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Crusty No-knead Artisan Bread

I originally posted this recipe for the easiest no-knead artisan bread on my Youtube channel, but decided it should absolutely be available here as well. Listen, this is one of the easiest recipes ever created. There are tons of variations available online, and I want to be the first to let you know that this recipe is also amazing for making 8 slider-sized rolls. It’s very versatile, as many different flour combinations can be used — whole wheat, all-purpose, bread flour, whatever rocks your boat. Just know that any flour containing wheat/grain particles will not rise as much because the shards of wheat tend to slide the gluten at the knees, causing it to be less puffy. It will still be very delicious though!

Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

The originator of this incredibly simple recipe says that it’s so easy a 6 year old could make it. That is the truth-ruth! You literally mix flour, yeast, and salt with water…mix it around until it’s all absorbed…and let it proof for 12-18 hours overnight. The next day, you gently combine it into a ball — with plenty of extra flour as it’s a very wet and sticky dough, and then let it rest while you heat your oven. Bake it, and boom. You’ve got incredible fresh bread with zero effort. Don’t believe me? Watch the video tutorial 🙂

Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

Why use a dutch oven? Ok, so…it’s like this. In order for bread to develop that incredible crust as it bakes, it needs steam. Professional bakeries use ovens that release steam during the baking process to help create that signature crust. Home ovens don’t have steam injectors, so we have to improvise. You could spray water every few seconds during the first 10 minutes of bread baking to kinda achieve that — OR — you can trap the steam inside of your dutch oven as the bread bakes. Dutch ovens are like little mini-ovens that trap lots of heat and steam and basically turn into small bread-baking saviors.

“But, I don’t have a dutch oven!” – you.

It’s ok, this bread will still bake on a regular baking sheet, and turn out just as delicious. You’ll get a nice crust, but it won’t be as crusty if you used a dutch oven. Honestly though, who cares, when you have such an amazing, fool-proof recipe that is guaranteed to change your culinary life. Just make the damn bread anyway.

I’ve made this bread many times, using either all-purpose flour, or bread flour. Both are amazing, but I’ll give bread flour the slight edge. It doesn’t matter though, you’ll be happy with whatever you choose to go with.

Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

Look at that crumb! Perfect vehicle for lots of creamy butter 😛

Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

You can totally make this bread! It’s worth it, and best of all, you know exactly what’s in it.

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Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread


Description

adapted from Jim Lahey


Ingredients

Units

Instructions

  1. Mix dry ingredients until combined. Add warm water and mix until flour mixture is absorbed by water. Dough will be wet and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and store at room-temp or a turned off oven for 12-18 hours, and up to 24.
  2. Two hours before you’re ready to bake, gently pull dough out of bowl onto a heavily floured surface, being careful not to puncture too many air bubbles. Gently form into a ball. Place dough on top of cornmeal covered parchment paper and cover with a clean, floured kitchen towel for 2 hours. During the last 30 minutes of those 2 hours, pre-heat your oven and empty dutch oven to 450 degrees. Let it sit in there the entire 30 minutes. When it’s super hot, transfer the parchment/dough into the dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove lid after 30 minutes and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, or until bread registers 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Immediately remove bread from the hot dutch oven and let cool on a wire-rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Notes

This is a wet dough. However, depending on the humidity in your situation, you may need a little more water or flour to help the dough come together. If your dough is unreasonably wet, add more flour. If there are lots of dried flour pockets, add a little more water. There is room for error in this recipe. I usually have to add up to 1/2 cup more water if I’m using bread flour because it is much denser and heavier than regular all-purpose. Play it by ear and go with your instincts. You can do this!

  • Prep Time: 12 hours
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
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Recipe rating

  1. Iris says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    This looks yummy! A lot of similar recipes on you tube leave dough to prove for 1-3 hours. Why does this need 18hrs?
  2. Elle says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    Should you preheat the sheet if you’re using a baking sheet instead? Does anything about the bake time change?
  3. dennis l kotzman says:

    My bread got burned on the bottom crust! I think my oven is off on temp. What do you think? Also, I don’t think I let my Dutch oven warm up long enough!

  4. Val says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    I don’t have a Dutch oven What can I use to prove the bread ? Would I need to put a glass bowl of water in the oven to create the steam ? Can I use anything else other than cornmeal ?
  5. Vanessa Clark says:

    Ah-I see what happened here. I doubled the recipe using the 2X tab and it doubled the water temperature too-not sure there would be a fix for that but still worth noting for newbies!

  6. Vanessa Clark says:

    Hello!

    I’m wondering if it’s possible to correct the water temperature note in your original recipe? It says warm water, but then gives a temp range of 180°-220°, which is basically near(and over) boiling water. I’m a good cook, but as a novice bread baker, it didn’t make sense, so I looked in the notes where you say a range of 90°-110°. I think a lot of people might be making the mistake of killing yeast with boiling water.

    • Chef Resha says:

      Wow I didn’t even noticed it scaled the temperature as well. I really don’t like that Scaling feature, and I’m not sure if I can disable it. It’s caused some problems with other recipes. Thanks for pointing that out!

  7. Crystal Boehm says:

    Can you use dry active yeast and would you do the same amount? Thanks!

  8. Danielle says:

    The best bread I ever had. Easy to make. i was so proud I screamed ?

  9. Spomenka says:

    Amazing

  10. Jean duchesneau says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    I’m waiting for this to finish cooking, But while I wait I have a quick question…in the ingredients it lists the yeast as 1/4 tsp…did you mean 1 of the 1/4 oz yeast packets?
  11. Michael says:

    I started learning about artisan bread with this recipe. Unbelievable how easy and encouraging it was to make this.

  12. Steve says:

    Hi, I’ve made this so many times now, but always with general purpose flour. I decided to give it a go with bread flour with seeds. But as you mentioned it didn’t rise as well, and was very chewy. Would using more yeast help ?

  13. Dianne says:

    Great recipe, easy to follow and delicious bread, I’ll be making this more often, it was a big hit with my family, thank you for sharing ?

  14. Roma says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    How many grams is the flour? Because cup measures are in varied sizes. Thanks ??RK??
  15. Kelly Johnson says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    Can it sit longer than 18 hours?
  16. Doreen says:

    Going to try this bread tonight. You mention warm water., what’s the temperature of the water.. I am using a thermometer. God knows how many bread recipes I ruined , not using the right temperature.

  17. Daniel says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    What temp for the water
  18. Bill says:

    I tried the recipe and baked wonderful bread. It works and is easy.

  19. deveaux barron says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    in the video you add something to the water – what is it as I believe you add the yeast directly to the dry ingredients?
  20. Catherine Clark says:

    Just Discovered You!

    I am trying this bread tonight. I have done others with varying success (mostly great). Will let you know how it comes out. I adore your youtube tutorials and will start trying your recipes.

  21. D. Wright Downs says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    I gave you hints but they won’t publish my comment. I am an old lady and they don’t like my good hints that are commons sense. Sorry.
  22. Electra says:

    I’ve heard that you can just put an oven-proof dish of water in the oven with the bread to create steam. I’ve tried this to very good results with this recipe.

  23. Dan says:

    This bread is amazing ! Its got the chewy, the crusty and the taste you would expect. Plus its simple! Only thing I did different was instead of forming a ball I did the fold method. Gently folding the dough over onto itself giving it more pockets of air inside (this adds to the rustic look also) .

  24. Betsy Megna says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    What capacity Dutch oven works best?
  25. Kylie says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    I am really excited to finish my bread off tonight! Do you have the exact amounts you used for your herb bread recipe?
  26. Carol colombo says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    How can i bake it to make it not round but oblong.. almost square like sandwich loaf for cutting in oblong bread guide cutter
  27. Jasmine Koh says:
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.
    Hi chef Resha , this bread need to bake at 450 Fahrenheit is it 230 degree?
  28. Karin E, Tkachuk says:

    I have a small enamel wook and I am wondering if I can use that to bake the bread?

  29. Helen mavroyeni says:

    I was so excited when I woke this morning so I could cook the bread. Followed the instructions only to find after allowed the bread to cool, I lost the crunchy exterior, which I had when it came out of the oven. Please help where did I go wrong.?

  30. Tam Dang says:

    HI Resha,
    /
    I dont have the Dutch Oven, may I use the Vision cookingware pot instead of Dutch Oven? And after 30mins in the oven, you said that removing the lid and then decrease the temp to 200 for around 5-15 mins, right?
    One more thing, all temperature here is Fareinheit, not Celcius?

    Thanks lot
    Tam Dang

    • Resha says:

      You can use anything you have, even a baking sheet. The purpose of the dutch oven is to capture steam so give the bread that signature artisanal crust, and to help keep the shape — but if you don’t mind that not being a factor, it doesn’t matter you bake it. Remove the lid after 30 minutes, helps the bread brown more and the internal temp should be around 190-200 degrees, its okay if its a little over. Time for this to happen depends on your oven, mine takes about 10 minutes but some ovens may take up to 20minutes. All temperatures are in Fahrenheit.

  31. daisukigo says:

    Hi Resha, this looks AMAZING!
    I have a question (it may be a very silly question sorry!) I have a Dutch Oven but it’s the oval-shaped and not the round kind, do you think it may be a problem? Do you think the bread will be too “flat” as the dough may “overflow” to follow the shape of the Dutch oven?)
    Thank you in advance!

    • Resha says:

      Hi there, the shape of your dutch oven won’t be an issue. But how deep is the dutch oven?

      • daisukigo says:

        Hi Resha, sorry I just saw this, thanks for the reply…I made it and it was wonderful! Thank you! One thing I would like to ask, how much chopped Rosemary & Thyme and Garlic Powder should I add…?
        I added some but don’t think it gave enough flavours of the Herbs & Garlic…it still tasted fantastic though!
        And I am not sure exactly how deep is this Dutch Oven, but it is a 31 CM Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven…? Anyways it turned out beautiful! ?
        The pic is on my Instagram Account (the only thing is that my knife is not sharp enough I guess, so scoring it was a bit of a problem and it looked abit weird cause the scoring was not very defined)

        • D Wright Downs says:

          Use a razor blade if your knife isn’t sharp enough. Add more herbs and spices if you didn’t get the flavor you wanted. If you want a ball shape, put some balled foil to fill in the oval ends of your pot.I have been cooking, baking, puddling in the kitchen all over the world since I was 8 on wood burning stoves, warming C-rations on manifolds, and just doing.

  32. sally says:

    hi resha, i had made this bread last weekend, it is fantastic, however there only one thing which annoying me, my bread actually stick on the parchment paper. i did put corn meal on it, but why still come out like this. pls help, because i really like your recipe a lots. i will definitely will make another one later.

    • Resha says:

      Hi there, the bread shouldn’t stick to the parchment too bad, depending on any wrinkles or crevices on the bottom, they should still be relatively easy to tear off. However, if it’s actually sticking to a flat surface, the dutch oven may not be hot enough during the preheating.

  33. mariah says:

    MAKE THIS BREAD!!!! So good!!!

  34. Tenicia says:

    I’m going to try this recipe this weekend! If I want to make the 8 slider buns or two smaller loaves would I need to adjust the cooking time?

  35. Perry says:

    This recipe is so easy and the bread turned out fantastic. We are now experimenting with adding various spices and herbs, Thanks for a great recipe. And your video on utube is great.

    • Kim Quinn says:

      I have roasted off several cloves of garlic that I have then mashed well and pureed in to my liquid. I also add fresh finely chopped rosemary, basil, sage and thyme and put it in at same time. So, so , so delicious. Love this recipe. ???