Last updated on February 21st, 2018 at 04:00 pm
4 Ingredient No Fail No Knead Artisan Bread that’s easy and delicious! Perfect for those who love freshly home baked bread right out of the oven.
Long ago, I discovered that it’s more fun to make bread myself without a bread machine. I do have my good old trusted KitchenAid mixer
Now I cannot tell you how easy this bread is to make, and with only 4 ingredients. Beat that!
I have had this recipe for a while now, at least a couple years and I personally got the recipe from a friend of mine. Apparently this is the same as the recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
This is very simple, no kneading required. In a medium bowl add the lukewarm water, it has to be a bit warmer than body temperature, add the salt and the yeast and stir together. In the bowl of your mixer add all the flour and the pour the yeast mixture over the flour. Using the dough hook mix it all together. The dough will be sticky so don’t be tempted to add more flour.
Now you can place the dough in a big plastic container with a lid, but do not close the lid completely, leave one corner open a bit. Or you can just place it in a big bowl and wrap it up really well with plastic wrap and poke a couple small holes with a toothpick so that the gases can escape a little. Let it rise in a warm place for a good two hours.
Since there’s no kneading required, all you have to do is shape your bread, but because the dough is really sticky you need to flour your hands really well. Basically you have to divide the dough in two and shape each piece. Again add as much flour as necessary to your hands to avoid dough from sticking. It is ideal to bake this bread on a stone, but if you do not have a stone you can just use a regular baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Shape the dough and place it seam down on the baking sheet or stone. Sprinkle some more flour on top. You need to let the bread rest for another 30 minutes so that it rises a bit more.
Preheat the oven to 450 F degrees. Before placing the bread in the oven, slash the top of your bread with a knife, it will make your bread look pretty, plus it will allow for the trapped gases to escape. Also place a pan with a cup of water in it and slide it in the bottom rack and the bread on the middle rack. As the water heats up in the oven, it will create steam which will give the bread that nice crusty top. Trust me, you will want to do this. Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes and let it cool completely before cutting into it. I know it’s hard, I love hot bread, just the thought of it now, makes me crave it.
If you love this bread, give this No Knead Bread a try!
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
Artisan Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups water lukewarm
- 1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
- 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a medium bowl add the warm water, salt and yeast and stir together.
- In the bowl of your mixer add all the flour, then pour the yeast mixture over the flour and mix using the dough hook of your mixer, until it's all well incorporated.
- Place the dough in a large plastic container, it needs room to rise, and put the lid on it, but do not close completely, there needs to be one corner left open to let the gases escape. Alternatively, you can use a large bowl, covered well with plastic wrap and poke a couple small holes in the top using toothpicks.
- Let the dough rise for 2 hours.
- The dough will be very sticky and elastic. It is recommended to bake this on a stone, however a regular baking sheet will work just fine. Cover the baking sheet, or stone with parchment paper.
- Add flour to your hands, and divide the dough in two pieces. Add more flour to your hands as necessary. Shape the dough into the desired shape for your bread and place it seam down on the baking sheet. Sprinkle some more flour on top of the loaves. Let the loaves rest for another 30 minutes so that they can rise a bit.
- Preheat oven to 450 F degrees. Before placing the bread in the oven, add a pan with a cup of water and place it in the bottom rack. Slash the top of your bread, to allow gases to escape.
- Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes. The water will allow for the bread to form a nice crusty top.
- Cool on a rack before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
I’m a bread-baking newbie, and I was a bit stumped at step 6 where it says add more flour to hands as necessary. Necessary for what? Do I keep adding flour until the dough is no longer sticky?
You want the dough to be sticky, but you also want to keep your hands coated in flour to make the dough easier to handle. Just sprinkle some flour on your hands to shape the dough, If you find that the dough is starting to stick to your fingers, you can dust a bit more flour in your hands.
Love it…works everytine! Thanks. So simple and delicious.
I followed this recipe to a Tee and the bread came out amazing!!! This is restaurant quality crispy bread. I added some sesame seeds and it was just like Italian bread. Will definitely make this many more times.
This bread is SO DELICIOUS!! I’m an amateur at making bread and can vouche for the simplicity of this recipe. I’m not sure why others are complaining about the density of the bread. In my opinion if you’re looking for a fluffy bread you might want to skip this recipe and find a Sandwich bread recipe. But if you’re looking for dense, chewy bread with lots of big holes and a nice crust this is the one! And again I LOVE how simple it is!!
Omg just made the bread first time ever makeing home made bread . Purchased a Kitchenaid mixer for Christmas had no idea how simple it is to make bread thank goodness for doe hooks the bread is awesome I think I could get in trouble with this recipe. I wonder if you could add fresh garlic and fresh rosemary to it.
This is my favourite bread recipe ever. Thanks for sharing.
This was very simple and delicious!! My family couldn’t believe I had made it. I was my first try.
This is our go to bread recipe! It works well to add things to it also…we like to add olives, garlic and cheese to ours and it comes out perfect every time! . Thank you so much for sharing <3
Love this bread recipe, thanks for sharing.
My pleasure!
I am baking these right now! I have a couple questions:
What kind of salt do you use? Kosher?
How long do you mix the dough in the mixer? Mine seems very wet. I used the Metric measurements as I prefer this while baking.
This is my first time baking my own bread and hope I didn’t manage to mess this up 🙂
I use sea salt, but I have used Kosher salt too. You mix it for about 5 minutes, keep in mind it will be quite sticky.
Love the crust, bread more on the dense side. I reduced the salt a bit , only made half of the recipe.
Very easy recipe,only 4 ingredients so that makes things fly when making it . Mixed in a Kitchen-Aid mixer, formed a nice ball of dough. I used exactly1-1/2 cups of water , 2-1/4 t double acting yeast (Aldi’s) , 1-1/8t kosher salt and 3-1/4 cup all purpose flour.
No a fan of working with this dough, not sure if I did something wrong or not, rise in a warm place 2 hrs , dumped it out of floured container on to floured pan to form a loaf. Found it extremely sticky and very difficult to work with, used a lot of flour to form a loaf. Other than that, bread was very good.
Hi, Jo!
I do not have a Kitchenaid mixer. Is it possible to make this recipe without it? I’m sure that it will require kneading, but I am curious as to how long you think I would have to knead it without a mixer and dough hook.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
You’ll have to knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic. That will take 5-10 minutes.
Everything seemed perfect in the making of this bread until we cut into it and discovered it to have the density of Sourdough bread. It rose nicely the first time but only slightly the second time until I put it in the oven at which point it really rose. I can’t figure it out why it was so dense. Any suggestions?