I missed the the No-Knead bread phenomena in 2006 when Mark Bittman posted Jim Lahey’s recipe for No-Knead Bread in the New York Times. Lahey’s ridiculously easy method for mixing bread dough and his method for baking it in a pot went viral as people around the world discovered they could, too, bake beautiful crusty artisan rustic bread at home without the fuss. It wasn’t until a couple years ago I heard about No-Knead bread when my neighbor brought over a loaf and we ended up sharing slices of yummy white bread slathered in buter and jam.
When Sarah told me how easy it was to make bread at home I didn’t believe her. I thought she was joking because I believe in the saying, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. But it was gloriously true. And since then I have become a convert.
I’ve always hesitated to write about this bread because it’s already been done. What left can be said about this bread? However, I’ve been baking two loaves every other day the last couple months and I thought it would be a great idea to share with you how I like to make this bread because it is faster and easier than Lahey’s original way of doing it.
To make the bread is fairly simple. You mix luke warm water, flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl with a spoon unil the dry ingredients have been completed mixed with the water. It takes less than one minute. From there you cover the bowl with a wet kitchen towel, plastic wrap, or foil. You let the dough rest overnight. This is where I do things a little bit different than Lahey. The original recipe calls for folding the dough and letting it go a second rise in a cloth generously covered in flour. When it comes time to bake, you preheat a cast-iron pot with the lid on. When the oven is ready, you are suppose to carefully remove the lid and transfer the bread into the hot pot without burning yourself.
I had multiple issues with doing it this way. Often times my bread would stick to the cloth – a bread baking no-no. I hated having to pull dough from the cloth and then throwing the cloth away because I was always afraid to wash it with my other laundry. Then there was the whole issue I had with making sure I didn’t burn myself when transferring the dough to the hot pot. This was a source of some bread baking anxiety that often occured for me. Sometimes the bottom crust of the bread would burn but I still found baking this bread worth it. That is, until I discovered a few tips and tricks to make it so easy, it’s practically fail proof.
The way I make No-Bread is by mixing the ingredients like the original method and letting it rest overnight. The next day when I’m ready to bake, I line the bottom of my pots (1 cast iron and the other one a normal non-stick soup pot) with a small square of parchment paper. Instead of punching the dough down for a second rise, I add just enough flour to the bubbly looking dough (because I make two at a time) so I can scoop the dough from the bowl without it sticking too much to my hands. From there I place the loosely formed dough ball in the center of each pot. I cover the pots with lids and stick them both in my cold oven. I set the oven temperature to 450 degrees F. and my kitchen timer for 30 minutes. When my timer goes off I carefully open the oven door and remove both lids and close the oven door for the bread to continue to bake. I set my timer for another 30 minutes. When the timer rings, I carefully remove the pots from the oven.
Inside the pots are beautiful, rustic, artisan-like bread which can only be described as glorious. I grab clean kitchen towels and tongs carefully removing the loaves from the pots. The smell of warm yeasted bread wafting throughout the house is incredible. As far as the flavor and texture, I can only describe it as glorious. Beautiful, glorious bread with no burned bottom crust.
My mother has taken to making bread almost daily. I converted her. And trust me, if she can do it, you can do it, too. This easier way of baking this bread is a game changer. You’ll want to bake bread all the time and I don’t blame you one bit. You’ll never want to buy artisan bread again.
Tips: If you have two pots with oven safe lids that can fit in your oven, make two batchs of this at the same time and bake both loaves at the same time. The baking times are the same and you’ll be happy to have two loaves because the first one always disapears so quickly. Any leftover bread can be stored in a ziplock bag. The crust will soften a bit in a ziplock bag but it makes for excellent sandwich bread, toast, and for making croutons.
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1½ cup luke warm water
- In a medium large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and yeast together. Pour the water over the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until the flour is absorbed and the mixture resembles wet sticky dough. Cover the bowl with either plastic wrap, foil, or a clean, wet, kitchen towel. Place the bowl in a warm place.
- Allow the dough to rest overnight.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper slightly smaller than the base of the pot. Place the parchment paper inside the pot.
- Sprinkle just enough flour on the dough to be able to scoop the dough out with your hand without being too sticky. Place the loosely form dough ball in the center of the pot, on top of the parchment paper. Place a oven-safe lid on top of the pot and place it in the cold oven.
- Turn the oven on to 450 degrees F and set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, carefully remove the lid from the pot and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully remove loaf from the pot.
- Allow the bread to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into slices.
Trish says
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I have been baking bread off an on for a couple of years and I have baked very good loaves, but couldn’t master baking very wet (70%+) doughs in my convection oven, even with the closed environment of a Dutch oven. Your single instruction of starting with a cold oven has solved my wet dough challenge. My first post-instruction loaf (the Tartine Baguette recipe from wild year starter and poolish, only 64% hydration but I’ve had issues with it) is singing on my counter as I type, a gorgeous, amber-crusted loaf that sounds as hollow as a cheap pine door.
John T says
Wow, so simple, teh crust is what I’ve been looking for. Thanks.
sprout says
Although this method requires less planning, I think the crust is far superior using the original recipe. It also does make a flatter loaf. And to all of those concerned with having “too wet” a dough,-this is crucial and creates the steam necessary for artisan style crust. The great success of this recipe relies on breaking the rules of traditional bread making. That being said, this bread still came out great, just not as good as the original.
john koppole says
Hi guys, i have tryed this recipe. Its too good. i would strongly recommend to u all.
Check this recipe too ….. Banana Bread
Alice Currah says
Hi Tessa,
It seems to me the levening in the dough failed. Obviously you allowed ample time for it to rise – so I think the culprit was your yeast or the temperature in your water being too hot or too cold to activate the yeast properly.
Tessa says
I tried this today and the bread came out about 1″ tall. 🙁 I’ve had better results with the original no-knead recipe, which has the second rising step. Anyone here have any tips on how to get a nice rise out of this recipe? I mixed it last night and let it rise for about 18 hours before plopping the wet sticky dough into the pot and baking it.
Danielle says
do you think this would work in a large roasting pan?? or do you need the pan to be the size of the bread? the only other I have with lids are Pyrex baking dish. Do you think either would work for making the bread??
Chi says
Hi Alice,
I love all your simple and delicious recipes. I tried the no-knead bread recipe and the bread turned out great. However, I find that the dough is really sticky and when I plop in it into the pot, it spreads out a bit and doesn’t have a beautiful round/mount shape in your photos. Any suggestions to (a) make the dough less sticky (reduce water?) and (b) keeping the mount shape so that I can cut into sandwich slices instead of a large and flat round bread?
Thank you! Keep up the great work!
Chi
Chelsea says
I just tried this recipe today and my kids and I enjoyed it so much! I did find that the parchment paper stuck to the bottom of the bread, but I didn’t remove it right away. I will make sure to do that next time!
I linked to the recipe here: http://stanwoodtoseoul.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-knead-bread.html
Thanks Alice!
Sharon says
Hi. I really want to try this recipe but I have a silly question first. I havent had any experience except with the bread machine. My jar of bread machine yeast says it is the same as rapid rise. Is bread machine yeast ok to use in this recipe? Thank you for what looks like a wonderful recipe.
Laura @ Mrs in the Making says
Thanks for posting/answering, Leah and Alice! I was wondering the same. I just made dough and set it aside for baking tomorrow… I had not seen your comments yet so I did all AP flour but I would love to do your half-and-half with whole wheat trick. We pretty much only eat whole wheat bread in our house so it would naturally be more familiar. Thanks guys!
sabrina clements says
Thank you very much for sharing this… You have given a great information….
wendy says
I just stumbled upon your post and have been meaning to to Lahey’s No Knead Bread, but haven’t had the time. Your method looks perfect and super-easy! One question: can i substitute aluminum foil for parchment paper? Thanks and looking forward to trying this!
Shalyce says
It was bad parchment paper – purchased in sheets instead of the roll because that was all that was available at the grocery store. I bought a new roll of reynolds parchment and it worked beautifully. Now, I’ve made too many loaves of this bread to count and we’re giving fresh loaves to our friends and neighbors for Christmas. THANK YOU!
alice says
Hi Emily,
Yes, you can!
Mary C. says
This recipe is great, thanks! I used a 3 quart cast iron dutch oven-type from Meijer last night and this worked perfectly. I replaced the plastic handle on the lid with a basic metal handle from Lowe’s, as the plastic one would not have been able to handle the 450 degree heat. I used active yeast and let the dough sit for almost 18 hours. I also sprinkled a little corn meal on the parchment paper before adding the dough – it worked well. We made fresh butter in my new stand mixer and gobbled it all up standing in the kitchen! I’ve set up another batch for tonight with an experimental twist – I added cinnamon, dried cranberries and walnuts. I can’t wait to try it!
Emily says
I wonder if I can use the pot and glass lid of my slow cooker instead?
Megan says
I just baked my first loaf of this glorious bread and was able to share it with my neighbors. So nice to have this recipe to simply and fool-proof the bread baking process. I had a hard time believing that 1/4 tsp yeast would be enough, but it worked out great. THANKS! I will be storing it in a clot drawstring bread bag to keep it fresh.
Julia & 1001tealcranes says
Alice! I’ve made this bread like 6 times since seeing your post. I’ve even made a couple rosemary versions of this which are TO DIE FOR! Thank you so much for the recipe. It is absolutely amazing and a huge hit in my house.
Mary Cooper says
How did I miss this post!? I think our computer was at the shop when you wrote this, because I would have made this bread by now. I have tried the older version method and one (practically the same) from Cooks Illustrated. Getting glorious bread, but getting it quicker and easier, sounds glorious to me 🙂 Thanks!!!
wenders says
It’s good that you post what interests you, never mind that the No-Knead craze happened in 2006. I didn’t start reading blogs until the later half of 2009, and didn’t even read up on this No-Knead Bread until earlier this year. It truly is an amazing bread, the whole family loves it and gobbles it up quickly. But due to poor planning on my part, I don’t make it as often. Your post inspired me to go make some bread. I made it your way with the short cuts, and it worked great. Perhaps my oven is really hot, the crust didn’t burn, but it was really crusty/hard on the bottom. I tried the original method again, but let the dough rise on parchment and put the dough and parchment in the hot dutch oven. I believe the second rise makes a slightly bigger loaf, due to the second rise. Today, I made one batch, split the dough in half, and placed it on parchment on a 2-part French Bread pan, and let it sit for the second rise, then when ready to bake, sprayed the top with water, then placed in preheated 450 degree oven for 30 minutes. It was so awesome!
Tamara says
This recipe is brilliant! Crusty outside, moist interior and easy! I’m in Mexico at the moment and don’t have access to “normal” kitchen basics so I have to work with what I’ve got – but it might help someone else.
I had to use active dry yeast also. I heated my 1 1/2 cups of water to just over 100 degrees and then poured about 1/2 cup of the water into a small bowl with a pinch of sugar and my yeast (and the rest of the warm water into the flour). I think I used slightly more yeast that Alice’s recipe. I let that proof for about 5 minutes and then mixed it all together. That way I was sure the right amount of water went into the dough.
Also, I can’t get parchment paper here so I sprayed my stainless steel soup pot with cooking spray, put a square of wax paper in and sprayed that too (like making brownies). Worked like a charm. Not burned at all and bread came out of the pot and off of the paper easily.
alice says
Hi Paul, with regular yeast you would let it proof first with water and yeast and add it to the flour. I don’t believe you would need to change the amounts. You want to leave it out over night because it allows for the yeast to do its magic and give you that rustic, almost sour dough like, flavor.
Paul says
I forgot to add that you need to compensate in the recipe for the ammount of water used to activate the active dry yeast, so you don’t put too much water in the recipe.
Paul says
I have an unopened jar of active dry yeast, not the instant yeast.
I googled it and it said to just activate it first as per directions.
But add 20% more to compensate(but it might effect the texture-more airy), or don’t add more but just let it rise longer, and it will give the bread a more flavourful taste. But again this was talking about regular recipe bread.
Any advice ?????