Easy No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

This No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread is SO easy to make, it almost mixes and bakes itself into sheer gorgeousness. Plus, freshly baked bread with homemade fresh butter is divine!

It easily rivals any bakery-bought, artisanal bread. And once you get this easy-to-make recipe under your belt, the exploration of adding different ingredients to make it your own is endless.

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NO KNEAD DUTCH OVEN BREAD

The days of using your whole day to make bread, punching the dough, with hours for rising, watching, and tending the dough are over.

This no-knead dutch oven bread has to be the easiest homemade bread recipe ever. It’s very little hands-on working time and the end result will easily rival any bakery bread.

And what I love most about this recipe, besides the simplicity of making it is the fact that when you get used to making this recipe, you can start adding things to really make the recipe unique to you. It can be a brand-new recipe every time you make it!

It’s so easy to make this bread yet people will think you’ve worked incredibly hard to make it. Let them think you were kneading your knuckles raw. In fact, wear band-aids when serving for added admiration, ha!

Needed Ingredients for this Easy Bread Recipe

It’s so crazy simple, you won’t believe it. You will need: 

• Flour – all-purpose flour is what I use.
• Yeast – You’ll want to use dry yeast, the freshest the better. Take note of the expiration date on the package to ensure you’re using the freshest available.
• Water – Lukewarm water. Using hot water will kill the yeast or too cold water will impede the rising action and make it take longer to rise.
• Salt

Nothing fancy here, just good old basic bread ingredients. I used non-bleached, all-purpose flour for this recipe and your standard packet of quick-rising yeast.

How do you make this awesome No Knead Bread??

So let’s get on with it. Put the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Mix it up well.

Add the warm water. Mix again.

Cover it with plastic wrap and put it somewhere cozy like the top of your stove, above the fridge, in the tub with you.

Ok, forget the tub thing, but you get the idea. Tuck it in for four hours and leave it. Go paint your nails. Go paint your deck. Make the margaritas (and invite me over).

Then, four hours later, throw some flour on your counter and dump out the dough. Use a scraper or super floured hands and throw it around a bit. Fold it in on itself once or twice. Flip it over. Take the outer sides and pinch it into the middle like a dumpling.

Poke it. Whisper sweet things to it. Tell it how much you love it…. haha, that might be too much, but really, the point is to just squish it down a bit and get it floured on both sides.

Grab a piece of parchment paper and lay the dough on it, and cover it with a nice clean towel for 30 min.

While it’s resting, preheat your oven to 425. If you have a dutch oven to bake it in, use that.  If you have a cast iron pot with a lid, use that. Simply saying, use anything that can roast something at a high heat WITH A LID.  

Put it in the oven with the lid (make sure the knob is NOT plastic) and let it preheat with the oven.

After 30 minutes and the oven is at temp, remove the cover on the dough, take a sharp knife and cut 2 -3 slashes in the top. Then, take the lid off the pot and grab the dough by the corners of the parchment paper and drop it in the pot.

Tuck the edges of the paper into the pot and put the lid on. Set the timer for 30 minutes. The parchment will not burn (as long as you didn’t confuse the situation and use wax paper. No wax paper please.).  

See, NO KNEADING!!!!!

After 30 minutes, take the lid off and splash a quarter cup of water in the oven (yes, I know.). The quarter cup of water creates steam which helps form the crust on the top. Don’t worry it’s just water, and it totally evaporates. Plus it’s kinda fun to do!

************ Ok, so I’ve had a few people write me and are incredulous that I would suggest splashing 1/2c of water into the oven. I’ve been doing it every time I make this bread and haven’t had an issue, but I can’t say how your oven will react. So please do so at your own discretion. However…. if you’re worried about splashing the water in the oven, simply omit this step. You’ll still get a nice crust on the bread if you forgo the steam.

Leave in the oven for another 15 – 20 minutes or until the crust is nice and brown.  Take it out and let it cool.

That’s it!! After it’s cool, you lift it right out of the pan by the parchment and transfer it to a cutting board.

TRY YOUR HARDEST to wait until it’s completely cooled. The bread will thank you for it. Trust me. (Cutting hot bread = squished flat loaf).

How to Serve this Easy Homemade Bread

Slather it with butter. The combination of freshly baked bread with homemade butter? It’s a culinary masterpiece, for real. There’s NOTHING like it!

There’s a whole plethora of toppings you can put on the bread that can make it an entire meal in itself. Also, turning this bread into homemade garlic bread is super simple!

Make a delicious bowl of homemade tomato basil soup and use the sliced bread to make a grilled ham and cheese sandwich!

You won’t be sorry if you try making this no-knead bread. The experience and gratification of making your own bread is amazing and well … the taste is something out of this world!! 

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THIS DUTCH OVEN BREAD:

• Use a flour that is strong. Cake flour doesn’t have a strong (or enough) gluten in it to form a nice crumb for the bread.
• You can mix your bread flours, all-purpose with a bit of whole wheat or even rye, but use a ratio of 1:4. The harder flours will make the bread denser and you don’t want to bake a brick.
• Make sure to create the slashes on top of the bread before you bake it. It helps to form more surface area for the crispy crust, and it just looks really cool and professional. 😉
• PLEASE wait until the bread has almost completely cooled to cut it. If you don’t it will seriously crush or smoosh the bread down and no one likes smooshed bread.

Ok, so that’s about it! I hope you give this Dutch Oven Bread recipe a go! It’s really so easy, and I hope you enjoy the final product! If you do, please take a photo and email me or hashtag TheSaltyPot on Instagram. I’d LOVE to see your final product!! Thanks so much for stopping by The Salty Pot today!