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!!!)
Very easy to make and tasty. I made it on a baking tray with the water steamer method. It was a little doughy in the very middle does it just need a few more minutes in the oven?
This is now my fave bread recipe! It truly is flexible! Sometimes I add 1:4 cup extra of water and the time I let it rise varies. Extra points for being so easy that I don’t have to dig out the recipe anymore. Thank you for making me popular with my dinner guests!!
Incredible bread! Have never done bread before and this is an absolute cinch! I make it weekly- I have a gas oven in one house and an electric in the other, I follow the recipe but always have to add a bit more water, it always come out fabulous no matter which oven it’s baked in. I always use a Dutch oven, usually bake after 2-3 hours rise, and add a few more minutes to second round to get a bit more golden crisp. I also “pluck” the dough once I put it in the Dutch oven to create little mountains and ridges for extra crispy bits. I have found that the extra day or two in the fridge isn’t to our liking- but isn’t terrible either. Definitely about taste. My husband requests it at least 1x a week so thank you for helping me rise to domestic goddess levels! 😉
This was my second attempt at homemade bread. I followed another recipe and it did not turn out well. I didn’t have bread flour and I wanted to mail it so I took out 3 tsp from the 3 cups flour and replaced with 3 tsp vital wheat gluten per a tip I found online. The level of detail in this recipe is superb, ie. the warmth of the water to not kill the yeast should be bathtub temp. Super helpful! My dough rose in an hour but I let it go for 2 then refrigerated 8 hours and baked. It was chewy with a nice crunchy exterior, just like you buy in stores. We made grilled cheeses with it with tomato soup and it was the best meal we’ve had in a long time. I’m already making the dough for a second loaf to put in the fridge and bake tomorrow. This will be my go-to bread recipe for parties and such in the future. Can’t thank you enough for the time spent perfecting this recipe!
For those who have been frustrated with making sourdough bread, this bread will redeem you. It’s not close to sourdough but the crunchy crust and the soft interior, added that it is baked in a dutch oven, this recipe is a great, impressive bread recipe.
Hi Nagi, I’ve been roughly following your recipe for this bread for a while now, always with good results.
Just a few comments on variations. First, I now tend to use 600gm packs of Laucke bread mixes (they are good). Can get them 4 to a box or buy larger bags of the mix. For me having a good mix that is already measured out is a plus even if it costs a bit more. I often make their crusty white, Barossa sourdough rye, and occasionally their seeded mixes.
I use warm water (50degrees C) to mix the dough, giving it a head start.
Next, I’ve found that putting the (covered) bowl with the dough in a sink with a couple of inches of warm water (again, 50C to start with) gets the dough rising quickly – may not develop the same taste as a long rise period, but usually I’m on a schedule with preparing a meal when I have someone over, so reliable rise time is good.
Once risen, I fold the dough over in the bowl using a spatula, rather than on a surface. If done well get same results.
I put the baking paper in a large bowl, add the dough, start pre-heating the oven, and allow the dough to rise a little while the oven heats up. I sometimes add either white or black sesame seeds at this time. Poppy seeds is another alternative.
Once the oven is ready, into the Dutch oven.
I like your site – lot of reliable and well presented recipes.
Can I recommend you add a good Ukrainian borscht recipe, and beetroot+beans+dill-pickle+sour cream recipe. The last is really easy to make and delicious. My mother-in-law was a Lithuanian married to a Ukrainian and I picked up a lot of good recipes from her.
I’m astonished that this worked as I’ve never made bread before and was sure I would fail the first time. It turned out beautifully golden and crusty with a tender chewy crumb. I bought a 24cm Dutch oven from Harris Scarfe (on special for $27) for the purpose and the size worked well. The dough rose to the right size and consistency in about an hour so I went ahead with shaping at that point and put it in the oven about 40 mins later. It was a little flatter (more spread out) than I would have liked but that may have been because I left it on the bench after shaping it for so long – will time the oven better next time. I’m going to make this a lot from now on! Thanks you Nagi!
So I made this a second time and left it overnight in the fridge. I used 350 instead of 375ml of water and this seemed to make it much easier to handle. Turned out perfectly and not as flat as the first time (think it may have been the slightly less water and not leaving it waiting once I had shaped it).
I made french baguettes with this recipe,they turned out great,and they kept moist for three days usually when I make baguettes thet were hard and stale after one day.my only variation was that I found 2 tsp salt was too much,I reduced it to one tsp
Using the no dutch oven approach, can this be made in a loaf pan or just on a baking sheet. Great recipe, by the way! Love it!!
This is now the only bread we have. Definitely best in the dutch oven, but I sometimes make it in a loaf pan with water in a pan underneath, because my husband likes a more square shape for his morning toast. So easy and hardly any “hands on” time.
I have a question on your quantities to my knowledge a cup of flour weighs about 120 g. In your recipe if I take the number of grams by the number of cups it comes out to about 150 g, any reason for this?
I never need to buy bread again. This is the tastiest bread I’ve eaten in the USA
So easy to make. I never leave reviews and here I am, raving over a bread recipe. I don’t have a Dutch oven and baked it on a tray with hot water on the side.
Awesome bread. Love it. Using the no dutch oven way, can I put the dough in a loaf pan rather than on a tray? Thanks!
Made this a few times already and going to make it again! Love it!! Question, though. I am making this the no dutch oven way and was wondering , can I put it in a loaf pan so it’s more loaf like?
This must be just me because I haven’t seen anyone else ask. I have been making this since Covid. I always bake it right away. This week I tried refrigerating 24-48 hours. Taking out for 45-60 minutes and it is still cold. After baking it seems gummy inside. I always wait until bread is cool to cut it. Is it because the dough is still too cold? I left it out way longer than an hour today.
SO good. The loaf was literally gone in minutes.
I wanted to bake it quickly, so I warmed my oven for a few minutes, turned it off and let the dough rise in there for about an hour. Then, just dumped it on a large baking sheet with parchment paper. I pulled the dough over itself a bit. Sprinkled some everything bagel seasoning on top, sprayed some avocado oil on foil and lightly covered the dough. Baked as directed from there!
This recipe will be made many more times in this house, thank you!!
SO good. The loaf was literally gone in minutes.
I wanted to bake it quickly, so I warmed my oven for a few minutes, turned it off and let the dough rise in there for about an hour. Then, just dumped it on a large baking sheet with parchment paper. I pulled the dough over itself a bit. Sprinkled some everything bagel seasoning on top, sprayed some avocado oil on foil and lightly covered the dough. Baked as directed from there!
This recipe will be made many more times in this house, thank you!!
Very easy to make but I have a question as I have made twice but it is still a little doughy in the middle (ie. raw). Increased the cooking time but still the same result. Anyone have any clues?
This is the first homemade bread I’ve ever made and can’t believe how delicious! I added various spices after folding it (allspice, sage, rosemary, garlic salt, etc) and I couldn’t stop eating it fresh out of the oven. Thank You 😊
I can’t event believe how incredibly easy this recipe was and it turned out so good! Curious if you have any variations you’d recommend – rosemary and cheese, etc?
For the final 12 + minute bake, I take the bread out of the pot and put it directly on the oven rack. The outside of the bread comes out crisp and browned.
Love love love this bread…
24 hours in the fridge….turned out great…..has anyone doubled this recipe and if yes….would it still fit in a Dutch oven…10″ diameter….and or a roasting pan with a lid….also
Has anyone tried making cheese bread using this recipe….
✌️😁
Making more now….read someone made baguettes using this recipe….. going to be trying this🤩