Easy Dutch Oven No-Knead Artisan Bread
You’ll be amazed by this Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread baked fresh 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.
Servings: 1 loaf
Equipment
- Dutch oven 4 - 6 quart
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1 packet RapidRise or instant yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt not table salt
- 1 1/2 cups very warm tap water (120°–130°F is the ideal temperature for RapidRise yeast)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons flour for dusting
Instructions
Mix Dough:
- Mix flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl.
- Add warm water and mix until the flour is incorporated. Dough will be wet and sticky.
Rise:
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave on counter for 2 hours until it doubles in volume. Dough will be bubbly and wobble like Jello after rising time. The ideal temperature for rising dough is between 75F and 78F. At this point you can shape your dough and proceed to bake or refrigerate dough covered, up to 3 days before shaping and baking. More refrigeration time = more flavor. I refrigerated my dough 12 hours.
To shape dough after rising:
- Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Sprinkle top with 1/2 tbsp flour.
- With a bench scraper fold the sides of dough inwards (about 4 - 6 folds) to roughly form a round shape.
- Place sheet of parchment paper next to work surface. Transfer dough by flipping the dough seam side down. Slide/push it towards the middle of parchment reshaping into a round shape. The loaf is meant to be rustic so don’t stress about a perfectly round shape.
To Bake: If you refrigerated your dough, place bowl on the counter to warm up for 45 minutes to an hour prior to baking for optimum rise.
- Place Dutch oven in oven with lid on and preheat to 450°F for 30 minutes prior to baking. Remove hot Dutch oven from oven. Use parchment paper to place dough in Dutch oven; top with lid.
- Bake 30 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and continue to bake 10 - 15 minutes uncovered or until top is golden brown.
- Cool on rack for 10 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- 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 if you're uncertain to avoid cracking the knob in the oven. There are inexpensive replacement metal knobs on Amazon that are compatible with Le Creuset, Aldi, Lodge, and other enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens, HERE.
- For best flavor, use bread flour. Bread flour has more protein, therefore more gluten, than all purpose flour, and produces baked goods with more structure and chew. You can substitute all purpose flour for bread flour, but the texture of your loaf will be different and without as many air pockets.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- Your covered Dutch oven traps the moisture from the dough, allowing the bread to “steam” for the first part of baking. This keeps the crust softer longer and encourages a higher rise. No Dutch oven? Shape your dough and place it 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 the oven to make the bread crusty. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Dough consistency can be affected by factors like different brands of flour, or humidity in air. If dough is too dry, add a touch of water. Too wet, add a touch of flour.