How To Make No Knead Artisan Bread.

Make the dough. To a large bowl, add flour, yeast and salt. Stir. Then add warm water to dry ingredients and stir with a bread whisk or wooden spoon until well incorporated. It will form a dough ball; tacky but still manageable. If it is too tacky, simply add a bit more flour. If it is too dry, add water.

Rise the dough. Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (or plastic wrap) and let the dough rise for 2-4 hours in a (draft-free) warm place or overnight in the refrigerator. Placing the bread dough in the fridge to rise overnight allows it to ferment and gives it a chewier texture. Well worth it!

Shape the dough and rise again. Once the dough has doubled in size use a spoon or spatula to gently release it from the bowl, then tip the dough ball to a floured work surface. Do not knead the dough. Tuck it into itself to form a ball then place it on a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle the top of the bread with some flour and cover again for a second rise (about a half hour) while the oven preheats.

Bake the bread. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and place the Dutch oven (or baking dish) inside. Once the oven preheats, use oven mitts to remove the baking dish from the oven. At this point, score the dough if you would like. Then carefully place the bread dough with the parchment paper inside the Dutch oven. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 10 minutes until golden brown.

About The Ingredients

The dough will sit in a warm spot for one hour to puff up. My favorite spot is on top of the refrigerator.

Flour:

We are using all-purpose flour for this recipe as it is probably the one you have in your pantry. Measure out 360 grams or 3 cups of the flour into a large bowl.

If you have bread flour then use that instead. Bread flour will give this yeast bread a better rise and chewier, more artisan-like texture. If you do use bread flour, you will need to increase the water a bit.

Yeast:

The type of yeast you use in this recipe is important. The reason this yeast bread is so fast and easy is because of the rapid rise yeast. It is sold as RapidRise from Fleishman or as Quick-Rise yeast from Red Star.

It is a type of instant yeast that is very quick-acting. If you have instant yeast that is not rapid rise, you can still make this bread but give it a little more time to rise. I usually add 20 to 30 minutes if I am using regular instant yeast.

Another reason instant yeast makes this recipe so fast and easy is because you do not have to proof it first. You can mix this yeast right into the flour. You don’t have to let it sit in water before you add it to the dough. This recipe really is the easiest yeast bread ever.

Salt:

Measure and add 1-1/2 teaspoons of regular table salt to the bowl. Do not reduce or omit the salt. Salt is needed for two reasons.:

1. It enhances the flavor of the bread.
2. It tightens the gluten structure in the flour giving it strength and volume to the bread.

If you prefer to use a coarse salt such as Morton Kosher Salt, use 1 full tablespoon. Or if using Diamond Kosher Salt which is the coarsest of all, use 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon.

But make sure you do not use too much salt. Too much salt will kill yeast. This recipe uses just a pinch over 2% of salt in the dough. It is the perfect amount of salt to do the job.

Water:

Notes & Ingredient Variations.

The goal here is to provide an easy bread recipe, something you can make at home with simple ingredients, regardless of whether you have made bread before. Therefore, I added a few notes regarding variations and substitutions.

• The type of flour you use is up to you. I used bread flour because it gives the bread a bit more structure and chew. However, using the same amount of all purpose flour is perfectly fine for this recipe.

• If you do not have active dry yeast but you do have instant yeast (or a type of yeast you are familiar with), use that instead. It will not alter the results on the bread.

• For the salt, if you do not have sea salt, you can use the same amount of kosher salt. You can also use table salt instead, but less.

• If you do not have a Dutch oven, use a baking stone or any baking dish with a lid (one loaf pan on top of another works, too). The lid helps the bread expand properly and maintain moisture without developing too much of a crispy crust.

• The baking sheet is optional because all you need is a place to rest the dough ball while the oven preheats. Even the counter works!

Baking The Quick No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread: