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No-Knead Bread | Recipe

So you may remember a while back when I posted about a Simple Pickled Onion Relish and mentioned some incredible homemade bread my husband made with his then new dutch oven. Well, I am finally sharing that with y’all today! Now, since we have been living more Paleo, we don’t eat very much bread, but let’s just be honest… You can’t beat a good homemade loaf every now and then, especially if you have company! The best thing about this is that it contains four ingredients. Four. Talk about knowing what goes into your food. Which has always been more important to us than anything. Simple, chemical and preservative free eating. So if we are going to have a little sneak of carbs, you better believe it will be homemade 🙂

The ingredients are simple: flour, water, salt, and yeast. And just like the title says, this bread requires no kneading. You can make a delicious loaf of bread with very little hands-on effort & experience which is delightful.

Basic No-Knead Bread

Ingredients:
6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour
[plus more for work surface

1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast

2 1/2 t. salt

2 2/3 c. cool water

Directions:


  • In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. 
  • Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. 
  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 
    • Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. 
    • Sounds like a long time – but remember you don’t have to knead it, so go do something fun while it does all the work!
  • When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, it will smell a bit “yeasty”. 
    • When it is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
  • Lightly flour your hands and a work surface (the counter works). 
  • Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. 
  • Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
  • Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth – that’s important!) with enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises
    • Place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour
    • Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours (until it has doubled in size).
  • After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
  • Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (like the cast-iron dutch oven we used), in the oven as it heats. 
  • When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Get ready to use your muscles, it’s hot and heavy. 
  • Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel and flip the dough over into the dutch oven, seam side up. 
  • Shake the pan a couple of times if dough looks unevenly distributed but fret not, it will straighten out as it bakes.
  • Cover and bake for 40 minutes. 
  • Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust browns. 
    • The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. 
    • You can check this with a meat thermometer if you’d like (we did). 
  • Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. 
  • Attempt to resist cutting into the most incredible smell that is filling your kitchen until it is “quiet” as cutting it too soon will make the bread dense and gummy – and no one wants that.
  • After it’s quiet, cut, and try not to eat the entire loaf. Enjoy!
{slightly adapted from frugallivingnw}


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  6. Tasha-Ann Torres says

    I followed you here from Aloha Friday!

    First off, I love bread. Like, I go grocery shopping and I have to stop by the bakery section to smell all the different baked goods. This recipe sounds great and I will definitely try this!