Yep, you CAN make an amazing bread without yeast that’s just like proper bread! 5 common ingredients: flour, baking powder, oil, milk and sugar. It’s a no yeast bread based on Damper, a traditional Australian bread historically made by swagmen and drovers over campfire – except we’re using an oven!
Use for sandwiches, toast, grilled cheese, French Toast – anything you normally make with sandwich bread.
Bread without yeast
This no yeast bread is inspired by the Australian Damper, a traditional bushman’s bread made with flour and water that was cooked over campfires.
Except I’ve brought it into the 21st century to make the crumb fluffier, more tender and tastier, and made it look like sandwich bread rather than a freeform loaf. (Oh, and we cook this in an oven instead of over fire!)
This is THE emergency bread that you make when you don’t have yeast, or you don’t have time to make yeast bread. It has a proper crumb like real bread, rather than being crumbly like muffins which many no-yeast breads are. It’s mixed in a bowl with a wooden spoon – no kneading, no rising. You’ll have this in the oven in mere minutes!
Is it as good as a yeast bread? Yeast gives bread a chew and stretch in a way that bread made without yeast will never have. But this is as darn close as you will get to a yeast bread recipe without using yeast. And it’s off the charts delicious for something that takes 3 minutes to get into the oven!!
What goes into sandwich bread without yeast
Bread lovers might recognise this as a simpler version of Irish Soda Bread. It’s easier because the dough is just mixed up in a bowl (ie no kneading at all) and it doesn’t require buttermilk or baking soda which aren’t pantry staples for everyone.
Here’s all you need to make bread without yeast (let’s pretend I didn’t forget to put the milk in the photo!!!):
Flour – plain/all purpose flour, or switch up to half with wholemeal/wholewheat. Can use self raising in place of flour and baking powder;
Baking powder – this is what gives this bread rise. Skip if using self raising flour, or substitute with baking soda;
Milk – any type, dairy or non dairy, fresh or powder (reconstituted), full or no fat. Can be substituted with water plus 1 tbsp oil or butter;
Oil – Just 1/4 cup gives this bread some much needed moisture. Without it, it’s very dry. Any neutral flavoured oil is fine – canola, vegetable, peanut, grapeseed, rapeseed, sun flower, even a light olive oil;
Sugar – just 1 tablespoon makes quite a difference here to bring out flavour; and
Salt – for seasoning,
No egg. That’s the secret to the real bread-like crumb!
The flour and baking powder in this recipe can be substituted with self raising flour.
How to make bread without yeast
This is just like making your favourite Chocolate Chip Muffins! Mix the dry ingredients, then add the oil and milk. Mix, pour, bake!
Why use a loaf pan? Because the mixture is a very thick batter rather than a kneadable dough (like Friday’s pizza dough or focaccia). So you can’t freeform it like Irish Soda Bread. If you don’t have a loaf pan, make it in a muffin tin – well greased, 20 minutes at 180°C/350°F.
It takes 50 minutes in the oven, so I like to do half the time uncovered to get a lovely golden brown crust, then I cover it the rest of the time (otherwise the crust gets a bit thick and dark).
LOOK at that crust!↓↓↓ It’s tempting to just lift the whole thing off and run away with it! (Swipe the butter while you’re at it)
TIP: Let it cool completely before slicing, otherwise it will be susceptible to crumbling on the edges. On Day 2, it slices 100% perfectly!
Slice it up like normal bread then use it for anything and everything you ordinarily use sandwich bread for. A simple ham sandwich. Or an epic Pastrami or Reuben sandwich. Grilled cheese – or cheesy GARLIC bread. Toast it and slather with jam, Vegemite, peanut butter or whatever you heart desires.
Dunk into soups and stews. You can even make French Toast or Bread and Butter pudding!
Storage
As with all homemade breads, this no yeast bread is at its best on the day it’s made. But even the day after, it’s still very, very good thanks to the touch of oil which keeps the crumb moist. Then on Day 3, a light toasting is all that’s needed to resurrect it.
It also freezes 100% perfectly – which is what I’ve done with the 8+ loaves I’ve made in the past few weeks, trying to nail the recipe. I’m going to be eating this for weeks and weeks – no complaints here!! ~ Nagi x
Watch How To Make It
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Sandwich Bread WITHOUT Yeast! (Dead easy)
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour , plain/all purpose (Note 1)
- 8 tsp baking powder (Note 2)
- 3 tsp white sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cooking / kosher salt (REDUCE to 1 tsp if using table salt, Note 3)
- 2 1/4 cups milk , warmed (any – Note 4)
- 1/4 cup oil , any plain (vegetable, canola, sunflower, rapeseed, grapeseed, light olive oil)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan).
- Grease a 22 x 13 cm / 9 x 5" loaf pan, then line with parchment/baking paper with overhang (to lift out).
- Mix dry: Place flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl, mix to combine.
- Add wet: Make a well in the centre, pour in oil and milk. Mix until flour is fully incorporated – batter will be thick but stirrable.
- Fill pan: Scrape into loaf pan, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl clean and smooth the surface.
- Bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with foil.
- Return to oven. Turn oven DOWN to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan), bake 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then use excess paper to lift out and transfer to cooling rack.
- Cool completely before slicing – 45 minutes+. It IS more delicate than yeast breads (can't change science!) but slices far better than the usual "cake like" no yeast breads. Slices perfectly on Day 2 and beyond.
- Use for sandwiches, toast, grilled cheese, french toast, bread and butter pudding – anything you use "real" sandwich bread for!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Video Bomber. I cut him from the video edits 😂
I made a big ass biscuit…this ain’t no sandwich bread.
I love this bread recipe and make it weekly. It is so easy and quick to make. I also used it at Christmas for sage bread stuffing and it was excellent.
Thank you for developing it.
Very nice recipe chef 👍👌👏. I made it 3 times all ready and it works every single time.on the 3rd time I added some nutrian yeas for a cheese taste 😋. Thank you for your effort 🌞😎.
I absolutely LOVED this bread!!! It’s really easy to make and it’s taste is AMAZING. Thank you for sharing!
what is the cheese you used to make cheese toast? Looks yummy!
I believe she explains it here: https://discountspot.info/cheese-bread/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
This bread is delish!!! I used self rising flour and also added pepperoni, cured salami, shredded Romano cheese, fresh basil and sprinkled garlic powder on top. With added ingredients I was able to get two loaves out of this recipe! Definitely a keeper! Thanks for sharing❤️
Thanks for the inspiration! 😄
Tried this bread out tonight, it did not rise evenly in the oven, middle rose more and split and the part of bread on parchment paper stayed at the level it was when i put it in the pan. odd texture too. taste was fine. will be trying again
I have tried this twice. I have to use gluten free flour and I can’t tolerate yeast. I like it, but I am having a difficult time getting it done enough and not overdone.
I do think your nutrition info is off. If you’re using normal baking powder, 1/16 would be 244mg of sodium just from the baking powder, not counting the salt. I got Hain no sodium baking powder for this.
I have been looking for a long term storage recipe for breads–w/o yeast or egg.–that I can pre-package for emergency use or for our active camping life. This one fits the bill. Thanks for posting this recipe.
Can i use aluminum free baking powder ?
I absolutely loved this. I baked mine in a 9×5 or so meatloaf / loaf pan and it is mind – blowing. It has
A To die for golden crust, with a soft inner. 💖 I have smeeled and rolled my eyes at least 20 times, it smells so good! TRY THIS! People, this recipe is a must try. Really, I love baked a lot of things and usually something goes wrong. Not on thus one though. I am not in habit , ( Really, I dont) of commenting on theese things, but as I adore this as much as I do, let’s just say, I wanna eat this bread NOW! Thank you so much, and I appreciate this . I don’t even have any questions for you, this was so great. Can’t wait for a sandwich!
Fantastic recipe! Lots of flavour, super quick and slices well. I used half wholemeal spelt and half white spelt, plus a little oregano. Has gone into my book of special recipes!
SO EASY MY 9 YEAR OLD SON COULD MAKE IT!!!!!
I make this in my bread machine with almond milk and it turns out great. It doesn’t brown on the top but I believe that is because of the almond milk. Today, I made stuffing/dressing with some slices that I had cubed and toasted and it turned out really nicely.
Mine isn’t browning either, at 30 min mark. I used coconut milk. Do you still cover it? And do you still put the heat down to 180? Thanks
I substituted one cup for oat flour and added dried oregano to enhance the flavor for open-faced tuna sandwiches. The result was amazing! I also sifted all the dry ingredients together (twice for this recipe, as I used two types of flour). It’s a great habit I picked up from my mom.
Amazing 😍😍. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thank you so much for the recipe! My family loved it!
What will happen if I don’t reduce the temperature from 220 to 200?
I have a convection microwave oven and you cannot just reduce the temperature immediately.
I’m sure if you try and out the temp a bit lower, it may help. If u can’t change it, than just keep watching it. Probely put the temp lower. Hope that helps?
It has the potential to burn, dry out or overcook.
I baked this yeast-free loaf last night and it is definitely a keeper! I was low on AP flour, so I used 3 cups self-rising flour (US type) and 1 cup 1:1 gluten-free flour (King Arthur). As I was using some gluten-free flour, I used 4tsp baking powder even though I used self-rising flour, and added a bit of vinegar. This loaf sliced wonderfully when completely cool. It makes decent toast for a yeast-free bread. Next time I’m going to reduce the sugar a little and try it with half whole wheat flour. Thanks for developing this recipe!
I threw the yeast free bread recipe ingredients into my Zojirushi bread maker, set it to cake and when it was done had a perfectly beautiful loaf. After it completely cooled I cut a few slices for toast and it was really yummy. I’m going to share this recipe in my HS Facebook group because yeast is something we need to avoid in our diet,
Thank you for creating this and sharing it with the world!
It taste really good and I enjoyed making it but mine is a little more crumbly and how do you get it to look like perfect sandwich slices?
Nagi did say that it slices much better on the second day. So if you want it to be aesthetically pleasing, perhaps you should wait to cut it.