Baked Fresh in Your Dutch Oven: The Easiest No-Knead Artisan Bread

You’ll be amazed by this Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread that you bake in your Dutch oven! Just four ingredients and no stand mixer or kneading required to yield an artisan loaf that tastes like it came from a bakery.

How about some delicious crusty artisan-style bread fresh from your oven?

If you ever thought yeast-bread baking was intimidating, this recipe is for you!

I’m not a bread baker, so the first time I made this bread I was wowed . . .

I couldn’t believe such a simple recipe yielded such a delicious loaf of bread!

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With its light and airy texture and crusty exterior,

this rustic loaf resembles a sourdough or bakery loaf of bread

thanks to bread flour and the magic of your Dutch oven!

Here are the reasons this bread recipe is so easy:

🍞 A stir together dough, no stand mixer required

🍞 No knead recipe, no sticky hands

🍞 It uses RapidRise/Instant Yeast so you skip the proofing/dissolving step

🍞 Just 4 ingredients, one of which is water

🍞 Choose when you want to bake; after a rising time of 2 hours or hold over in the fridge up to 3 days

*Knead* I to say more? ;)

For best flavor, you’ll want to use bread flour in this recipe.

Bread flour has more protein and more gluten than all purpose flour,

so it produces baked goods with more structure and chew.

You can use all purpose flour if that’s what you have, but the texture of your loaf

will be different and without as many air pockets.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

*3 cups Bread Flour

1 packet RapidRise / Instant Yeast  ( 2 ¼ teaspoons)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 cups very warm tap water, not scalding or boiling

*When measuring flour, spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess with a knife. Scooping directly from the bag yields a heavier cup, resulting in dry baked goods.

To make this bread you’ll place your Dutch oven with lid on in a 450 F oven for 30 minutes.

The magic comes from the steam created from the wet dough in your hot Dutch oven,

which becomes an oven-within-the-oven, maintaining a high and steady heat

that gives your bread its rise and crusty exterior.

You can use any 4 – 6 quart Dutch oven, enamel-coated or traditional black cast iron.

See update at bottom of the post regarding your knob on your Dutch oven lid.

 Note: If you don’t have a Dutch oven place your dough on a parchment lined baking sheet. Add 3 cups of boiling water to a 9×13 pan and set it on the lowest oven rack to create steam in your oven to help make the bread crusty.

Here are the easy steps:

Mix Dough: Mix flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl.

Add warm water, then mix until the flour is incorporated.

120°–130°F is the ideal water temperature for RapidRise Yeast

Dough will be wet and sticky after mixing.

Rise:

Cover with plastic wrap and leave on counter for 2 – 3 hours until it doubles in volume. Dough will be bubbly and wobble like Jello after rising. The ideal temperature for yeast to grow and flavor to develop is 75°F to 78°F.

If it’s cool in your kitchen (70 F or less) place the bowl somewhere warmer, like on top of your dryer. My kitchen was 60 degrees the day I made my dough, so I turned my oven on the lowest setting for a few minutes, turned it off, and cracked the door to let some of the heat dissipate before closing my dough up in the oven to rise.

To shape dough after rising:

 Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Sprinkle top with 1/2 tbsp flour.

Using a bench scraper, fold the sides of dough inwards (about 4 – 6 folds) to roughly form a round shape.

Place a sheet of parchment paper next to work surface. Transfer dough by flipping the dough, seam side down. Slide/push dough towards the middle of parchment reshaping into a round shape. The loaf is meant to be rustic so don’t stress about the perfect shape.

You can bake your bread immediately after rising or

refrigerate your dough covered up to 3 days before shaping and baking.

Refrigerating your dough will enhance the flavor, slowing the fermentation process and

allowing the enzymes in the yeast to transform starch into sugar for a more flavorful bread.

 I refrigerated my dough about 12 hours.

If you refrigerate your dough, leave the bowl on the counter for 45 – 60 minutes

to take the chill off before baking and for optimum rise.

To Bake: 

Prior to baking, place Dutch oven with lid on in a 450°F oven for 30 minutes.

Remove hot Dutch oven and use parchment paper to transfer dough and place inside;

top with lid and return to oven.

Bake 30 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and continue to bake 10 – 15 minutes more,

 or until top is golden brown.

Transfer bread to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy your bread slathered with butter or dip in olive oil with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Serve with a warm bowl of soup or use as sandwich bread.

Update:

According to Taste of Home, The knob on the lid of your Dutch oven often has a heat limit below 400 F.

Simply twist off the knob and bake without it, or use a metal knob unless

you know your Dutch oven’s knob can tolerate 450 F.

There are inexpensive replacement metal knobs on Amazon that are compatible with Le Creuset, Aldi, Lodge,

and other enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens, HERE.

source

If you have a Le Creuset Dutch Oven, here is a graphic that shows the temperature range for your knob.

If in doubt, unscrew, and bake without!

If you’re in the market for a Dutch oven for low-cooking, simmering, braising and

baking bread, this Crock Pot Artisan Round Enameled Cast Iron 5-Quart Dutch Oven with lid

has a metal knob and received 4.7 out of 5 stars with 10,050 global ratings.

It’s available in a dozen assorted colors too!

Find Hearty and Warming Soup Recipes, HERE.

You’ll find recipes for chili and soup with hearty ingredients like Italian sausage, potatoes and pasta to flavorful veggies that pack some nutrition like butternut squash, kale and spinach, along with a favorite chicken soup recipe for cold and flu season.

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