This is a phenomenal bread recipe. The best, EASY yeast bread you will ever make, beginners love how simple it is while bread connoisseurs appreciate the Artisan bread qualities – the thick crispy crust and chewy crumb with big fat holes like sourdough!
No knead, 3 minutes active effort, very forgiving recipe. Make this today, then the Cheese Bread version tomorrow!
Phenomenal EASY yeast bread recipe
This is an extraordinary white bread recipe with outstanding results. While it’s easy and forgiving, making it suitable for beginners, experienced bakers will recognise and appreciate the Artisan bread characteristics – large holes in the crumb like your favourite sourdough bread with that signature chewiness, and a thick, crispy crust.
It’s a gold nugget recipe, and you may never buy bread again after trying this!
Here’s why it’s so easy:
No knead, no stand mixer
3 minutes active effort – you won’t even get your hands dirty
Dutch oven (cast iron pot) ideal but not necessary
Incredibly forgiving dough, with rise times ranging from 2 hours to 3 days (yes, really, you choose what works for you)
Easy but yet no compromise on quality of bread
What you need to make this homemade bread recipe
Here’s what you need to make homemade bread from scratch – yeast, flour, salt and water. Yep, really, that’s it!
No yeast?
Make this famous Irish Soda Bread instead, or this incredible No Yeast Sandwich bread based on the traditional Australian Damper!
Yeast – my base recipe uses Rapid Rise or Instant Yeast which does not need to be dissolved in water. But it works just as well with normal yeast (“Active Dry Yeast” or just “dry yeast”) – you just need to change the order of the steps and dissolve the yeast in water first. The bread comes out exactly the same!
Best flour for homemade bread – use bread flour if you can. Bread flour has more protein in it than normal flour which means more gluten, and this makes the dough more elastic and yields a more fluffy yet chewy texture inside the bread, as well as creating the big holes you see in the photos, like sourdough bread. However, this bread is still spectacular made with normal flour too!
How to make the world’s easiest homemade bread – Artisan style!
Here are process steps with tips, but also see the video below – super handy to see the dough consistency, and how to form the dough.
1. Make wet sticky dough
Mix together the flour, salt and yeast, then add warm water and mix. The “dough” will be very wet and sloppy, not kneadable at all – this is what you want! See video at 17 seconds for consistency.
2. Rise!
Cover with cling wrap then place it in a warm place (25 – 30°C / 77 – 86°F) for 2 hours. The dough will increase in volume by double or more, the surface will become bubbly and the dough will be wobbly, like jelly. See video at 24 seconds for consistency.
OPTIONAL – develop flavour: Once dough has risen, you can bake immediately. OR, for better flavour, refrigerate for a minimum of 8 hours, up to 3 days. Time = better flavour development.
Bread in photos and video were baked immediately. I usually make this dough in the morning, refrigerate all day then bake in the evening. Or make the dough in the evening, refrigerate overnight and bake fresh in the morning! (10 – 12 hours in fridge). Beauty of this bread is that you can bake anytime!
No dutch oven? No problem! Just bake it on a tray – see the recipe notes.
3. Preheat oven & pot
30 minutes before dough has risen, or while refrigerated dough is coming to room temperature, place dutch oven (cast iron pot) in the oven to preheat at 230°C/450°F.
Hot oven + hot pot = bread rising boost!
4. Scrape dough out
Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured work surface. It will be wet and sticky and that’s exactly what you want – because we will not be kneading it! In fact, you won’t even touch it with your hand.
PRO TIP: Dough handling and shaping technique devised to minimise addition of flour. Less flour = wetter dough = bigger air pockets, fluffier bread and more moist.
5. Shape the dough very roughly
Use a dough scraper or anything of similar shape (spatula, cake server, or large knife) to fold the sides in so it roughly resembles a round disc.
Don’t get too hung up on the shaping – you’ll deform it in the next step!! This step is mainly to deflate the dough.
6. FLIP dough upside down onto paper
Slide a large piece of baking / parchment paper next to the dough, then flip it upside down onto the paper using the scraper so the seams from the step above are face down, and you have the smooth side up.
Slide/push the dough into the centre, then briefly reshape it into a round or slightly oval shape.
Do not get too hung up on a neat shape – this bread is supposed to be rustic! Besides, scruffier shape = more awesome crispy ridges
7. Prepare to bake!
Remove very hot pot from oven, then use paper to pick up the dough and put it in the pot, and put the lid on.
See recipe notes for no dutch oven method.
8. Bake!
Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on (this creates a steamer effect, allowing the bread to rise while it cooks before crust sets), then 12 minutes with the lid off to brown and crisp up the crust. The surface will crack – and you want this, for extra crispy ridges!! And it looks authentic, just like the Artisan bread you buy at bakeries. 😇
Cool for 10 minutes before slicing. This is important – to let the centre of the bread finish cooking (if you slice too early, it will seem a bit doughy. Patience was never my greatest virtue, so I learnt this first hand!)
Remember – you can make this bread recipe WITHOUT a dutch oven!
Why this bread recipe works – and TIPS!
Loose, sticky dough = easier to rise than firmer dough.
No kneading = rough dough, but because the dough is so soft, it puffs up enough to “smooth out” the roughness.
Super forgiving dough – too stiff, add water. Too wet, add flour. Dough not rising? Move it to a warmer place. Takes 45 minutes to rise or 5 hours? It will still work. As long as your dough is the same consistency as what you see in the video and you let it rise to double the volume, this bread recipe will work as long as the yeast is not past its expiry date!
Why you need a preheated dutch oven for no knead bread recipes – to create a steamy environment to give the bread a rise boost before the crust sets (which stops the bread from rising). Professional bakeries are equipped with steam ovens – the cast iron pot is the home method!
Don’t have a dutch oven? No problem! Recreate the steamy environment by placing hot water in a pan in the oven, and bake the bread on a tray.
Big holes in the crumb – loose dough from less flour, high oven temp and preheated pot allows the yeast to give the bread a great rise boost, creating big air pockets. Also the use of bread flour rather than normal flour helps – you get less large holes using normal flour.
Bake immediately if it’s a bread emergency….
…but you’ll be rewarded with tastier bread if you leave the dough 8+ hours in the fridge! I normally make dough first thing in the morning (it takes 3 minutes!) then bake that night. Or make dough at night and bake in the morning. (~12 hrs in fridge for both scenarios)
Why refrigerating the dough creates a better tasting bread – because the fridge slows down the fermentation of the yeast (ie dough stops rising, if it kept rising it would kill the rising power of the yeast), allowing the enzymes in the yeast to do their work, transforming starch into sugar which creates a more flavourful bread. So we let the dough rise first, then refrigerate it.
All the ways to eat this bread!
Everything you do with bread you buy, you can do with this bread. It truly has the structure of bakery bread, so there are no limits!
Eat it fresh out of the oven, slathered with butter. Make sandwiches, toast it, mop plates clean, dunk it in soups and stews. Make bruschetta, garlic bread, grilled cheese, CHEESY garlic bread or Cheese and Garlic CRACK Bread!
I hope you enjoy this crusty bread recipe as much as I do. This really is one of those gold nugget recipes that you’ll make once and treasure forever! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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World’s Easiest Yeast Bread recipe – Artisan, NO KNEAD
Ingredients
- 3 cups (450g) flour , bread or plain/all purpose (Note 1)
- 2 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast (Note 2 for normal / active dry yeast)
- 2 tsp cooking / kosher salt , NOT table salt (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) very warm tap water , NOT boiling or super hot (ie up to 55°C/130°F) (Note 4)
Dough shaping
- 1 1/2 tbsp flour , for dusting
Instructions
- Mix Dough: Mix flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to mix until all the flour is incorporated. Dough will be wet and sloppy – not kneadable, but not runny like cake batter. Adjust with more water or flour if needed for right consistency (see video at 17 sec, Note 5).
- Rise: Cover with cling wrap or plate, leave on counter for 2 – 3 hours until it doubles in volume, it’s wobbly like jelly and the top is bubbly (see video at 24 seconds). If after 1 hour it doesn’t seem to be rising, move it somewhere warmer (Note 6).
- Optional – refrigerate for flavour development (Note 9): At this stage, you can either bake immediately (move onto Step 5) or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Take chill out of refrigerated dough – if you refrigerated dough per above, leave the bowl on the counter for 45 – 60 minutes while the oven is preheating. Cold dough does not rise as well.
- Preheat oven (Note 7) – Put dutch oven in oven with lid on (26cm/10" or larger). Preheat to 230°C/450°F (220° fan) 30 minutes prior to baking. (Note 8 for no dutch oven)
- Shape dough: Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Sprinkle top with 1/2 tbsp flour.
- Using a dough scraper or anything of similar shape (cake server, large knife, spatula), fold the sides inwards (about 6 folds) to roughly form a roundish shape. Don’t be too meticulous here – you’re about to deform it, it’s more about deflating the bubbles in the dough and forming a shape you can move.
- Transfer to paper: Slide a large piece of parchment/baking paper (not wax paper) next to the dough, then flip the dough upside down onto the paper (ie seam side down, smooth side up). Slide/push it towards the middle, then reshape it into a round(ish) shape. Don't get too hung up about shape. In fact, lopsided = more ridges = more crunchy bits!
- Dough in pot: Remove piping hot dutch oven from oven. Use paper to place dough into pot, place lid on.
- Bake 30 minutes covered, then 12 minutes uncovered or until deep golden and crispy.
- Cool on rack for 10 minutes before slicing.
Recipe Notes:
- Fridge up to 3 days – Rise dough per recipe, then leave in bowl and refrigerate up to 3 days. Flavour gets better with time. Dough will stay bubbly for a day or two, then will deflate – that’s fine. Shape into round and place on paper per recipe, then leave for 45 – 60 minutes to take the chill out of it, then bake per recipe. Cold dough won’t rise as well.
- Bread in photos & video is 2 hr rise, immediate bake.
- Cooked bread – great fresh for 2 days, then after that, better warmed or toasted. Keep in an airtight container or ziplock bag. This stays more fresh than usual homemade bread, especially if you use bread flour.
- Freeze cooked bread for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Information:
More bread recipes
Life of Dozer
Just keeping a close eye on it for me….
Good job Dozer. Here’s your treat. Look, I even buttered it for you! (PS He’s in his robe because it’s a rainy day yet I still took him to the beach!!!)
Novice bread baker here. I love this recipe for its simplicity. Having tried with both Instant and traditional yeast as well as kosher Vs sea salt (following directions for each), I had better success for rapid rise yeast over Instant. And kosher salt left me with pockets of saltiness (perhaps due to mixing error on my part) but sea salt was better dispersed. I’ll be using this recipe often, adding rosemary next time!
Ok so I have spent an enormous amount of time experimenting with sourdough bread, wasted about 20 lbs of flour and so much time. Read books and watched videos on tips and techniques, invested in tools and vessels. The end results were always just ok, nothing special. Then I open your blog and here you come with this ridiculously easy bread that doesn’t take 3 days of folding and waiting and proofing and whatnot, and the end result is a 100 times better than the fancy leavened loaves. I’ve made this bread 4 times now and each time it is absolutely perfect. There is nothing more I need in a loaf of bread. Thank you so much, I now have a recipe that I can make every week for our bread needs. My husband and kids are also grateful!
I made this 3 times till now and they all came out so beautiful. Besides, they were the first 3 breads of me!
For those in Europe, I made it with fresh yeast 18 g (Hefewürfel) and table salt 7 g (Kochsalz, could be even a bit less). After fridge time of 8 hrs (and warming up on the room radiator for 1.5 hrs – it didn’t double up), the bread was full of taste, almost felt like saltier than direct bake after 2 hr-rise (this was also great, though). All other parts followed Nagi recipe.
I also used clay pot (Römertopf), twice with pre-soak and pre-heat following Nagi recipe time, once from the cold oven 55 minutes with lid, 13 minutes without lid. All with super crust and chewy soft body.
Thanks a log Nagi, as usual 🙂
i made this bread twice last week and loved it and wanted to make it again.
it turned out pretty well last week but today it was a disaster and went to waste. Before I let it rise the minimum amount of time. I ended up having to add more water than the recipe called for (2cups instead of 1.5) because the dough was much too dry and a lot of flour didn’t get incorporated.
I don’t know what went wrong this time. I used that 2 cups of water from the start and let it rise longer (overnight). The dough seemed to rise more than before but the dough was MUCH TOO sticky and wet when I tried to shape it. It wouldn’t take a shape at all and stuck to my floured surface. I tried to add more flour but I just ended up with a huge mess in the kitchen and had to give up and throw away the leftover mass of goopy dough that didn’t glue itself to my work surface .
I’m new to baking like this so I’ll have to experiment more, I guess, to figure out what I did wrong. But after how well it came out the first two times I’m pretty disappointed to be without a loaf of homemade bread today. : (
Could I use a piece of covered stoneware (from Pampered Chef) in place of the cast iron Dutch oven?
If I refrigerate the dough overnight, do I have to let it rise before baking? If so, how long – until it doubles in size? Or, can I bake straight from the fridge?
Let the dough rise first and then put it in the refrigerator undisturbed. When you’re ready to bake take it out of the bowl and let it sit for about an hour to warm up so it will rise better during the baking process
I’ll reply to this since I had to look that up, too… the article says to take it out an hour beforehand to let it get near room temp. When I did this I don’t think I waited until it was entirely room temp. Still awesome. Kudos to the chef.
HOLY MOLY is this good! And so easy! I’ve made it twice now and found I have to add a tiny bit more water, and also to let it cook uncovered a few minutes longer to get the golden crust.
I mix it up in the morning, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours after it rises (depending on how early I make it). It is delicious and was delicious for the 2 days it lasted. This is now my go-to instead of buying bread or rolls! Can’t wait to try the cheesy version for company!
I added different spices every time i made this bread. I now make it every 3 days. The favorite so far is with sage, rosemary and thyme, salt, pepper and garlic. Absolutely divine!!
I’ve now made this 3-4 times. I’m over the sourdough thing for now. My only note is that if you live in a dry climate you will need to add a LOT more water…like as much as a 1/2 c+ to get the same consistency in the video. The bread was fine the first time without the extra water but with it it is so much better!
Same rule applies to pie crust.
I have a cast iron Dutch pot and used it for this recipe. OMG it came out almost like sourdough! I put it in the fridge first for 2 days, then baked it. Amazing!
Best life-hack ever (sorry if it’s already been commented):
After rising, put full batch of dough in the fridge for a few hours. Once cool, divide it in thirds or quarters and wrap in saran wrap (or place in muffin tin) back in the fridge. As desired, take out one dough ball and bake it in the air-fryer at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. You can put water directly in the bottom of the air fryer to form the crust, and I recommend baking on greased foil or on a dedicated small tray that can be cleaned separately.
Fresh mini-loaves for one or two people ready to go in 20 minutes. It is better but not necessary to let the dough ball get up to room temperature before spreading and baking.
So easy and yummy! Thank you!
how about adding herbs – what would the measurements be?
Could I add pressed garlic/ herbs to this dough?
Could I add pressed garlic to this dough?
Wonderful bread! The crust is just perfect. The middle comes out a little doughy. Any suggestions. Thank you.
Nagi..
I’ve been struggling to make a bread, I’ve made many that just didn’t work out.
I made this one today, as per your recipe. Only difference is, I let it rise longer because the timing didn’t work for our dinner.
But let me say, this was incredible and the this is my go-to. (Used your cookbook for the recipe, it’s equally amazing.)
Thanks Nagi making a quick rise bread for those of us (like me) that are impatient!
Finally got around to trying this recipe. It turned out a promised.
So easy and the bread is amazing. Chewy crust. Absolutely delicious. I will be baking this bread on a regular basis.
This was super easy to make, and is now a regular part of our diet! However… it desperately needs more salt than the recipe calls for (in our opinion, YMMV). I also noticed that in my oven with my pot (a big enameled cast iron Lodge dutch oven) letting it cook for 35 minutes before removing the lid gives a better finished texture. I noticed the cheese version goes for 35 minutes so tried that with the plain bread. Worked great! This may just be that my oven isn’t as hot as it should be, I’ve found that it says it’s preheated but an oven thermometer disagrees, and I have to let it preheat for longer to achieve the desired temperature. I haven’t had that much patience but today I’m going to use that thermometer and make sure the oven gets hot enough!
I am also curious what would happen if I added some sugar to the dough when mixing it up, but haven’t tried it because I know it will change the texture.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Thank you!! My first ever bread making attempt & it turned out really well!
I followed your recipe to a T (refrigerated overnight before baking), but live in a high altitude. My bread was slightly underdone in the middle- any trouble shooting thoughts?