time. I usually do a sped up version of this bread as I don’t usually realise I need fresh baked bread until its too late to make the 12 hr version. I use 4 Cups flour and 2tsp yeast….this works great and is usually ready to bake within 1 1/2 – 2hrs. (Depending on the temp of the environment) It looks and tastes just as fabulous as the original version:)
What an easy way to make such yummy bread! Once it’s done, slather it with butter and you’re good to go! Thank you for sharing!
Kerry’s gold is the best to use… umm…. salted of course. lol
Hello!
I tried your “no knead” recipe with my daughter and we love it! but I tried something a little different. I didn’t use yeast, I just added a little bit of sourdough starter (flour, water, a little salt, and let the natural yeast develop) which i usually make with wheat flour, and went 1 part wheat 2 parts white flour for the recipe. literally less than 1/2 a cup of starter. let it sit for 20 hrs. it turned out exactly as described in your article. I also didn’t have any parchment paper, ( the last batch of cookies got handed out on it) so I just floured the bottom of my Lodge enamel coated dutch oven, and it popped free with no issues. need to add just a bit more salt to the recipe next time for personal taste, and I think I am gonna try a cheese loaf out of it! great bread, and super easy!
Could you give weight of flour used and amount of water as in England we don’t use cups for measuring would be most grateful for this info thank you for sharing
Hi, I have tried this recipe multiple times with great results, except for one thing… The bottom of the bread has gotten stuck to whatever’s underneath it every time! A pre-heated flour pot has resulted in a bottom-less bread because it is burnt and adhered to the bottom of the pot. Floured parchment paper and cheese cloth stick to the bread and cook into it! I suspect my not cast iron pot is the problem but it’s stainless steel and should work. Very much appreciate this recipe but I am confounded!
Try using a silicon mat for baking. You can find at any kitchen supply store, just cut it to size.
I have never had trouble with the bread sticking to the pot. I do use a lot of flour to coat the loaf when its sitting in the tea towel, maybe this helps it to stop sticking, or maybe its the quality of the pot? I use Le cruset type ones(the cheaper version).
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe. It was my first time baking a bread. It was huge success. I let my 4 yrs old son make the dough. He had fun but it was very hard for him to wait for almost 12 hrs. Finally when bread came out of the oven, we could not wait to let it cool down. 😊 Me and my son ate half of it at the same time. 😳 I also made the Egyptian dip with slight changes. It tastes wonderful with this bread.
I did not have bread flour so I used regular all purpose flour. But I really liked the taste.
Thanks very much for such an easy and wonderful recipe.
Fantastic! Next time, try bread flour, I think you and your son be even more delighted with the results 🙂 Tell your son that I said “Hi! I’m so proud of you for helping your Mom make bread!”
Can I use a bread stone for this, or does it have to be a pot?
You can use a bread stone but the point of a covered pot is to intensify the heat and trap moisture.
I have made several no knead recipes and this one is the best. I would love to put this on Pinterest. Do you have a connection to Pinterest? This bread is awesome!!!!!
Hi! I just mixed the dough … but … the pot … it HAS to bem a covered pot? I dont have one … and usually I bake my breads in a normal baking sheet…
I have made several loaves and am practically addicted to making bread now. I am ready to try flavored breads. Have you tried adding any flavors to the bread? cheese, olives, basil leaves, garlic etc??? How has it worked? Do you know any websites where I can get ideas for flavored breads, I haven’t found much on the internet.
I tried olives and the bread was wonderful. Onion bits also work, as do herbs.
I think experimenting is great; I don’t think you can go wrong.
Joanna
Thanks Joanna!
Hi hi!
I tried the recipe twice but it turned out chewy. First time round I splashed too much water thus I reduced it the second time. It still turn out too chewy.
Could you advice what have possibly gone wrong?
I used Bruggeman instant yeast. Do I have to put in water?
I live in Singapore and room temp is 34 degrees celsius, is our room temp too hot?
Thank you for this recipe- and photos. I love the title- it gave me the courage that I can do it!!
Hello from the netherlands..just mixed the dough – using spelt flour – and the dough is really wet 🙁 I used 300 ml of water. I it supposed to be slushy?
Hi Helen – no not slushy. I’ve never used spelt flour before, it’s very different from the all-purpose or bread flour we use. You might want to ask the authors of the cookbook – head over to http://www.artisanin5.com
I used all purpose flour and bread flour, now I prefer the bread flour.
hi jaden- i had tried this no knead bread before but was on the compact side, but this round it came out “picture perfect” as in yours, tastes wonderful. my one negative is the difficulty in slicing this bread as with other two tries. i have a very sharp serrated bread knife and find it hard too slice-i was thinking of taking it to one of the local pastry shop here in cyprus and asking if they would slice it for me on their bread slicing machine but they slice too thin for me. for my level of energy which is low it is almost a work-out for me, there is a website for maltese bread which is similar(a little oil and sugar) but i have not been able to reproduce-much more open grain and holes-since my visit to malta. thanks for the receipe and pictures. bill
Hi Bill – it’s difficult for me to slice too! Try borrowing an electric knife from someone if you can. You know, the ones we used to use for ham and turkey!? I haven’t tried it yet – but I bet it would make it easier!
This one from Amazon is only $20 – good price and good reviews! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004X12T/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00004X12T&linkCode=as2&tag=steakitc-20
I just pulled my first attempt out of the oven and it’s perfect! This will be a daily thing for me from now on. I’m a stay at home Dad always looking for fun stuff like this for my family. I’m going to make a BLT for lunch 🙂
Thank you!
Love this recipe and made it a couple times… thanks so much!
I started a batch yesterday and went to the ‘dump out on a floured surface step’ but there was a problem: there was basically a floating island of the yeast and flour across the top of the bowl, but when I scooped it up there was standing water beneath. It smelled quite “yeasty” as well. Just curious if anybody knows what I did? I waited too long… in my head I thought the wait time was 12 – 24 hours, and now I see it is 12 – 20. I’m usually pushing to jam it in the oven asap, but it was busy this weekend and that stuff waited at least 24 hours. Was that stuff fermenting in there?
Thanks for any education I can get :o)
Thanks! I made this bread while writing a paper and it worked great!
This is so Adorable!!! I love it…and I will be making!
followed it closely
used 1.5 cup water
it came out so wet i could not form it, stuck to everything.
baked it anyway and came out flat brick-like,
please advise
I did it and it WORKED! It is delicious. And I am not the greatest in the kitchen, so if I did it anyone can. LOVE this bread.
Jaden! I have loved all of your recipes that I have tried, however, this bread recipe turned into a big flop for me! Following the recipe to the T, the dough was so tacky after letting it rise that the bread dough stuck to my work surface, even with a heavy dusting of flour. I ended up adding at least another 1/2 cup. Even after that, the dough absorbed through the heavily floured towel and stuck to hit horribly. I finally got it in the oven on the parchment paper, but after baking, it was basically glued to the parchment paper. I admit bread has never been my foray and I was hoping so much that this recipe would change that, but after this experience, I guess I will retire my bread hat and go back to store bought 🙁
Hi! I found this recipe last night and decided to make this with my 5yo. We loved making it and I will say this about the bread itself: DELICIOUS!!! We tweaked the salt and yeast (we love salty bread!) and dressed it up with an egg wash + sesame seeds + more salt in the final baking phase (again, love salt! and kiddos love sesame seeds!) and the final product looked and tasted amazing — we couldn’t be happier! Thank you very much for sharing this recipe. 🙂
Valerie Angell
This was so easy and it is so yummy! I will definitely be making this on a regular basis! Thank you 🙂
You can also wet your hands with olive oil. and you can put the dough in regular bread pans or for a more interesting shape, clay flour pots.: I have made this recipe for over 30 years with my sons, it is really really great, you can make a large batch and freeze it to take it camping, and it also makes great pizza dough with more flour. great crust for sure.
I made this bread yesterday – it tasted great BUT the bread stuck to the parchment paper and I couldn’t remove it. My question is – how to I avoid it sticking to the paper as its a pain? Was it due to not enough flour coating the base? Can I oil the paper a little?
Otherwise it taste fantastic.
Jo
Spray your parchment paper with some cooking spray – that should prevent the sticking.
Could i just spray the oil in the bottom of the pan? Is the parchment paper required?
yes you can, but you might run into the problem of the dough sticking to the pot.
Dont want to waste any of my bread lol so ill use the parchment, thanks
Love this bread. I bought active dry yeast instead by a mistake so had to convert it a little bit. I ussualy double the recipe to make it easier it is about .75 tsp of active dry yeast for a doubled recipe. I use up to a cup of whole wheat and add a bit of extra water. I really love that this is bread in stages so i can do things like attend to the needs of my two active toddlers and still have fabulous bread. I just use the pot from my slow cook croc pot and another corning wear lid from one of my other dishes and it works out great. Thanks for the recipe!
Love your description of your son making this bread. I know how important those tattoos are in blackmailing! Love it, and am defenitely going to make this bread, and what better way to eat it, with lots of real butter!
Well…it’s official, a 4 year old is a better cook than I am
Hello!
This might be a silly question, but can the ‘combining of ingredients’ be done with one of those electric mix masters? 🙂
Yes, you can use a mixer to combine the ingredients, but a fork will do. I just made a batch yesterday.
Trust me, I rely on my mixer for many things, but you can save yourself the trouble by using a fork or even a danish dough whisk – I love these.
http://www.amazon.com/Danish-Dough-Hand-Whisk-Mixer/dp/B002U88RQY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393793083&sr=8-1&keywords=danish+dough+whisk
This sounds so easy, I just might attempt my first bread ever! However, I don’t own a covered pot that can go in the oven. I do have a large cast iron skillet, and a couple deep dish stoneware pieces, any suggestions for a lid?? Can I just cover with foil?
Thanks for sharing.
Go for it! Make a triple thickness foil.
angela,
did u try this in your cast iron skillet yet? I am in the same boat..and dont own a covered pot but do own a cast iron skillet ( which I have never used cause this is the first recipe I have gotten & am unfamiliar with how to use it) and want to know if the bread came out good in it.
My friend made this the other night and it was delish. Now, I want to make , but only have rapid rise yeast..wondering if it would come out as good?
can this no knead bread recipe be used also for making pizza?
Hi! For pizza there is a slightly different ratio of flour and water. Do a search for no knead pizza dough recipe and you’ll find so many!
Yes it can! I will be doing that tomorrow, making two pizzas with dough I start today, and then freezing them for Sunday and doing the final baking on Sunday (Saturday I will be busy all day).
I’ll bake the crust for about 10 minutes (until its firm but not brown), then putting on the toppings, then freeze it. They will transport better that way and be defrosted by the time they arrive at their destination, for a quick bake on site (another 10-15 minutes – we like our crust crisp, so I err on the side of overcooked rather than undercooked). Just like the bread, this recipe makes the best pizza crust ever as well. All that slow rising develops the flavor and texture — mmm.
awesome! at last a recipie for easy bread that actually works. Deeply appreciate you sharing this
I folLowed your recipe, let it sleep 12 hours, dumped it out and folded it up per the recipe, placed in a bowl with a tea towel and waited 2 hours and nothing happened…it never puffed up or rose?? I used Saf-Instant brand yeast. I am going to try again with regular yeast that I have to proof. I also had to add extra water, maybe a 1/4c to get it into a ball….any advise?????
If it doesn’t rise, then it’s either:
1) too cold (like freezing temperature) in your house
2) yeast is dead 🙁
MAke sure to use active dried yeast not breadmaker yeast.
Wow! Amazing sight of the bread, looks delicious. I regularly bake at home using my MEC pure clay pot and every time it’s just perfect. It’s never been dry; it’s always moist and tastes fantastic. I have been looking for this one for some time now and is definitely going in my recipe book. Oh the pure clay pots are definitely an added benefit to bake these breads. I got mine from mecware.US (online)
I just bought a Pullman Pan to make bread. Can I use this type of pan for this bread recipe.?
I am sooo anxious to try this bread. But there is a problem. Le Creuset told me that I cannot preheat an EMPTY dutch oven. Do you know please of some work-around? Could I place some water in the pan for the pre-heating? If I donT pre-heat the dutch oven, will the recipe still work?
I bought the pan specifically for this purpose, so it would be so disappointing if I couldn’t use it.
Thanks in advance for your kind advice.
Jean
Hi, Jean!
Not sure about suggestions for your pan, but can tell you that a cast iron Dutch Oven works like a charm every time!! :)). You can use it without worry for your bread and anything else you cook or may need for high temps.
Jmho, but all my loafs of this bread have turned out perfect every time using a cast iron Dutch Oven. I use the name brand “Lodge” in case your interested. Good luck!!
I just found your bread recipe while looking for no-knead bread. I had to tell you, I love your great sense of of humor- I was laughing while reading! particularly with regards to your adorable son and his tatoo! So cute, that he is in all the pictures making the dough! I will assume that if he can do it, so can I ! Thanks, I will continue to read you – Linda
I’ve made this recipe probably a dozen times over the last year or two and it always comes out great. I don’t use parchment paper. I mix the dough in a large pyrex bowl, let it rise in the same bowl, just fold the edges in to center with a wet spatula still in the same bowl, let it sit another couple of hours, then just dump it out of the bowl into a hot dutch oven. Always works perfectly. I’ve used a 3 qt. dutch oven and a 5 qt. Both work great.
Just made my first loaf — the parchment paper is sticking to it! What went wrong??
It shouldn’t stick – but next time you can spray a little cooking spray on the paper if you’d like. Perhaps the dough was a little too wet.
I don’t know if you know this, but this recipe makes the most fabulous pizza crust ever. 🙂
I have been making this bread for about a year and I love it. Everyone I share it with loves it too! Thanks so much for the wonderful directions and pictures. I just wanted to add that I sprinkle fine corn meal on the towel before I add the dough. It adds to the artisan flavor. I just pick up the dough after it rises and plop it in the pan. Always delicious.
If it sticks like crazy to the WELL-floured cloth while rising for the 2 hours before baking, does that mean the dough was too wet? It ended up pretty tasty, but flatter than I wanted, I’m guessing because I broke the rise when i ripped it off the cloth. Any other tips for getting a taller loaf (for a better middle-to-crust ratio)?
I find it much easier to just put the dough on 12×12 piece of parchment paper an lower it into the preheated 6qt cast iron pot it the oven. Put the top on and slide the rack back in and close the oven. Then wait the 30 min and enjoy the smell!
-jeff
I WANT THE LITTLE BOY, THE HECK WITH THE BREAD. JUST KIDDING OF COURSE, MINE IS RISING AS WE SPEAK. I ADDED CRAISINS AND WALNUTS.
Boys stay little and cute for a short while, but this bread will fill my home with joy forever. My favorite aroma therapy, bread baking once or twice a week.
My wife and I take turns making this bread, sometimes by adding different additional ingredients (i.e. chopped and sauteed onions, sun-dried tomato bits, nuts, etc) for an absolutely delicious bread. After many years of bread-making using various kneading methods, this recipe has virtually replaced them all. So easy, so good, so much fun to make!
Loviing this recipe! However, the handle of my le creuset brooke off. I would suggest not using it at that high of a heat.
*broke*
Give yourself a gift of Lodge pre-seasoned cast iron. Great pots at excellent price, and their coated models come with stainless steel knobs. Even the edge of the lid is coated and needs no seasoning. I use their pre-seasoned double cooker for this baking, and a coated Dutch oven when I make a larger loaf.
or go to Walmart and get a Tramontina enamel-coated cast iron dutch oven for $40.
This is hands down my favourite bread recipe ever. I have made many alterations over the course of baking it dozens of times so now I have a variation that I can call “my own” but when all else fails, I stick with your original and send all the credit your way. Thank you for this recipe! It’s gorgeous!
Wow My son tryed that it came out soo good
Joanna–I made this yesterday, and it keeps very well in a large freezer storage bag.
Hi, im baking my bread at night right now. The rrason why is because I have no time whatsoever tomorrow to bake it and I want to eat the bread for breakfast. Will the bread harden overnight? And if it will, whats a good tip to keep bread soft and chewy and not hard and rocky through out time? Thank you! ^ ^
Thank you for sharing this recipe, I’ve become a hero in my family’s eyes. It’s easy, effortless, and beautiful creations every time you use different pot. I just wanna say, hey I appreciate it and thank you soooooo much, bless ya.
I have been making this read for years now. I guess ever since it was “invented”.
I once made if for a large group, some with cheese some walnut and olives etc. etc.
Everyone loved it. IN fact a visiting Pastor wanted me to make it for him. He wanted to pay me $6.00 a loaf. Although I was flattered that everyone loved it so much I passed on making it for a fee.
Tomorrow is Sunday and having a fresh loaf of bread ready to go in the oven on a nice chilly morning is heavenly… Pass the fresh strawberry jam…
Hi,How can you add cheese if it has to raise, like, 20 hours? The cheese will start to go bad. Please let me know how you did it because I am very interested in trying this bread with cheese.
Thank you!
I’m trying two loaves of this at once. Since we’ve moved to a northern community it’s hard to get a good crusty bread. I’m making one just as the recipe suggested and the other with a couple of tablespoons or carroway seeds added in. We’ll see how it turns out. 🙂
The bread was So easy to make! My boyfriend was like “it’s so hard to make a good French bread” and I was like “pffff” … I made this bread and he’s been kissing my feet ever since. Thank you so much!
Wondering… can you make something like this with sourdough starter?? I would love to combine sourdough with the no-knead idea…
Rachel, try this, I have made his read many times and it comes out fantastic.
Bread is very forgiving I have come to learn and if you want this plain white all purpsoe flour you can do that also. Enjoy…
http://www.breadtopia.com/sourdough-no-knead-method/
Any chance of British/European quantities (ounces/grams) please?
Wow! Those kids are going to become chefs! Wish I could get MY kids interested in baking. Would save me a lot of work! Good show!
I LOVE artisan bread but sometimes I like a high-rise bread that looks more like a store-bought loaf, so I’m wondering if I can just use a small diameter tall pan and get a higher risen bread? Sounds like it might work. I’ll have to try it and see.
I sometimes want a sandwich loaf, or a loaf that a whole slice fits into the toaster without needing to be cut in half. I use this same recipe only I bake it in a regular loaf pan, and it turns out perfect. A softer crust but the same great texture.
Love this bread! For a church project we would love to make lots of loaves and only pre bake them to freeze. Then we would finish the baking so we could give warm loaves as gifts to visitors. Anyone know of a way to do ths?
Thank you for this one! I loved it, so did the crew! I’ve never been successful making bread, unless grandma is right there with me 🙂 thank you!
i’ve made this a milion times. For those looking for a way to update the recipe, I often add a whole grain mix from King Arthur Flour to the mix. You have to increase the yeast to 1 TBS to offset all the heavy seeds and grains, but it is so delish! Give it a try! I bake mine in a stoneware covered casserole and it’s perfect. For the first rise, I put it on a piece of parchment in a oval pan. Then after it rises, and I’ve preheated my stoneware, I put the dough, parchment and all in the stoneware and bake it. Bake it for 30 mins. Take the top off, brush with butter, and bake 30 minutes more. Easy and sooooo yummy!
Hi. I do not have a cast iron pot but I do have the glass Pyrex brand pans. Will this work? Can I cover it with aluminum foil? It has a plastic cover so I won’t be able to use that while baking. I would love to get the dough ready tonight so I can make fresh bread for the family. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Michelle – you can certainly give it a try! It won’t be the same of course, but you’ll still be able to make a good loaf of bread.
So i’m an adventurous male that recently discovered the joys of cooking with enameled cast iron and while Googling around came across this post and tried it! Disclaimer…this is my first time EVER trying to bake bread so I am a total newbie to this.
I am currently about 15 hours into letting the dough rise. I followed the instructions to the T but have to say my dough was more liquidy than expected. If I were to pour it out of the bowl I’m sure it wouldn’t be a lump of dough but would instead run (albeit slowly) over the counter-top. I used all purpose white flower and accidentally used Active Dry Yeast instead of the instant stuff but compensated accordingly based off of other blogs. Can anyone help me out? Where did I go wrong? I’m a total rookie at this so any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
Don’t give up! If you think it’s a little too liquidy, sprinkle a couple tablespoons of flour and mix very gently. But trust that the bread will work – use the Force, Mike!
🙂
Thanks! Will it still work if it is a little liquidy? I’d be scared of messing up the dough if I tried to put more flour in…should have done that prior to letting it set.
It will be fine 🙂 send me a pic of you want! Mail@steamykitchen.com
I just made this with gluten free flour…(made a few modifications suggested on the flour mix I had) WOW! This will be a regular in my house! Texture is perfect.
That’s awesome! What kind of GF flour did you use? Do you think Bob’s GF all purpose flour would work?
I’ve used Bob’s GF all purpose flour – works great!
You made it GF?????? *SQUEE!!!*. What modifications did you make (if any at all)? I wanted to make some for the farm this afternoon to bake tomorrow. :). And what is your preferred yeast brand?
I have made this bread several times, and it is WONDERFUL! My kids help and absolutely love it. Thank you so much for the great post, I love how you included tips, pictures, and such a great story 🙂 My family thanks you!
Just tried this and while I love this recipe, I would add more salt. 1 tsp was too less.
I made this bread today. I started it before bed last night and baked it this morning. It turned out great but it doesn’t look half as nice as yours. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe, I will be using it a lot!
hey there! I wanted to ask, do you think i could do it without getting a covered pot? like how would it turn out if i just did it the usual way of dumping it in a loaf pan?
loved the way you wrote the post btw! 😀
That is an awesome story to tell him when he’s grown!! What acute and love your recipe.
OMGoodness, it was capital D delish! Don’t think I will buy bread again…My bread didn’t rise much on the second rise, but it was outstanding nonetheless.
Sorry, was typing too fast as always…. Ment to say, “why mess with what, “I” would call “absolute perfection”!! 🙂
Just adore your site by the way, I don’t follow many foodie sites, but find we are similar in our tastes and love of food!! Great job, may you continue to have much success!!
Tracey
Just a little note: I did try this in a loaf tin and it came out great!
Does anyone know of any “spins” on this recipe, like adding herbs etc? Any suggestions?
Oroboros…….
“I” (just my humble little opinion lol), but why mess with what, I would absolute perfection!! :). Though, I’m sure you could.
Best of luck if you give this a whirl!
Tracey
For Pete’s sake, update this recipe! I am an experienced bread baker and know better, but am a rules girl, so yeah — I put this sticky mass of dough on parchment. When it came time to invert into the LeCruset, half the dough stayed with the parchment, the rise was destroyed. A greased bowl is fine–if you know better, follow your instinct, not directions……..
I’m sorry that your experience with this method did not work for you. But, it seems whether cloth or parchment it works out wonderfully for a lot of us.
Perhaps you are right with sticking to your experienced ways.
I just want to say, “thank you” to this blogger for taking the time to post this recipe and the beautiful photos that were attached. Since I am one of many that this has worked for time and time again, I will continue to bake this absolute delightful bread. 🙂
…whereas I wish I’d read this comment first. I just destroyed my ball of dough trying to scrape it off of the parchment paper. :-/ Came back here to see if I read the recipe wrong and was supposed to flour that as well. I’ve never had anything stick to parchment the way this did.
Hoping all is still well – the bread *smells* amazing!
Actually, the recipe does not say to invert the dough to get it into the dutch oven after rising if using parchment paper. It says to lift the bread with the parchment paper and put it all in to the pot together. Fantastic method – no sticking!! I actually cut out a circle the size of my dutch oven and then use a long rectangle as a “sling” – I put the sling then the round into the bowl I will use for rising before placing the dough in it. After rising, I simply use the sling to lift it all out of the rising bowl and plop it into the hot dutch oven. Sometimes I will make a few cuts in the top of the risen dough – it makes it rise a bit more in the oven and looks nice, too.
The only downside I see to this bread is that it is so delicious I eat too much of it!!!
If using parchment paper, DON’T invert, just lift and transfer, paper and all, into cooking pot. Only invert if using floured towel, and yes, I imagine that can be very tricky. It’s good to follow rules, but you have to read them accurately. I’m not being snarky, I made the same mistake myself the first time I tried this recipe. Just be sure you use a big enough piece of parchment paper that you can lift it out of the rising bowl by the ends.
No parchment paper is necessary. You just place the dough in the pre-heated pan. It doesn’t stick! (really, it doesn’t!)
I second that — no parchment is needed. But IF you do use parchment, lift the bread (parchment and all) and set it in your preheated dish. Leave it on the parchment. Bake the bread with the parchment under it. You can then use the parchment to lift it out of the dish after baking and the bread will come off the parchment easily, no sticking.
This recipe produced AWESOME bread, love it, so easy even I could cook like a 4 year old!
Try making small inserts into the dough before baking and adding garlic slivers and kalamata olives. I like both together or separate. Bon appetite!
Jo
I’ve heard of people mixing in olives, herbs, cheese and nuts – with great results!
Hi Erin,
Try again! I just made this for the first time today, I bought Lodge parchment from Amazon. just enter “Lodge Parchement” in search. I got in two days. After the dough has rested or slept for the 12 to 18 hours, I did 12 hrs. The dough has the tiny pin hole bubbles on the surface, I floured the counter and plopped out the dough onto counter using a fork to pull dough from edges, floured my hands, then started from the edge of the blob and folded over to center then again adding flour so my hands did not stick. Mind you Im a novice at this! I put alittle flour into the center of my parchment that I had put in a big bowl, ( the Parchment is round in shape and will fit any Cast Iron Dutch Oven, I used a 5 QT. Lodge Dutch Oven ( this was my choose of vessel to cook the bread in) and put the piece of parchment in pot before I pre-heated it and cut the parchment to fit this size of pot, the parchment is a one size fits all so Its pretty big, I had trimed the excess from around the top then I followed rest of directions. Put your loaf in parchment in bowl, Let rest for another 2 hours covered with cotton towel covering. I pre-heated the oven with the pot in the oven.
As Iam now ready to place the entire parchment and loaf, I pick it up and place it in the hot dutch oven that has been pre-heating, cover with lid and place in oven for 30 minutes. Then take the lid off to finish browning the loaf. 20 mins. more. Perfect!
What about using a loaf tin? Would this work, and if it absolutely needs to be covered use some aluminum foil?
I get the same as Erin. I think I was using parchment paper ( I am Brasilian, I´m not sure that your´s parchment paper is “papel manteiga”.)
See:
https://plus.google.com/103773258864007846871/posts/Yt3E7m323gz
To be clear, the RECIPE was not the failure – YOU were the failure b/c you did not follow the recipe correctly. Wax paper is horrible to use for. Try again.
this looks like great bread for a bread bowl. is it possible to divide that into two or three smaller loaves?
Awesome pics!! Such a little cutie of a helper you have, hope hes still your willing/cheap labor assistant!! lol
Sharma, I have been making this bread for a few years now and have found (this is just imho) that its best to just use two bowls. Perfect bread E.V.E.R.Y. time if “directions” are followed. 😉
You explained how to make this bread perfectly!! Bravo!!
Hi this looks wonderful, and easy to do,…I just wondered if I double the ingredients to make a bigger loaf will this effect the process in any way? Thanks again for the recipe xxx
I love this bread, works every time. I just tried it using all whole wheat pastry flour and almost 1/2 a teaspoon of yeast. It was, obviously, a little dense, but not as dense as I thought, I think with a little more yeast, the whole wheat pastry flour would turn out pretty well.
This is the greatest recipe ever , I have been baking this bread every week for about six months now , here’s a time saver that I adapted successfully to this.
Mix dough ,wait 18 hrs , turn onto floured surface , then I put it directly into a well seasoned cast aluminum pot that has been greased with coconut oil , put lid on pot , let rise two hours and put into 425 degree oven (60 minutes for a double sized loaf) .
This method works for me every time and never sticks , it eliminates the use of cornmeal or bran which I found very messy , and saves using the towel or burning yourself while trying to flip the soft dough into a super hot pan.
I make a double loaf once a week and it lasts all week for my wife and I , it is the greatest bread ever , I have two matching pots so I often do two loaves and give one away to friends , they all love it !
lovely… this bread has loveall over. your boy sure is lucky to have a mom like u
This recipe is so good you have to watch out not to overdose on carbs!
In 33 years I’ve never managed to make a successful loaf of bread – until now! It’s amazing, thank you for sharing the recipe. It’s so easy, my 2 year old so helped with it (sort of) and it’s so lovely. I only had one problem with it – it was so nice most of the loaf was devoured in 10 minutes!
I’m going to try using roofing paper, and also will flour my oven inside and out. I expect…a great mess.
Still laughing at your comments, Sarvi! 🙂
And I still don’t get the fuss over sticky dough. Yes the dough is sticky. I’ve perfected a technique for getting it out of the mixing bowl onto the floured bread board, and then from the board into my Pyrex casserole. It’s called wetting my hands with cold water (per the original instructions) and using my fingertips gently, lightly, and quickly.
I tip the bowl, leaning the edge on the cutting board next to the floured area, then as the dough starts to slide out of the bowl, I quickly and lightly use my wet fingers to scrape the dough away from the bowl. This whole process takes about 10 seconds at most. Maybe a little dough sticks to my fingers. I rinse it off.
Now I have this wet blob on my cutting board. Making sure my hands are sufficiently wet, I pick up an edge of the dough and stretch it over the blob. I repeat this three more times, pulling up from four different “sides” of the dough. Quickly, quickly. Then I turn it over, quickly, quickly, using the fingertips. The idea is to touch it as little as possible.
You are in control! Don’t be fussy, just do it fast. Very little mess. Then I cover it with the same piece of plastic wrap that was over the bowl while rising. Just lay it gently on top and push the edges gently around the dough. Let it rise, preheat the oven and the baking dish with cover.
When the dough has risen and the oven and baking dish are preheated, I carefully take the dish out of the oven, remove the lid, and set it on the bread board next to the dough. I take off the plastic wrap, wet my hands yet again, and quickly, gently pull up on the edges of the dough all the way around. Fast! you must be fast! Then in one fell swoop scoop up the dough with fairy fingers, lightly and lightening fast, and plop the dough into the bowl. Don’t hesitate, don’t fuss, be bold and confident. It may be lopsided, lumpy, or otherwise unsightly, it really doesn’t matter.
The point, in my mind, of not flouring things any more than absolutely necessary AND of wetting your hands, not oiling or flouring, is that it’s the high moisture content that makes this bread so delightful. I’m also convinced that “baking like a fairy”, moving quickly, confidently, and having the mindset of “I’m touching this dough but only for milliseconds” is what makes it work.
Use parchment if you must, but fairy bread baking works for me. Love the process, love the bread, love life with homemade bread!
Oops, was typing too fast and “sent” before proofreading. I set the casserole next to the dough, not the lid, and plop the dough into the casserole, not the bowl.
Wax paper vs parchment paper vs rolling paper vs construction paper vs whatever other paper you’re trying to use: use parchment paper (google [parchment paper baking] if you don’t know what the box looks like). Don’t use other papers. The whole point of the parchment paper is that it doesn’t matter if the dough sticks to it like crazy. You are using it as a sling to transfer from bowl to pot. After 45 min in a 450 oven, there will be nothing sticky. You can then use the parchment paper to lift the bread out. Clean pot, voila. You can oil/butter/flour everything to hell and back if you want to make a mess for no earthly reason or if you are superstitious. Why not flour the outside of your oven, while you’re pointlessly flouring things? Might want to sprinkle some fairy dust in there too. Joking! Just use parchment paper, life will be good. Enjoy your bread!
I love no-knead bread, have made it many times, but now that I’m living at 4400 feet, I’m finding that the altitude does terrible things to my bread dough. No suggestions I have yet encountered within the past year have allowed me to produce a decent boule or loaf. Hat tip to that little bread-making cutie though. 🙂
I’m making this for the second time as I’m writing this. This recipe is so easy – even a guy like me can make it. Perfect as written – I did flour my parchment paper – just makes it easier! Also made some homemade butter to go with this! Yah baby!
I have made this bread many times. My pot is an old cast-iron dutch oven. I preheat and when I’m ready to put the dough in pot I lightly oil and put the dough in immediately. Cover and return to oven. Bread never sticks.
Yummm! Thank you!
The bread is the best ever. And I make all our bread two times a week. Saying good bye to kneading 🙂
Instead of paper I used a Teflon cooking mat. Works well
Don’t you think it would have been smart of you to try again, Erin, before writing this note? I have heard from so many people how easy this bread is to make and how good it tastes. For me it turned out great the first time. You must have made some mistake or used the wrong paper or pot to end up with failure. Don’t give up that easily, give it another try and you will likely succeed.
Does this work using gluten-free flour?
Since you burned your pot, the recipe and instructions must be bad.
This bread is BEAUTIFUL! I didn’t have a dutch oven, but I did use my tall soup pot it worked great! I did unscrew the handle and flipped the lid inside out to get it off easier. I just rubbed some olive oil on the bottom with a paper towel to be on the safe side so it wouldn’t stick. I don’t think this bread is going to last past dinner!
My guess would be since it was sitting for a while the “seasoning” was gone from it. Try seasoning it first. I do believe seasoning is rubbing vegetable oil and heating it on your highest setting. I know there are tutorials. My grandma showed me once but how she did it is really fuzzy.
Oh boy this looks great!!! Going to go for it as I am a HEAVY BREAD addict.
If you don’t have a dutch oven style pot, I use the pot from my crockpot. Heat oven, stick pot in for a half hour, plop dough in and cover it with foil for the first 30 minutes and remove for 15. I’ve done this countless times and they come out delicious each time. I’ve added whole garlic cloves and cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese and oregano, orange zest and dried cranberries..the possibilities are endless 😀
I was so excited to try this. I don’t have a Le Crueset so I was going to use a cast iron pot that has been sitting in the cupboard forever. It started smoking an INSANE amount and I had to turn the oven off — first attempt at the bread is therefore a giant fail 🙁 I guess I just need to get a different type of pot.
You don’t need to remove it from the parchment paper before baking–just put it right in the pot on the paper. Parchment paper is used in baking so you don’t have to grease your pans. Just plop it in the bottom of the pan on the paper and you should be fine.
I do mine on a floured plastic grocery bag in my bowl so the dough doesn’t stick and when I’m ready to remove it I get my hands wet and turn the dough upside down in my hands and pull the bag away from the dough. Then I just plop it in the pan and shake a little to center it. Works every time and I make 3 or 4 loaves a week.
Wspanialy chleb. Mozna dodac mak albo cebule albo sezamki. Palce lizac!
I do flour the parchment a bit but the main thing is – PUT THE DOUGH IN THE POT WITH THE PARCHMENT!
It will come off easily once baked.
Also it allows you to handle the dough more easily.
I did everything exactly as it is written, but like Erin, the dough stuck to the parchment paper when trying to put it in the heated pot. It lost all its shape and went in the pot flat and messy. Did I do something wrong? I looked at other sites and they said to well flour the dough after shaping and tucking, but this recipe says not to do that, and to use only water. I feel like the water was the culprit. I hope someone replies and shares a solution.
Hi jaden…I wonder if I can make this into bread rolls and let it rise in like muffin pans? Or can I make it into a log and let it come out like mini baguettes?
Thanks
Chit
I went to my local Winco and in the ‘Bins’ got bread flour and instant yeast and have had great results with all the loafs I’ve made. I’m pretty sure there is one in you area and they should have both white and wheat flour. Great way to save some money on your supplies 🙂
.. wiesz, powiem ci, że to jest poezja… poznałem ten przepis kilka lat temu, robiłem ten chleb kilkanaście razy i zawsze mi wyszedł .. dzięki za ten przepis.. polecałem go wszystkim moim znajomym a dostałem go od mojego brata.. robiłem różne mieszanki ze słonecznikiem, z orzechami włoskimi nawet z otrębami.. ale dopiero dzisiaj przeczytałem co na samym końcu i to jest piękne… zrobić chleb wspólnie i cieszyć się razem.. chyba nikt w życiu nie doceni coś piękniejszego jak sobie sam nie upiecze chleba… pozdrawiam…
So I just made this recipe and it was a complete and utter failure. I got to the last step where you take the dough out of the bowl to place in the baking pot, and the dough was completely stuck to the wax paper in the bowl. I thought wax paper would work just as well as parchment paper, but apparently not. When trying to remove the dough from the paper, the paper just started disintegrating into the dough. It could not be recovered so the whole thing went into the trash.
well for my first time baking bread this was the easisest to make and the tastiest I must say Im going to continue making this bread. it can out awsome.
This clever presentation made me WANT to give this a try, had some time, so made two bowls, used tow different “pots” to bake and, excellent results. Now that the ice has been broken with artisan bread, I think my bread machine and I are going to have to break up.
Yummm!!!
Made this bread with my son. We wondered how it would turn out… we were thinking failure, but it was EXCELLENT!!! A fun, easy artisan bread, that we will make over and over. Thank you!
Devin & Easton
I did. It burnt the pot. Not recommended.
Very cool, thanks for sharing!
Have you ever oiled the pan before baking? If so, how did that work out?
This was absolutely delicious… thanks so much. This was my first time making any type of bread. I’ll be making more.
Finish baking my first loaf of this recipe today – came out perfectly!Thank you so much!
Question! After the 12 hours my dough rises a lot, but after I do the folding, it flattens (even though I am being gentle). In the end the bread tastes good and it does rise but nIs the folding phase required? Or can I just transfer my dough to the preheated pan without folding it? Thanks for your help!
I will buy a pot tomorrow – just for your recipe, and bake this bread with my 13 year old daughter; for 2 reasons:
-I love the smell and taste of fresh baked bread,
-And I loved the way you wrote how you baked it with your son, and especially the story of how he ate it the first time you baked it with him – I could almost see the little toes wiggling. As a mother of 3 who is absolutely addicted to her kids, I thank you for sharing such a sweet story 🙂
I baked mine in a Le Creuset casserole as well, but I unscrewed the knob because of the 400 deg issue. It was a little challenging to remove the hot lid without the knob, but pot holders on both hands worked fine. @Laura, your knob may have popped because your oven is slightly different in temperature. If it runs hot, it may be too much, where someone else’s runs a little cool and can survive.
My husband couldn’t believe that I made a perfect bakery style loaf. “Really?”
When the bread is on the floured surface, are you tucking the edges up towards the middle facing you (what I did) or down towards the floured surface? Then, when you transfer the bread to the “napping pot,” do you put it with the smooth surface facing up, or the more uneven surface with all the edges from the tucking facing up?
Please note that my LC knob popped at 450. So 450F is not safe unless you have Stainless Steel
Thanks, this was delicious! Can the dough be cut into dinner rolls? How should I adjust the baking time?
Everyone a Dutch oven works perfectly for this bread! Get one at Walmart for $35, just the basic cast iron one made by the Lodge Company always Made in the USA hooray! Makes an absolutely perfect loaf, when cooled somewhat I dump it out, peel off the parchment paper and put it right back in the pot. With the lid on it keeps perfectly for the 48 hours max it takes this family to scarf it down.
I use a Pyrex casserole with a Pyrex lid to bake my bread. One of my very few less than exceptional results I’ve gotten when making this bread is when I forgot to preheat the baking dish and lid. The result was that the bread stuck to the dish horribly.
I flour a cutting board and let the dough rise on that, covered with a piece of plastic. When it is time to move it into the preheated dish, I wet my hands as recommended. It’s stickier when I flour them, and I also like how moist the finished bread is.
When it’s time to put the bread in the bowl, I don’t use parchment. I work my wet fingers around the edge of the dough until I can lift it off the board. At this point I move very quickly. I lift the dough and plop it into the dish as fast as I can so I don’t either lose my grip or end up with it sticking to my hands.
“Plopping” means that it’s sloppy but it evens out a bit in the baking process. Any “wonkiness” gives it character, as Jade says. And nothing detracts from the deliciousness of the result.
I also usually just tip the bowl and the baked bread slides on out. Occasionally I have to loosen up a place where it stuck with a bread knife. And rarely does more than half a load make it to “completely cooled”, so forget about all that “cool completely before you slice” that so many bread recipes include as sage advice. It can be carefully sliced with a sharp bread knife while still warm. 🙂 At last I’m a successful bread maker every time!
Hi Miri- When I move the dough, some of the trapped gas does escape, so yes, but not much.
Yes, bake with parchment.
Yes, it will rise in the oven.
You cannot let it rise in the Le Creuset pot – the pot needs to preheat in the oven.
I let dough rise in a bowl, not in the pot that Im baking in
If the dough rises in the pot then how do you warm your pot for the half hour before baking?
Yes to parchment being left in the pot. It comes off easily after baking.
When you move the dough into the le Creuset does it go flat ? Do you bake it with the parchment paper? If the dough goes flat will it rise up when baking? Why not let it raise in the Le creuset and than bake it? I use a cast iron skillet and let the dough raise in there because when i move the dough it goes down being so fluffy and delicate. Please advice, thanks
Thanks for the recipe and it tasted good, but I didn’t understand the bit about ‘it will double in size’ after folding, shaping into a ball and putting on parchment. It’s already been left 12 hours or more, so why would folding it make it double in size? Mine certainly didn’t double in size on the parchment. Or do you mean it will double in size between the very start when the dough is first mixed and when it goes in the oven?
I do agree with all the ideas you have introduced to your post.
They’re really convincing and will definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too quick for novices. Could you please prolong them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.
I have made this three times now. I could not find “Instant Yeast”. What brand is it? Tried the Red Star Active Yeast and twice it made a nice dense crusty rustic bread. I did try the Fleishchmanns’s Rapid Rise (exp Sep 04 13) which in 2 stores that is all they had, and it did not rise as much as the Red Star. We live near Sea Level in the Palm Desert, CA area. Should I add more yeast, which one, and is there anything else I can do to help it rise more to give us a less dense loaf? Thanks! (P.S. NOT a baker so this is my 1st try baking bread).
Also using Bob’s Red Mill Organically Grown & Certified unbormated Unbleached White Flour which says Superb for Bread Baking by Hand or Machine on the label)
Hi Jillian
Yes 375 grams is equal to 375 mls approx
Sorry if it seemed a bit confusing
Regards
TonyB
Hi thanks for this Tony
406 grams of flour and ? 375 grams of water not mls? Never thought of weighing water always measure by volume that’s why American recipes always seem difficult.
Thanks. Jillian
Hi Jillian
I too am from the UK side of the pond, I usually use cup measures for US recipes, but this evening I weighed the flour and water,
The weights are as follows
406 grams of flour
375 grams flour
I hope this helps
If you would like to let me know how this recipe turns out for
you I would be interested to hear from you on my website email address tonysfoodblog.mail.com
Regards Tony B
Hi do you have this wonderful bread recipe with grams as I am unsure of weights we don’t use cups in England so hope you can help I would hate to make a mess of it.
Thanks. Jill
I have made this bread twice now, it is great so easy to do. I do have one question tho – I would like to make this bread out at the lake in the summer and don’t have a oven. Can it be done on a BBQ? If it can what temp would you keep the BBQ on – or would you do it on indirect heat (one side on – put the bread on the side that is off). Has anyone tried this? It would be great to make my own bread out there. Thanks
what can I say.? I have been trying for years off and on to make bread as good as the baker my mother used to send me to for his perfect., still slightly warm bread, she is now gone bless her as is the bakery but the desire for those shared moments has lingered… Just a crusty shard like crust as you cut into it and aereted perfect bread beneath, if you haven’t tried this recipie you must! Thank you, I never knew whether it was my kneeding, my mixture, my yeast or my oven… If like me, you wonder about no sugar, put your doubts aside, it just works!
I find it keeps up to a week but is by far the best on day 1. After that the crust is a little less crunchy.
Hi how long would this bread keep?
Thanks, Em.
my first loaf is in the oven. smells heavenly (i added some fresh chopped rosemary) the nap was strange, i wasnt sure what to cover it with, so i floured the bowl it slept in overnight and flipped it upside down over the napping loaf. it didnt rise, at all. but what the heck, i threw it in the crock pot insert and covered it with a glass lid and popped it in the oven anyways. i pretty much love ALL bread, so even if it isn’t as rustically beautiful as yours, i’m sure it will taste divine. thanks for the recipe, my 4yo will be trying it this weekend.
I love this bread! The very first time I made it was the first time I have ever made bread successfully! (and I have a bread machine! 😛 ) Mine did not rise much- I used active dry yeast. It was still about 4 inches high and beautiful. Delicious and easy. The ceramic coated cast iron pot was the way to go- I never would have thought of making bread in it. Thanks so much for sharing! Your sons are gorgeous.
wow! I try to always make my bread at home,this recipe amazed me,and the bread I made with this,made me jumping ups and down and dancing with song that the bread singing..thanks a lot a lot for sharing this..
I made this recipe last weekend and it turned out great!
Parchment works beautifully – never a sticky moment and the pot cleans up in no time.
Hey!!
I followed the directions and the recipe- all went fantastically!
Until I came to get it out of my pot – it was so stuck I had to pull it apart to get it out.
It tasted amazing but half of it was left in the pot and I had to soak it overnight to get the rest of the bread out!!
Help! What did I do wrong or what can I do to stop this happening again?
I tried making a couple loaves, and I think it was all purpose flour…they are sitting on the warm stove and didn’t rise a bit. I tested the water with a thermometer and did everything else…will they still be worth baking?
Lol I can’t believe a post about making bread made me cry! That story about your son enjoying the bread was super sweet and I can totally relate! Can’t wait to try this 🙂
OH YES, ALL PURPOSE FLOUR PRODUCES A BEAUTIFUL,ALTHOUGH SMALL (8″ ROUND AND 3″ TALL) LOAF, WITH A VERY NICE CRISPY CRUST AND LIGHT BUBBLEY INSIDE. LAST TIME I USED A FULL TEASPOON OF YEAST AND THE RESULT WAS THE SAME AS THE 1/4 TEASPOON VERSION.
Will this recipe work with all purpose flour or is there a modification required ?
MADE MY FIRST LOAF……..IT IS BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS! HOWEVER, I THINK THE CRUST IS TOO CHRUNCHY FOR ANYONE WITH DENTURES! MAYBE AFTER IT COOLS SOME MORE….. I USED ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR AND IT HARDLY ROSE AT ALL; NOT NEARLY DOUBLE IN SIZE. SHOULD I DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THE YEAST? THANKS FOR THE KEEPER RECEIPE! WE EXPECT TO START ANOTHER LOAF THIS AFTERNOON.
HEY BRIAN!,
Hello Sarah how did it turn out for you, at this moment I have mine in the oven to cook. Will be nice to hear from you.Thank You. Bryan Mcnamara
did you cover the bread when you made it with the cookie sheet? since in directions it does state to leave the top on for 30 minutes. thanks
Bread looks great, I’m going to give it a try, but a couple of questions: I only have one of those big oval roasting pans with a cover, can I use that to bake the bread or is it too big and then the bread will spread out and not hold it’s shape? Cxn I double the recipe and bake two in that same roasting pan?
I suggest baking it in the pan, single recipe first – yes, it will spread out a bit, but it will also rise.
The red wine vinegar will help it rise? I’m from india and can’t find the any kind of yeast in stores. I tried making this with curd but in vain. We do have the vinegar you mentioned though. Are there any other ways to substitute yeast?
I have made this bread twice without modifications. I see from the comments there are some very imaginative bakers who tried some additions.I think I will try s few of them. Also please tell me if anyone has frozen the bread and reheated it. Does it still come out OK.
Whole wheat flour doesn’t have as much gluten, so it’s a lot harder to bake with. My solutions:
autolyse – mix the flour with the water before you add the yeast. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes.
slower rise – use less yeast and let the dough rise overnight in your fridge.
wetter is better – you want to dough to be as wet as possible while still maintaining it’s shape. This promotes those nice big, uneven bubbles.
I am in colorado. I followed every step but the dought did not rise at all. Do I need to do something different in the altitude?
Hi…will this bread recipe be good also if I shape them into small hard rolls? Thanks! Been looking for a good no knead recipe for hard rolls.
Hi, I’m Sonia, italian foodblogger sorry for my bad english, I want tell you that I have included the link of this recipe (which I liked very much) in the section on my blog dedicated to “10 ways to make” (“10 Modi di fare”) aromatic bread.
http://www.oggipanesalamedomani.it/2012/03/26/filoncini-al-cioccolato/
I hope not to bother you, have a nice day
Sonia
I bake it in the pot with the parchment. The paper comes out a bit burnt but no fire and not dangerous.
Do you bake it in the pot with the parchment paper? The parchment paper I have says not to go above 420 degrees but the recipe calls for 450 degrees. I don’t want to start a fire!
Looks Delicious!
To hobbiehobbie: Just bake it.It will be fine.
StumbledUpon this recipe and was inspired enough to finally conquer my fear of bread baking. I pulled my loaf out of the oven and couldn’t wait longer than maybe 10 minutes before tasting it. The crust is fantastic. The insides are amazing.
Thank you so much for this!
Oh my, I was so excited to try this recipe….but my dough seemed to have risen more than I expected after the first “nap” and not at all after the second “nap”….
Any suggestions?
I’ve used a few of your our recipes so far, all have been great. You also have a wonderful way with words. Keep it up! I love to read them.
what a wonderful story!!! what an adorable little boy you have 🙂 the whole thing is well written. i will be trying this recipe in the coming days as i live in france and even through i’m a graduate of ducasse ensp academy and a graduate of the cordon bleu, it’s kind of hard to bake in a tiny little kitchen and french bread always involves a massive headache 🙂
my mom loves bread with poppy seeds so i’m going to give it a go.
thank you for the humor..
Thank you for this! I have made it for every big holiday meal and my family thinks I am a baking god – but it’s all because of you 🙂
For my altitude – I needed 1/4 cup more flour – so I substituted with 1/4 cup grated parmesian cheese – same water, salt, yeast – plus the 1 tsp red wine vinegar to speed things up – let rise 4 hours – after I put it in the pan i sprinkle with same parmesian – MMMMmmmmmm good!!
Thank you for this great recipe. I am already on my second bath this weekend–the first was gobbled up in less than 24 hours. Delicious!
I roasted a garlic and put cut up pieces of it in the dough. Truly heavenly. Great recipe!!
Don’t take it off the parchment – bake it with the parchment. The paper will come off easily after baking. Also, as mentioned above, the paper provides “handles” for lifting the dough out of the napping bowl and placing it in the pot.
A little bit of flour on the parchment works well, too.
My bread sticks to the parchment paper after it’s nap. I don’t want to waste any dough. Could I flour the parchment paper to keep it from sticking?
Want to make a whole wheat loaf…. do I need to add more water or yeast?
Jaden, Thank you so much for this awesome recipe along with the adorable photos and story about your son. I made this bread for the first time today for Xmas and it was great. I used active dry yeast from a packet. And after the initial long nap I dumped it onto floured parchment paper and then put the whole thing in a high bowl to nap the second time. Instead of dumping into the pan I lifted the parchment paper with dough right from the bowl into the pot. Only one sheet of paper used and ZERO cleanup. Since I didn’t dump it over into the pan it stayed a perfect round ball. And all I had was an old stainless pasta pot that I used with a glass lid that didnt even go with it. After it was cooked I lifted the parchment paper and bread right onto a rack to cool. It was the most gorgeous round loaf ever! My friend and I were giddy and could barely wait 5 minutes before tearing into it and slathering it with butter. I will be making this weekly and trying all kinds of variations. Thanks again!!
Well, to the person who said that kneading bread is so good & a great thing to do, well, I agree! 39 months ago, I was in a crash that ripped the cartiledge & tore the tendons between my ribs – So I can’t knead bread! Was really wanting to bake bread & felt so frustrated. A friend of mine told me about No Knead Bread & I have made 2 loaves in two days! Love it with Kerry Gold! And I just recommended No Knead Bread to a friend who has torn his shoulder and loves to bake! This is wonderful!
can i bake this without a pot–shape it into a loaf and bake on a cookie sheet?
Yes you can – the bread will be flatter and you might not get the same crisp crust, but the bread will turn out amazingly tasty.
Thank you again for this recipe! I made it once years ago and then lost track of it and was reminded of it today, just in time to bring to a Christmas party! And thank you also for the parchment paper trick because I went out and bought a cast-iron dutch oven just so I could make this!
Yes, you can. Enjoy!
This tastes really well with wine!
lifting it up with the parchment paper and lowering it in the pan with that paperis exactly what I am doing because it sticks too much to the paper, trying to get it into a hot pan without th epaper is just too difficult and dangerous
Very Nice recipes. This weekend i will surely try this. Thanks for sharing.
I add dried onion and zatar (hyssp). Wonderful. Sesame seeds work well too.
Yes, it works well.
I just lift the dough out of the bowl right on the parchment and lower it into the preheated pot. It helps reduce the risk of burning your hands. Just leave enough extra paper as a “handle.” Has anyone added herbs to this? I love rosemary bread with almond butter. I have made several white and wheat loaves with this recipe and they are always the big hit of the meal. I almost feel bad for the rest of the food. 🙂 So much for my low carb lifestyle!
Can you just lift the parchment with the dough and just place the whole thing into the pot?
Tried this with sunflower seed in it.
Was really awesome
http://instagr.am/p/SsUpY6wPKt/
Thanks!!! Can’t wait to try it this weekend!
Can you use regular dry active yeast for this recipe?
Yes you can – same instructions.
Mine is a goopy mess too. I also flour my cutting board heavily. When it’s time to move it into the pan, I use cold water on my hands, also as suggested. Inevitably it ends up lopsided in the pan, but evens out somewhat in the baking. I love this recipe; I use it a couple times a week and it comes out homely but yummy each time, even when I forget a step, it’s somewhat forgiving (such as not preheating the pan in the oven). The consistency changes a little, it’s more dense, but still delicious.
It always ends up a goopy mess for me too. I just put a lot of flour on my board and as it absorbs the flour it becomes the right consistency. Comes out perfect every time.
Taste was good though. Trying a new batch with 1.25 cups of water
how about just taking half of all the prescrined ingredients?
that was a reply to Laura
Tried a variety of ‘no knead’ recipes without much success and sadly this was teh same: I get stuck with a shapeless blob of dough that in no way can be shaped in any form that looks only remote to a ball. It even sticks to the parchment paper. Too much water?? I followed the recupe to a T.
Well I guess I will just drop it a pan as described and see what I get.
Definitely not: “so easy even a four year old can make it”
Can you use regular yeast or does it have to be instant?
Stephanie, I used Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Highly Active Yeast, in the little envelope. Bread came out perfect. Hope that helps.
Yum! I can’t wait to make this!
Jaden, do you have a recipe where it uses active yeast packets instead of instant yeast?
In my experience, it can wait another hour.
I use King Arthur organic bread flour and love it.
Joanna
can I use King arthur flour or does it have to be bread flour
It’s 930 and I am at the 2hr rising step. Can I let it sit until dinner?
Do not try to remove parchment paper from uncooked dough. Place the parchment paper with dough on it into the cast iron pot. Parchment paper is designed to release only with heat.
I have modified this recipe using 1 cup rye to 2 cups white and add 1 tbs caraway seeds and I love the flavor.
Thanks for posting this recipe. Will definitely try it, maybe even for Thanksgiving. I love your wonderful sense of humor as I read the step-by-step post.
Arlene, have you made the pumpernickel with this NO KNEAD recipe? My grandmother is coming for a visit soon and I’d love to make her some homemade pumpernickel.
Try craigslist. I”ve seen brand new pots for $50. Also, try Goodwill or Salvation Army.
I do not have a lid for my pan, is that an absolute requirement?
This is amazing!! Would this recipe work in a crockpot??
So glad I stumbled across this last night. I immediately made a batch and baked it this morning….Amazing! I sprinkled the top with a Kosher salt mixed with some herbs and spritzed it with water when I took off the lid. Enjoyed it with Kerrygold butter and Natures Hollow raspberry jam this morning and just had a late lunch and made a meatloaf sandwich with melted cheddar/mozzarella. This is my new Go To bread! Thank you.
I also found on another blog grain mixtures to use with this recipe:
Whole Wheat Bread
2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp yeast
2 cups water
Rye Bread
2 cups bread flour
2 cups rye flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp yeast
2 cups water
Pumpernickel Bread
2 cups bread flour
2 cups rye flour
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp yeast
2 cups water
Thanks so much for sharing the other recipes, Arlene. Your breakfast and lunch sound so good!
i’ve tried this for the first time and I’m overjoyed at how good it was. Going to make a bigger batch of dough and experiment with freezing some and refrigerating some. Any guidance on how long the dough will be good for in the fridge after the first rise?
Martin
Great recipe! Might have to have my son do it too!
Let me know how it goes for you!
Wow, this bread was phenomenal. I made it last week and did as you suggested, subbing 1/2 cup white flour for whole wheat. I also sprinkled cornmeal on the bottom of my dutch oven before baking. It was amazing. Tastes as good, if not better, than the bread I’ve gotten at fancy artisan bread shops around town! I have another batch of dough sitting in a warm spot to be made tomorrow. It’s definitely going to become a weekly thing!
PS, I also tried a different no knead recipe before trying this one. Major failure. Then a friend sent me yours and, wow. Just, wow. So easy!!
Yayyy – I am so glad it worked so well for you!
I agree with other people, that this recipe is a bit better somehow than other no-kneed ones. Thank you for sharing this! And I really love the little story at the end….. so cute!
You could also just plop the whole thing into the pot, parchment paper and all. I’ve done this and it makes a great loaf!
Does no knead work with other flours? Rye? Whole wheat? sprouted grains mixed in?
Everything went well until I tried to transfer the dough into a hot pot. It was a big sticky mass, I ended up baking it with bits and pieces of parchment paper in it. Next time, I am going to flour and grease the parchment paper.
Next time, just hold the parchment paper and place the dough + parchment into the pot (parchment on bottom) – then bake. The parchment will peel off the baked bread.
Wow! It’s addictingly wonderful!!! Make sure you have someone around to share it with because it will mysteriously disappear!!!
Wow! I just tried this recipe Monday and Tuesday riding out Hurricane Sandy. Made the dough on Monday and baked on Tuesday. I used 2 cups of white whole wheat and 1 cup of all purpose flour because that’s all I had on hand. Followed the directions and this is the best bread I have ever made! I used an old Graniteware roaster (small one) in a Black and Decker tabletop convection oven. I did use parchment paper with some flour on it, that made transferring it from the 2 hour rest period into the pot very easy.
The bread tasted great and looked like bread you would purchase from a good bakery! Thanks for this information, I’ll be doing this again soon…maybe today!
Jeanne, grease the parchment so the dough doesn’t stick to it.
You don’t need to transfer the dough from parchment to pot, just grab the paper with dough inside and plop it into the dutch oven (or whatever pot you use). Hope this helps.
Can’t wait to try!
I love this bread! I recently bought the 5-minute-a-day bread cookbook, liking the idea of mixing the dough once a week or so and just pulling a bit out of the fridge to bake every day. But after my first loaf with that recipe,, I really like the taste of this recipe better for some reason. Is it possible to make a lot of this recipe at once and then refrigerate the unbaked portion until I’m ready to bake? I’m assuming I would still let it sit out first and I would probably let the loaf sit a while after taking it out of the fridge before baking. Any thoughts?
You can refrigerate the dough at any point (generally I will refrigerate after its long nap), and yes, you need to let it sit out for second rise before baking.
Have made this often-got it on line from NYTimes. Your adaptations make it even easier. My friends still don’t beleive it’s really no kneed. I’ll send them this site with the adorable boy and his wondrous “tatooes”. Many thanks.
This is a wonderful recipe! I burnt the first breads I made (though they were still edible) and had to lower the oven temperature to 415 approximately and lower the baking time to 20 minutes. Also parchment at the bottom of the pot made a big difference to cleaning up afterwards – it makes it much easier! I have experimented with adding herbs to the bread and it’s always delicious. I do knead the dough a little before putting it in the bowl with a cloth. It doesn’t stick so much to the cloth if it has a little more flour added into the mix..
hi I was wondering can I use a cast aluminum pot/pan?
HOLY MOOLEY!!!! This is delicious. What a gorgeous crust. This has fantastic flavor as well.
I’ve been making this bread for years, and love it to death. I am also a chef, and this was slways a top seller at my restaurant.
i have mixed this up with different fruit and veg purée. You can add anything to it….seeds, nuts, herbs,fruit, veg ( one of my favs is caramelized onions and rosemary!)
Making a pumpkin purée batch right now…just remember if added more liquid like add ins, to adjust the water to flour ratio. Another good tip…if adding ‘heat spices’ like chile, garlic, etc wait until after the first rise.
Mmmmm!
Hi-
I was wondering if you could tell me how to cut this receipt down to make in the 3 quart dutch oven that I have? Looks amazing!
Thanks
Laura
This worked great! I’ve been trying to make bread like this for years. The one thing I did different was to leave the dough on the parchment as I moved it from second rise to pot. This made it easier to get in and out of the super-hot pot. Next I’m going to try half whole-wheat. Thanks for posting this!
This was the best discovery I have had on the web to date.
& to think I almost passed by it. I am a Chef and never thought to use a quickie bread because of pure arrogance. My mistake. Thought I would try it and its a hit with everyone here at the house. Now its time to play with it add some whole grains some raisins pumpkin seeds the skys the limit. So good with butter!
Love the little story. have been looking for a good bread recipe. Now I just need to go buy a cast iron pot $$$$ I’ll hit marshalls first Can’t wait to make this!!!
I’m wondering if I can bake this in my bread maker instead of an oven? (My oven doesn’t work properly and I haven’t used it in years) I’m going to try it following the directions all the way up to the baking part and see if it will bake in the machine.
Ladies,
Dust your parchment paper with a little flour, cornmeal or wheat germ, before you put the dough on it. Now it will be easy to remove.
Update: Shape notwithstanding (and even that was not as bad as I feared it would be), the bread is delicious! Thank you!
I think I know what Jeanne means. It is not the parchment paper sticking to the pot, it is the dough sticking to the parchment paper in this step:
“Gently move dough onto a floured towel or parchment paper (recommended).”
I am trying this recipe now for the first time (the bread is in the oven now) and had the same problem. I am guessing that the above instruction probably should say:
“Gently move dough onto a floured towel or FLOURED parchment paper (recommended).”
My bread is going to come out in a sad misshapen blob now but hopefully it will still taste great!
Let me say that I am not a baker. This is my second time to attempt baking bread. What temp is used for the water? Also, I used parchment paper and had a difficult time getting dough unstuck to put in my pot……any other suggestions? The bread smells amazing baking. Thanks for your time and the recipe.
The water is just regular cool tap water.
I’m surprised that parchment stuck to the pot – It shouldn’t stick at all! Next time, try 2 layers of parchment in the pot.
Wow it really looks amazing! I haven’t heard about it before and can’t wait to try it out! 😀
Just gotta transform the cups to dl (hehe, yeah we will see how it goes xD )
Such a sweet memory at the end! <3
Hope you all are in best of health 🙂
/Lollo
I am happy that I just found this recipe because I might finally have a bread that is easy to make, requires few ingredients, has no kneading, and looks and tastes great. I will make this when it gets a little cooler outside. Right now, we’re still having days in the 80s.
Hi. I live in the tropics with room temperature ranging from 84-86 F. Does this affect the amount of time the dough is required to rest? After 12 hours the dough doesn’t have the bubbly look like yours. Going to go ahead anyway but appreciate your feedback.
Spike: As with any recipe, you must tweak the recipe to suit your personal taste. It’s clear that you are not familiar with bread baking as the amount of yeast does not affect the flavor. In fact, the long fermentation adds quite a bit of yeasty flavor. What I suggest is looking up variations on no knead bread which include adding whole wheat flour or grains, fresh herbs, nuts, dried fruit, etc. Personally, I have adjusted the recipe to add 1.5 to 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt. Yes, that is almost double of the recipe here but I find the additional salt helps the flavor of the bread immensely. Sometimes I also coat the outside of the dough with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil during it’s second rise, before I plop it into the hot pot. The olive oil gives the crust a distinctly different flavor and chewier texture. The point of this no knead bread recipe is not to please the masses with the flavor, but to teach you how to successfully make a beautiful and easy basic bread which you can then adjust to your own taste… like any other recipe. To call others “sheep” because they appreciate the recipe and are able to use it successfully is ignorant. Don’t insult others just because you can’t make it work for you.
Spyke, why the attitude and negative feedback? Don’t be so critical and envious of others that are positive, willing to share and above all, happy.
It’s easier to be positive than negative. You can do it, just relax and enjoy.
The flavor should have developed in the 12-20 hrs that you left it fermenting on the counter. The yeast grows inside the bread by consuming the starches in the bread. This means that they divide and multiply. The amount of yeast you put into the bread in the beginning is not what you end up with before you bake the bread. I love this recipe not only because it is super easy and time saving but also because it produces bread with very complex, delicate, very “breaddy” like flavor that grocery store bread (even those “baked fresh” from grocery bakeries) cannot even hope to compete with. I would advise you to try again and use a scale to weigh out all of your ingredients.
I made this today. I made it with wheat and it was wonderful. It was very easy and my son loves it.
I’m intrigued. Do you still need to form the loaf after the first rise, by tucking the ends under and back into the pot?
Thanks
It came out of the oven an hour ago, and half the loaf is already gone! It’s WONDERFUL, and I’ve already been told in no uncertain terms that this recipe is “a keeper!”
Hi Jaden, I read the book: Professional blogging for Dummies by Get Good. She mentioned you in her book as a successful bloger. So I come to your site and like to say Hi. I am fairly new to bloging. I still have a lot of room for improvement.
Once I am here and you guys are talking about no-knead bread. I have posted a blog of no-knead parmesan olive bread. Please check it out at http://www.saigoncook.com and let me know what you think.
Your pictures are very beautiful.
Hi Janie,
I want to make the one with olives….. when do you add 1 1/2 cups of olives: in the initial mixing (before the 12-20hour rise) or after (before the 2 hour rise)???
Thank you. Lana
I’d add it after the 12-20 hour rise and before the 2 hour rise.
My 12 year old daughter asked me yesterday if she could make bread. She found your website, found the ingredients and with no help from anyone else, made a delicious loaf of bread. She was very proud. I really enjoyed your story about your son enjoying the bread. Ah, the simple pleasures in life.
Hi, Best post i have seen in a long while.Your son is a star. Perhaps one day he will have his own bakery.
Homemade bread? And it can handle a small boy. Perfect!!
I’ve made this a couple of times now and love it, however, my bread is always kinda dense inside, any suggestions why? I have tried less liquid but it didn’t make a difference, do I need to leave it rest longer? Help cause I love this recipe, it’s so easy.
I never thought a bread recipe would make me all verklempt, but reading about you and your boy did it for me.
Just stumbled across this and can’t wait to give it a try, looks so easy!
For the last few years I’ve been trying to make some decent bread. Every single time, it comes out too dense, and I get mad and vow to never try again. I’m so glad I tried again! This recipe is amazing! The bread tastes (and smells!) incredible, and the crust is perfect. I can’t believe it’s possible to make something this awesome with zero effort. THANK YOU!
Im pleased u have so much time kelly , but like most people we have to work to pay the taxes & this is a fantastic recipie for time deprived people. A little more yeast and a little more salt works for me . They r lined up now waiting for it to come out of the oven. Love no knead bread. SOUNDS LIKE A SLOGAN DONT IT.YEastHA.
Jaden, last Friday I finally posted my version of no-knead bread that I came up with several years ago. Today I got the idea of googling the bread and seeing what other bloggers have done with it. Love your photos (AND your little sous chef)! The first change I made to the original recipe was getting rid of the messy floury towel thing (I see you did too) and the second was to increase the size from the tiny 3-cups-of-flour loaf of the original recipe. Of course, if you’re not a breadaholic like me, the regular size is probably fine!
In response to commenters who say ‘why not knead’–I agree that kneading is easy, and I love kneading, it’s very therapeutic. I make kneaded breads all the time. The reason I make this bread is not so that I don’t have to knead but because it produces an entirely different kind of loaf. Sometimes I want this rustic bread.
or better yet, how about just strolling down to your corner bakery to buy a loaf? You might as well it will certainly taste better.
I bake bread at least 3-4 times a week and I have always been intrigued by the no knead recipes. Well, I decided to try this one and I really do not think it tastes very good at all. Also, I just do not “get” what is so darn difficult about kneading bread and I find that the kneading is just so therapeutic and satisfying that to take out this step completely takes away the pleasure of making bread. Gordon Ramsey says something similar in one of his cookbooks and I completely agree that kneading your bread dough is what makes it so special.
But anyway… this bread is lacking in depth and character notes – SALT!!! It tastes flat and just would not past muster in a Paris bakery. But then again we are not in Paris, are we?
I find that making a simple poolish the night before and incorporating it in your dough and allowing the dough to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before you continue the kneading process allows for awesome gluten formation, and enables you to knead your dough properly with less flour so your finished loaf has a wonderful texture and chewy crust without being “gummy” and too dense. Crispiness in the crust can be obtained by simply tossing a cup of water into your oven a few times during the baking process or putting ice cubes on your oven floor.
I do not mean to sound negative about this recipe but I really cannot believe that anyone thinks this tastes very good, unless they just have not tasted really great bread before. IMO.
OK,
For the truly truly lazy, or wise, depending on your take on it, I am happy to report that you can skip the bowl completely. If you let the dough rise in the cook pot that you are going to bake it in, it never looses any of its fluffiness, ie it does not deflate the way it does when you try to transfer from the bowl to the pan. Just butter the pan well before you put the flour, yeast, etc into the cook pan, stir it up, cover it, and vola get ZERO cleaning and fluffier bread.
the secret is in the kiss!!
What about using freshly milled flour? I’ve got soft white & hard red or white. What combo of which wheat do you think would turn out best?
Tks!
I was directed here by Karen the blogger of The Art Of Doing Stuff. If it’s good enough for Karen, it’s good enough for me. I’m going to mix up a batch before going to bed so we can have it for lunch tomorrow. I love that you did this with your son. Hey, it worked for Paula Dean…..maybe we’ll see you on TV soon. You might want to be working on a cute southern accent……or maybe not. LOL I’ll be doing what mixing is necessary with my Kitchen Aid as I have fibromyalgia and it’s just too painful to try to stir with a spoon if a batter is thick. I hope that doesn’t ruin it although it seems from the comments that you have a lot of leeway on the prep. I’m excited as my last no knead bread recipe was not good at all. It seemed like it needed more salt. Thanks for posting this one.
My boy and I skipped the floured towel step, and just dumped the bread into a buttered cast iron pot. We also accidentally let it rise for 48 hours instead of 20, and we didn’t remember to cover the pot while it was in the oven. The bread was very forgiving of these “errors” and delicious, full of air holes. Because it came out so well despite these deviations from the above recipe, I am no trying to do it EXACTLY as described above to see what the differences might be.
Science I like. Cleaning up flour and washing counters and bowls, I don’t like. This should be interesting.
Every time I make this bread (and my friends and family rave, btw) the dough sticks horribly to the towel during the second rise regardless of what I do! It’s ruining my towels! Tips?
Use parchment paper instead (no need to lift it OFF the parchment, just lift entire paper with dough out and into the pot.
I found somewhere else this recipe, I made the dough yesterday, only that it said to use all purpose flour and to keep the dough in the fridge over night!.I hope it will turn out ok, now I am getting worried. I will repost later today and tell you how bread came out.
Spike: The amount of yeast used has nothing to do with the flavour of the loaf. The very small amount used replicates over the much longer fermenting period than is usual these days in bread making. By the time it goes in the oven, there will be as much yeast in the dough as there is in a dough made with more yeast but left to ferment for less time.
Are you used to eating sourdough bread, perhaps? If so, any non-sourdough loaf will seem bland to you. Get a sourdough starter and experiment with using that instead of instant yeast.
But maybe you just have a jaded palate from eating highly spiced foods all the time or smoking tobacco. Please consider the possibility that it’s you who’s having the problem, not everyone else being ‘sheep’.
Oh my goodness – this is so delicious!!! I made mine in a Romertopf Clay Pot… perfect. Thank you!
This is a little late, but I have one answer for you, Sandi.
I bake our bread every day during the week. The actual work involved is minimal (10 minutes of kneading by hand) but it requires that I be home in time to knead, to fold, then shape, then get it in the oven. The recipe we prefer takes about 3.5 hours from start to finish. I can do this because I currently stay at home with my toddler. If I was working outside the home there is no way I could have the 3+ hours of wait time for our regular bread and feed my family at a decent hour. Not to mention hanging around or near the house all morning is not feasible on the weekends; we like to go out and do things. A recipe that allows me to have an entire day out of the house and STILL have fresh baked bread is awesome. So maybe instead of getting down on the people who eat “dreck” you could share some tips for getting other bread recipes in the oven for the folks who are not home at ALL during the day.
I have been making this bread for a few week now, and to the other comment about yeast – i use 3/4 of a teaspoon and more salt… i also use part whole wheat flour… I’ve also throw in wheat bran, oat bran, quinoa, and for tonight – 1 1/2 cups of kalamata olives (no salt then), or raisin and pecans another night. delicious!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. I made this bread yesterday, and I am making one today. I think there is nothing else to say but thank you.
I finally made this bread after all the rage about. It looked beautful but absolutely had no flavor (probably because of the minimal about of yeast). People are sheep.
I found your website when I was looking for an easy bread recipe. I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out, so I made it in advance before serving to company. WOW I cant believe first of all how few ingredients it required and then how easy it was. I made it before I went to bed and honestly it took all of 2 minutes and then when I got home from work I finished it.
The crust is beautiful and the bread is so soft inside. This will become my go to recipe always. I even passed it along to my family members and I am sure they will love it as much as I did. Thank you!
Hello, I am absolutely fascinated by this recipe and can’t wait to try it out. I don’t bake and have never even considered trying to, till now. Thanks for sharing, the South African bakeries will now have a new brand of bread to compete with, the homemade no-knead-bread.
Hello there! I came along this website really looking for an easy bread recipe that I could not mess up. I have to be honest and say that when I read about the 12-20hour wait to rise I kind of felt like moving on to another recipe, but THANK GOODNESS I did not!! I made the dough last night, it did not even take 3 minutes to get it done. We baked the dough today and it was a GREAT success!!! This made my whole family very happy, as the bread came out EXACTLY the same as the national bread from our native country Malta (in the middle of the Meditterranean sea). Needless to say I will be doing this again! And from the bottom of my heart, Thank you for helping me bring a little of HOME to our new “Home’ in the USA. Thanks.
I’ve made this a few times now – outstanding! I raise my bread in a warm oven since my kitchen is rarely warm here in the Pacific NW. Hazards of doing this – my partner was cooking dinner last night and forgot the bread was in the oven – he turned on the broiler. The melted plastic was easily to remove while still warm. I started over. Now I put a note on top of the stove – BREAD IN OVEN!! 🙂 I can’t wait to make this with my grandson, he’ll love it!
Is it possible to add extras? I just had the most amazing raisin & walnut bread that my father bought for me at a farmer’s market. Could I add raisins and walnuts to this bread and still follow the rest of the instructions as printed?
I just made it this morning. It was way too wet…couldn’t do much except sprinkle some more flour on it and try to maneuver it. I plopped it on the floured towel but had a horrible time getting it into the SS pot. I baked the required time. Is the inside of the bread supposed to be real moist? Can I just put it in a bread pan to rise the 2nd time and then bake rather than doing the towel thing? I’m soaking it in cold water to get the goop off. The bread tastes wonderful in spite of the mess but is not very high due to spreading out in the 5 qt SS pot I used. I’m pleasantly surprised that the crust isn’t super hard, either. Would like to try again if I can use a bread pan, instead. Please let me know!!
You think like I do. I haven’t been able to set up my kitchen entirely like yours, but I do more than most people and even though it drives my husband a little nutty, he always appreciates and loves everything I make. Question to you, at what point, exactly, do you add in herbs/seeds/additions to your breads? Also, any suggestions for additional reading on cooking in this more ‘homegrown’ science-like fashion? I’ve cultured yogurt as well and am currently trying to figure out how to properly make kombucha, but haven’t been successful yet. I’m curious as to your thoughts. Thank you in advance 🙂
Thank you for this recipe — it came out great! I used a loaf pan so baked it uncovered. The crust is delicious and crisp and chewy and the inside is wonderful. The only drawback is that the recipe makes only one loaf! Does it double?
It is rising as I speak: I’ll let you know how it turns out. (I couldn’t find anything labeled “instant yeast” so I used Fleischmann’s yeast from a jar.)
That’s perfect.
Tony,
I just measured:
1 cup all-purpose flour = 145g
1 cup water = 8 fl oz = 250ml
good luck!
Steve
I made this today and it turned out fabulous! I really liked the texture of the bread and the crust was perfect. I tried the digital thermometer with the probe and the bread did not go above 202, but I baked it for the 30 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered and it was spot on. I have tried several different recipes and had my friends and family try each of them. They liked this recipe the best. I did not do the floured towel but did the parchment paper for the 2nd rise, then transferred the parchment paper with the dough directly into the preheated cast iron pot.
Hi from across the pond, I would love to try this recipe but we work in metric (grams) or imperial lbs and ozs, would I be right in assuming that a cup of flour is 115 grams and a cup of water is 275 ml, there seems to be a lot of variation from one
conversion chart to the next.
Thank you in anticipation of your advice.
Tony
Great pics and insx for this recipe, and your son’s first time eating bread…oh so sweet. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!!
About 20 minutes. I have made this recipe two times now and love it. I have used this dough for pizza crust and cooked mini rolls in cupcake tins. Thanks for sharing. You have changed my life!
If I make this into small loaves such as 6 x 3, what is baking time on a cookie sheet?
I honestly don’t know without testing myself!
This recipe is basically a sourdough bread. I love having healthful and helpful organisms dominating the micro-ecology of my kitchen, particularly in my fridge – so I keep a mother soughdough; make a fresh batch of yoghurt every day or two (and drink the whey); and brew three or four batches of beer and/or ginger beer each year. I use vinegar in water to clean around the kitchen and inside the fridge and to rinse hot-washed utensils for ‘sufficient’ sterilization.
I reckon that disease-causing pathogens can’t compete in a thriving micro-environment of healthy biota. Also, it stimulates and develops the human immune system, minimizing allergy reactions, asthma, irritable bowel, acid stomach and many other manifestations of an unhealthy gut. Remember, your kitchen is an extension of your digestive system and, just like your gut, it needs a healthy micro-biosphere for you to flourish.
With this no-knead bread recipe, instead of using all of the dough at once I just use however much I need, add some more flour and water to the bowl, cover it with a cloth bound with an elastic band and leave it on the bench for a while. Later I put it back in the fridge. This slows down the yeast growth but it still bubbles happily along – forever. It’s a soughdough yeast plant.
I just pull off bits of dough whenever I want a pizza base, or tortilla or naan or flatbread or whatever you call your local pan-cooked bread. I work the bit of dough between the thumb and first two fingers of each hand, sort of stretching it and slapping it back together. I use a bit of wholemeal flour, or fine cornmeal or oatmeal on the board as I work and stretch the dough ball into shape (sorry, that’s kneading isn’t it?) These flours keep the dough from sticking, adjust the texture, and add different tastes and textures. You can also work in herbs or seeds (dill, fennel, sesame etc) at this time.
Then I slap the round sheet of dough onto a pre-heated griddle. It’s not so hot that I can’t still do a bit of stretching and shaping of the dough with my fingers before it sets. I use my 9 inch cast iron frypan to cook the bread, it’s well-used and never scoured, so it’s kinda ‘non-stick’ minus the pseudo-estrogens.
I set the heat according to the thickness of the bread I am making – not so hot with longer cooking time for thicker, rising breads, hot and quick for the really thin ones – just so long as you don’t scorch or burn the bread before it’s cooked through. Thin breads only take like 30 seconds or a minute each side.
This is fresh food that is quick and easy once it is preped and practiced at a little. It makes people happy and it keeps you healthy.
can’t wait to try it! I wish you had pinterest embedded in your site so I could pin it!
First time making this load and it came out beautifully. Only problem was I had a lot of trouble getting it out of my enamel pot in one piece. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Line bottom of pot with parchment paper!
The only thing that you did was stray from the procedure a little bit. You do not have to let it rise in a bowl.
After 12+ hours just fold it and toss it in the pot.. done.
I have never let it rise like traditional bread and it has always turned out perfectly.
I would like to make 6 x 3 loafs (or around that size). Can I put in the small load pans or just put on a baking sheet? Do I need to cover? What suggested adjustments to time? Thanks.
I’ve made this bread several times & I must say- I adore it!
As a student I need all the extra time I can get- this is SO EASY! I’ve even got my family hooked on it 😀 My last batch was done with Jalapenos, finely chopped (white)onion & some cheese. Yum! A spicy Mexican treat!
I’m the only one eating the bread I sometimes can’t finish it all before it goes bad. I noticed a few homeless people hanging out down the street from my church. I’d love to bake a bit of extra bread and share it with them. I’m looking for a [cheap] way to raise the calorie content for them [if I can]- can I add [unsalted] butter? Or will this change the consistency of the bread too much? What else can I add?
Yay! I can’t wait to make this.. I have been itching to make home made bread.. Can things be added to the bread, like, olives or garlic cloves or whole wheat flour? It’s not that important, just wondering.. Thanks for posting!
I tried it using 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 bread flour, plus about 1/4 cup oatmeal. It makes the loaf a little more dense, but still VERY successful and delicious!
I tried this recipe with no bread experience whatsoever, other than loving to eat it. It turned out so well that I’ve started making it for friends and relatives. People have told me their family fights over the last piece! I’ve since delved into making the French bread too. It is so satisfying to bake bread, and I’m so happy you introduced me to it. I’m actually baking some right now, so I gotta go.
Talk about coincidences! I jus watched French Food at Home and Laura Calder did this very recipes. Now I’m itching to get my hands flour covered trying this, looked good
I Tried it, liked it, and it has become a regular part of my weekly bread baking experience in Vicenza, Italy
Super cute model! I’m convinced this is so easy I can make it…I mean a 4-year old could make it. Thanks for making me smile and sharing a terrific recipe.
Greetings from north of the Arctic Circle.
This is the best recipe! this is my 3rd time making it and it has turned out perfect every time. Its so easy and with my busy schedule, its perfect! Thanks!!
Can’t wait to make this bread! In your Dukkah post, you mention that you divided the dough in half and put the rest in the freezer. What is the process to bake a frozen loaf (from when to freeze through finished product)? Thank you!!!
I thaw it completely before letting it rise again and bake.
Hi! I just started my very FIRST batch of homemade bread with this recipe! I am so excited. The only question I have is, do I need to cook this bread in a covered pot? I don’t have anything that would go into the oven at 450 degrees and I can’t really go out and get one right now. Would it be okay if I cooked it on a parchment covered cookie sheet and covered the entire thing in a loose aluminum foil? If not, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the bread dough tomorrow when it is ready. Any help you can give will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! Thanks so much, LOVE YOUR SITE!
Yes absolutely! No need to cover with foil if you aren’t baking in a pot.
I ended up with a very runny dough, TWICE! Cant even lift it up. Don’t know what went wrong.. So frustrating. But that doesn’t stop me to keep on trying. I’m gonna try again later today, fingers crossed. ; )
It’s a very forgiving recipe – add less water next time until you feel like you’re getting a consistency that you can handle.
Bread and I haven’t gotten along in ages. Every time I try to get yeast to do it’s business; I lose. I cannot wait to make this! I’m hitting the store tomorrow. I do have on question though: Can you use mutli-grain/whole wheat type flours or do you have to adjust for their “heft”?
YUP – New fav way of making bread! Though I didn’t have an adorable kid to “model” for me! Instead of a covered pot.. I just used a cookie sheet and placed a loaf pan 1/2 full of water on lower rack. YUM YUM
Hi Jaden
GREAT set of photographs and text. I have been baking bread with the no knead method for several years. My problem was the dough sticking to the cloth after the second rise. Also, the dough would spread out too much in the baking pot. You have suggested a solution to my second problem by rising the dough on the cloth in a restricting container. I like the idea. My solution to both problems has been to decrease the water to flour ratio. You use 3 cups flour with 1.5 cups of water. I have been using 3.5 cups flour with 1.25 cups water. I love thinking of the technical issues of bread baking. Any thoughts on decreasing the hydration of the flour.
Bernie
** I meant I’ll keep you all posted…..sorry lol
I was looking for a very simple bread recipe when I came across this site. Needless to say, I had all the basic ingredients, but like many, I have the active dry yeast and not the instant…. so, I added just a tad bit more of the yeast. Right now it’s covered and resting for its 20 hour slumber….I can’t wait until tomorrow after work for me to bake this bread. Both my fiance and doggy can’t wait either. (^_^) I’ll keep you all! Aloha….
Bill, you may have to adjust the flour/water ratio based on the humidity and water content of your flour. I live outside Portland OR and I routinely cut my water by 10% or more because of our humidity. You should be shooting for a consistency of a very soft dough. I also left mine in the refrigerator overnight and on the counter all the next day.
I make this recipe at least one a week nowadays, always with the picture of the adorable little tatooed dude in my head.
Try this- instead of butter, try dipping it in extra virgin olive oil (Trader Joe’s garlic oil if there’s one near you) with plain ol’ dried Italian herbs added while the bread is baking. With a little wine and salad….
Best,
Jeff
I just made this and it came out perfectly on my first try!!! Even my DH enjoyed it and he very picky. I added dried herbs and it came out full of flavor. By the way, I have a Le Creust Dutch oven as well and I removed the top knob so i didn’t have to worry about it melting. 🙂 thanks for posting this!!
It was wonderful and perfect! My daughter loved listening to the bread “crackle” when it first came out of the oven! lol My hubby said, “this is JUST like the Bread Company bread”! 🙂
Thanks again!
I have one hour left until my first batch of this will go into the oven. 🙂
I just realized “I” made a mistake…. Jaden, I used active “dry” yeast, do you think this make for a flatter bread and have you used the active dry before and did you do anything different when you did? All steps up till now (I have about another hour of the second rise to go) including first raise after 14 hrs. or so, transferring, etc. all look JUST like your pictures! Was just curious about the yeast question.
I’ve been baking our own sandwhich bread for a long time now and a rustic crunchy artisan bread was lacking, I think this will fit the bill nicely though.!
I’ll let you know how it turns out using the yeast that I did.
Thank You for a great recipe!
Tracey
I think you’ll be just fine! let me know!
Thanks a lot for the recipe. Yesterday I was looking for a simple recipe for bread and I immediately tried yours. As I don’t have an oven, I baked it in a pan. I miss the crunchy crust yet the structure is still great.
I’m sure this is a tasty loaf of bread, but why all the wailing and teeth gnashing about the ‘difficulties’ of kneading and shaping the loaf? That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. I can have half a dozen different breads out of the oven in the 20 hours you wait on this stuff, and that includes all my regular tasks getting done and a good night’s sleep. No, I am not a pro, the only training I’ve every had was 9th grade home ec. If you quit making real, homemade food sound SO HARD, maybe more people would quit eating processed dreck and try real food.
I can’t wait to try the recipe, but I have a question: could I use a loaf pan?
WOW.
thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!!!!!
i have enjoyed your blog for awhile now. my husband and i have been wanting to try making bread forever, and after coming across this recipe, the pictures sold me. we followed your directions to the letter, and it came out FLAWLESS.
we just made 3 loaves, have decided there is basically no reason to buy bread again.
seriously. it’s that good.
we also splurged on the butter, as directed.
amazing.
thanks again!! 😀
– rachel & rené
The crust is actually crackling!
I have 5 minutes left on my first attempt. It smells so good. Is it suppose to smell like sourdough?
Just had to say, the photo of your son giving the bread a goodnight kiss is just so cute!~
By the way, great recipe…always good with a lot of butter. 😀
I’ve used with wheat flour only, all-purpose flour, and mixed. I’ve added slice garlic stuffed olives and sliced jalepeno olives. I’ve let it rise 8 – 24 hours. I’ve learned to add more yeast…up to 2 tsp. Fresh Rosemary is waiting for the next batch. This is a very forgiving recipe. Even mistakes taste good with butter!
Hello… thanks so much for this wonderful recipe…and the visual presentation…
we made this bread last night…and it turned out amazing…
Bill, mine vas very runny too – when cooked it resembled foccacia (flat and dense)and was not cooked properly inside, still doughy. My mistake was the yeast – after I’d mixed it all I realised it had expired, so the next day I went and bought more fresh instant dried yeast, added it to the re-warmed the dough and left for another 18 hours, so really my dough sat for 2 days with the two attempts! It bubbled up nicely, but was very runny when I tried to put it in the teatowel – no way I could make a ball shape. It didn’t smell yummy while it was cooking. A disappointment, but wholly my mistake. I will keep trying this until I get it as I really want to make a simple home made bread!
LOL! I DID remove the loaf from the towel before I baked it! I was simply referring to the gooey mess that is left in the towel after it has risen a second time. The bread turned out fantastic, thanks.
not sure if you are serious or not, but if you are, please re-read the directions. you take it out of the towel BEFORE you bake it. It’s the pot that must be covered (for the first 30 min) because you need the 70% humidity to get the steam moving.
Maybe you should go watch the youtube videos so you see exactly what to do. look up no-knead bread. there are lots of videos to watch.
good luck!!! it is worth trying again!
Oh my goodness! I am in love. I don’t know if I should know how easy this is, because I would weight 300 lbs if this was on regular rotation in my kitchen. Thank you for making this failed bread baker a super star. Now help me pay for the personal trainer to work this bread off! ;D
p.s. Also, how DOES one clean the tea towel after baking the bread? I am tempted to throw it out, it is such a mess.
I have a non-bread baking question ….
how do i clean the tea towel after baking the bread ?
Just soak and then scrub in water. Next time, you can use parchment paper.
Bread flour has more gluten in it like wheat flour, but not as much as wheat flour. It makes the bread more stretchy than all purpose flour and helps hold the bread in shape. Give it a go!
this is the best loaf I have ever made! My husband and I ate way too much bread when it was finally cool enough to cut. The waiting was torture.
My husband is a potter who makes functional pieces, and I used a covered casserole dish that he makes. It worked beautifully. I was a little afraid when the parchment paper slipped a bit when I put in the dough, but it did not stick at all to the crock.
Thanks so much for the easy and enjoyable recipe!
Your pottery is absolutely stunning!
mine tasted great except the interior of the bread seems raw -put it back in the oven(after it cooled and we cut it to find the rawish center)for 5 minutes….doing it again. anyone find the baking time for this is too short?
Add a few minutes to your baking time.
Tried this yesterday, it was so easy and turned out great! we loved it, so tasty, will make again.
I’m looking to try this out, but I don’t have something like that to bake it in. Could I use 2 loaf pans and not cover them?
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. My second attempt ended up with runny dough too. I carefully measured 3 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water… I’m thinking for my next try I’ll only use one cup of water.. or maybe 1 1/4….
It’s baking now but I’m sure it will be very similar to the first one: foccacia bread.
The one major learning I’ve taken from this is that in order to get the nice bubbles in French bread, I need to work with dough that is much wetter than I normally use…. but finding that happy medium of the right “wet” still eludes me.
Well, I ended up with a foccacia-like loaf that was incredibly crunchy and chewy. It had great flavor and the kids managed to make it disappear quickly. They are still asking for a loaf that’s “more like french bread” though.
So I’m giving it another go.
Great recipe, making it for the second time right now. I just put it in the oven.
Bread was great last time (If a bit overcooked, but that’s not the recipe’s fault.) Despite a few burnt bits on the bottom everyone loved it. (Even my little sister: “It tastes like /real/ bread!”)
This time the dough was wetter, but I’m hoping that doesn’t make too big a difference.
The only change I made was to substitute Traditional Active Dry Yeast instead of instant. 1/4 tsp still works, but you need to change the steps a bit. Instead of mixing the ingredients together at once, mix the water (maybe about 105F, slightly warm) and yeast together and let sit for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients.
Has anyone tried this recipe with whole wheat bread flour, quinoa flour or any other non-refined whole grain flour??
Maybe a 4 yr old can do it but when one attains age 58, obviously other issues enter in!
I ended up after 24 hours with a runny mess. No way could I make it into a blob to be moved to a floured towel… it was the consistency of shampoo.
I’m thinking my troubles began when I used 1/4 tsp of Fleischmann’s active dry yeast rather than 1/4 tsp of instant yeast. I’m not sure I even know what “instant” yeast is…
So, my solution was to incorporate a little more flour (maybe 1/4 cup) along with another heaping 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast. It’s now back in the warm place where, if it’s going to do something, it should now.
I think there was some yeast-action – there were small bubbles – just not enough.
We’ll see what happens next!
come back and let me know!
Wonderful bread! I have made it many times. I am visiting my in laws and want to make it for them but they only have regular flour not bread flour. Will the recipe still work? Thanks!!
No Maria, remove from towel b4 baking. 😉
I have made this recipe 3 times and thankfully it is very forgiving on the rising time. My family loves this recipe though my end result comes out flatter like focaccia. I cannot not get the dough into a nice smooth ball like your pictures. I used all purpose flour instead of bread flour, as I have seen many of the same recipe w/this being the only difference. Will using bread flour fix the problem?
Maria, you are suppose to dump the dough into the pot without the towel. (see the beginning of step 3) I had trouble with some of the dough sticking to the towel on this step. I will try to flour the towel even more next time. However, the dough washed out with just water. I did that right away. Good luck on your next try.
🙂
i haven’t made this yet, but i cant wait to try! I need to borrow a pot though because i dont have anything big enough. Maria–dump it from the towel into the heated pan. do NOT put the towel in the oven. Bake it with the cover, then take the cover off so the top greats crisp.
The dough stuck in the towl when I was cooking it. I supposed to cook it in the pot with the towel covered, right? Then uncover, remove it from the towel turn it upside down and cook it uncovered.
What did I do wrong?
My husband was born in Europe and for 20+ years has complained about American bread. When we lived in the city getting crusty bread was not an issue, now that we have moved to a very small rural town to retire, 27 miles to the nearest grocery store, bread has been a real problem.
I started making this recipe a few weeks ago and we haven’t bought a loaf of American “cake” bread since. Thank you for sharing this simple, crusty loaf recipe.
ps. I keep my floured towel in a ziplock bag in the freezer so I don’t have to keep washing the towel. My black cast iron dutch oven is wiped out and sitting ready for the next loaf.
This is the perfect bread to make if you are going on the low iodine diet required before an I-131 radioactive scan for thyroid cancer. Just be sure to use non-iodized salt and you are set!
Wow. I’ve never read such an easy recipe!
I literally just whipped up 4 loaves. Added some poppy seeds, thyme, and rosemary. Thanks!!
I haven’t tried this recipe yet,but I had a kick looking at the pics. Job well done!
Good stuff
Thanks for this amazing bread recipe! This is definitely my new go-to bread! I didn’t have the covered pot, and when I told my cousin the only reason I wanted it was to make this bread, she bought me one for my birthday, yay! Now my family and I enjoy this loaf at least once a week! Thanks!
Hi. I’d love to bake this bread and I’m in the market for a LeCreuset french oven. How large is the one you used in this recipe? 5 1/2 or 3 1/2 quarts?
This is a great recipe, thanks for posting it, the taste is fantastic, with the most minimal effort required. Try this today!
I need to convert the recipe to metric and I normally use fresh yeast. Can you please tell me how much fresh yeast i will need for this recipe? Thanks.
Quick question: did you use a baking stone in the oven? Thanks!
No I didn’t use a baking stone….but you certainly can!
This looks pretty great. I’m giving it a test run today using whole spelt flour, since I have a wheat-allergic relative coming over for Thanksgiving. Since spelt is really sensitive to over-kneading, this might be perfect.
Hi! I looove this bread, one of my friends makes it regularly and it has always been great. I have made it 3 times now. The first time it was tall and fluffy. However, the last two times it has not plumped up and ends up pretty flate and dense. I am following the recipe exactly. I have added rosemary the last two times, but my friend assures me that this should not effect the outcome of the bread. Please advise!
I tried this last night/this morning with great success! It was so easy and delicious that I kicking myself for waiting so long to try it. I halved the recipe, only let it rise for about 12 hours, eyeballed the yeast and the flour and it still turned out wonderfully. I also skipped the second rise and used non-stick mini-loaf pans. The recipe, halved, was perfect for three of these pans. Thanks to the author and everyone else for sharing their experiences! I make many things from scratch but had yet to try bread. Now I feel empowered to continue making more things on my own!!
Thank you so much!
I’m a guy who can’t boil water without a few practice runs and I make this when I’m broke and need a protein rich sugarless fat free source of nutrition. I use whole wheat flour, mix a scoop of brown rice protein powder in with just a bit of cocoa. Don’t expect it to rise the same but twenty hours later I do all the recipe requires. It turns out a rich dense flavorful loaf which I cut up and put on my George Foreman grill the next day. It’s the best bread I’ve ever eaten. Next time I will mix in raisens, walnuts and maybe some natural honey and let you know. Try it. Just don’t be depressed when the blob doesn’t get real big. I double the recipe and cook it in a big white pyrex thing that my ex left me with bless her lyin coniven heart. Forget the butter – use natural peanut butter not the sugary hydrogenated crap – just slather it on and snarf with a bit of natural honey or fruit preserves if you can find some in the back of your fridge.
I have been trying to make bread and not buy it, any time saving tips is appreciated! I can’t wait to try, thanks.
We are at 6300′ and no change to the recipe. All other bread recipes fail in one respect or another – I had given up. This one works every time.
Try the beer/wheat recipe at “Breadtopia” – thought it would be a brick, but what a taste!
Thanks! There was no instant yeast at my store either! I’ll add 25% more of the active dry yeast I bought.
Hi there!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve made it 3 times the past 3 weeks, twice with 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 white flour, and once with just white bread flour. All 3 times it turned out delicious but it would not hold the boulé shape at all and spread out into a flat loaf. I’ve tried pulling corners underneath to create surface tension on all 3 loaves. Any advice?
Hey Joseph, if your dough was to moist from the beginning, then the measurements have to be off. If it didn’t bubble up or just went flat, you may have a water problem. Too much chlorine in your water may kill the yeast. Try purified bottled water. I have made this bread for three years now and usually make a double batch. I’ve had two flops, both when I was distracted and messed up the amount of flower.
Thanks SteamyKitchen, lots and lots! As my little girl used to say 20 years ago when she was little.
Thanks lots and lots to you too Greg! 🙂
Loooove this recipe and have been making for a year now and was wondering if anyone has tried adding flax and/wheat germ to this recipe???
No they are not the same. Use 25% more active dry yeast when substituting for instant and vica versa.
Any suggestions for baking this bread at altitude? 5000ft seems to throw of all baking recipes.
If you consistently get sticky, soupy dough, or bubbles but no volume, or a moist, dense, gray loaf, my bet is that the yeast has died. I recently bought two new jars of yeast and neither of them produced edible results. I returned them and bought a different brand, and now my bread turns out like normal. The box of yeast must have encountered poor conditions before being stocked in the store, or it was a bum batch.
I didn’t have a pot either. I used a cast iron pan and made an aluminum foil tent to cover it. The bread still came out great!
Perfect solution!
Well count me as one of the few out of THOUSANDS as mine turned out to be a watery mess also. I will need to add a minimum of 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour if I was to attempt again. I live at sea level – no altitude problem or anything like that. I triple checked my measurements, used quality King Arthur’s bread flour, etc… it didn’t come anywhere near the last step of holding a shape. More like a thick bread batter requiring a mold.
Go figure!
My daughter discovered your site and now we are both hooked! We’ve tried your no knead and we love it!
Btw, have you tried the modified version (Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey) to cut down on the “nap” time? Mine was 6hrs instead of their 4.5. I also added the red wine vinegar – the bread’s pretty good. Oh and I used my tagine to bake the bread.
No I haven’t seen version w/vinegar – will def have to check it out.
I don’t have a pot. HELP!!!! What about a regular dish with high sides and a cookie sheet lid?
The “no knead bread” dough is very different from “regular bread” dough. It is very loose and sticky. That extra liquid is what makes it great. After the 12-20 period it should look unhandleable, but it should have enough structure to hold itself in a loose blob after you pull the ends in. Just try it, the proof is in the end product. The recipe is in US measurements.
I think there is something wrong with the quantity. I used your measurement, and it turned out very liquid! it can’t even sit on my table without flowing.
You might want to try the recipe again, the quantities are correct, as this recipe has been made by thousands of readers.
came across your website, its great!
want to sk a question, I use imperial metric measurmnt, may I know what system did you use to measure the ingredients?
Gluten free bread is such a finicky thing to get right. I’ve been trying to make a good loaf for my daughter for over a year and have had only random success. I believe the trick is to find the right combo of flours: Brown Rice, White Rice, Bean Flour, Sorghum, Potato Starch and Xantham Gum. Unfortunately these ingredients aren’t cheap and it gets expensive trying to experiment all the time….Trader Joes has wonderful GF mixes for pancakes/waffles and brownies.
How does this recipe work with at least one half whole wheat four?
Anyone tried that yet?
I thought it was all wrong- dough seemed watery in the morning. I threw a bit of extra flour and continued to follow the recipe. It is delicious- thanks!
Is there a difference between “active dry yeast” and “instant yeast”? If so, can they be used interchangeably? Thank you
I loved this bread and have been making it a while. Now I have to go gluten free and found nothing that even looks that good! Boring! Any ideas? —anything bread tastes like cardboard!
I made this (my second loaf of homemade bread ever) with my 2-year-old son yesterday. He eagerly waited for the timer for me to take off the lid, then eagerly waited again for me to take it out of the oven. He kept peeking through the window to check on it. He was amazed that we made bread from dough.
As for the bread itself, it was fantastic! I couldn’t believe I had just made bread that yummy. Maybe baking bread is not as intimidating as I thought it was. I loved it. My son loved it. My husband loved it. I am making it again ASAP 🙂
Thanks for posting this, I have the perfect recipe for chicken soup & I was hoping to make a nice easy rustic loaf of bread. Turns out most of the bread recipes in a cooking website don’t have a recipe with such simple ingredients. I’m going to do this with my 2yr old for a quick project & I’ll add some rosemary for good measure (& cause it goes so well with chicken).
While the recipe does take time which takes away from the whole quick part (I’m kind of low on the patience for eating stuff I’m trying) I am looking forward to spending quality time with my daughter teaching her how to cook something she loves eating & sharing the joy of baking which my mom did with me.
THANK YOU!
My bread lurks, and I cannot wait to try it! Thanks for the recipe!
I have to thank you, I first discovered your website looking for an easy way to pull moisture from steak and found your whole thing about salting steak and this recipe was at the bottom of the page and I was intrigued by a no knead bread. I love playing around with recipes and finding something new, but I also had to thank you for the footnote, if you will, about your son…I’m not a mother, I’m still slightly young, but if anything were to ever change my mind about having kids it would be the moment I read that — i