4 Ingredient No Fail Homemade Artisan Bread that’s easy and delicious! Perfect for those who love freshly home baked bread right out of the oven.
The Best Artisan Bread
If you’re just beginning to bake, this is the ideal bread for you to start with. It requires only 4 ingredients, and it’s incredibly easy to make.
This is very simple, no kneading required, in the sense that the mixer does all the work. However, if you do not have a mixer, you can simply add the ingredients to a large bowl and mix everything with a wooden until the dough comes together.
Why You’ll Love This Artisan Bread
- Perfect for beginner bakers!
- Only 4 ingredients!
- Easy as can be!
- Perfectly crusty and delicious!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Flour – You’ll need to use all-purpose flour for this recipe. You can also use bread flour because it produces a chewier bread, or whole wheat flour.
- Salt – Use as much or as little as you’d like. Just don’t skip it, without it the bread won’t have any taste at all.
- Yeast – In this recipe I call for active dry yeast which I recommend using because we really want a long and slow rise to develop our flavor. However, instant yeast can be used as well.
- Water – It’s super important to make sure your water is at room temperature around 70°F (21°C) as it will affect the outcome of your yeast.
How To Make Artisan Bread
- Activate the yeast. In a medium bowl add the warm water, salt, yeast and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast bubbles up. If you are using instant yeast, you do not need to wait for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
- Make the dough. 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 and the dough comes clean from the sides of the bowl. I usually do this for about 5 to 7 minutes. If you do not have a mixer, simply add all the ingredients to a large bowl and using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon mix everything together until all the flour is incorporated. The dough will seem shaggy at first but keep mixing until you don’t see anymore dry flour. The dough will be very sticky and elastic.
- First rise. 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.
- Prep the baking sheet. It is recommended to bake this bread on a stone, however a regular baking sheet will work just fine. Cover the baking sheet, or stone with parchment paper.
- Shape the dough. 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.
- Second rise. Let the loaves rest for another 30 minutes so that they can rise a bit.
- Prep the oven. Preheat oven to 450°F. Before placing the bread in the oven, add a pan with a cup of water and place it in the bottom rack.
- Bake the bread. Score the top of your bread with a very sharp knife, 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 and serve. Cool on a rack before serving.
How Do I Know When My Bread Is Done Baking?
Tap the bottom! Turn the bread upside down and give the bottom a firm thump with your thumb, or a knock and if it sounds hollow it’s done.
Why Is My Bread Dense?
Usually bread will be dense when there is too much flour. Keep in mind this dough will be sticky and shaggy, do not add any more flour than specified. Other factors that come into play are humidity and age of flour. Little yeast, long rise, sticky dough are keys to a good, light loaf. Also, do not over mix the dough.
More Delicious Bread Recipes To Try
- Easter Bread
- Air Fryer No Knead Bread
- No Knead Bread
- Potato Bread
- Dark Rye Bread
- Rye Bread
- Amish White Bread
- Easy Focaccia
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Artisan Bread
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 3 hrs 5 mins
Total: 3 hrs 15 mins
Serves: 20
4 Ingredient No Fail Homemade Artisan Bread that's easy and delicious! Perfect for those who love freshly home baked bread right out of the oven.
Ingredients
- 3 cups water lukewarm
- 1½ tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1½ tablespoon salt
- 6½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Activate the yeast. In a medium bowl add the warm water, salt, yeast and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast bubbles up. If you are using instant yeast, you do not need to wait for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
- Make the dough. 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 and the dough comes clean from the sides of the bowl. I usually do this for about 5 to 7 minutes. If you do not have a mixer, simply add all the ingredients to a large bowl and using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon mix everything together until all the flour is incorporated. The dough will seem shaggy at first but keep mixing until you don't see anymore dry flour. The dough will be very sticky and elastic.
- First rise. 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.
- Prep the baking sheet. It is recommended to bake this bread on a stone, however a regular baking sheet will work just fine. Cover the baking sheet, or stone with parchment paper.
- Shape the dough. 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.
- Second rise. Let the loaves rest for another 30 minutes so that they can rise a bit.Prep the oven. Preheat oven to 450°F. Before placing the bread in the oven, add a pan with a cup of water and place it in the bottom rack.
- Bake the bread. Score the top of your bread with a very sharp knife, 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 and serve. Cool on a rack before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Always check the expiration date on your yeast and make sure it hasn’t expired. All your yeast products whether it’s in a jar or a package should be stamped with a “Best if Used by” date. Always make sure you check this date, even when you purchase the yeast, who knows it could have been on the shelf past its expiry date.
- To keep your yeast fresh and longer lasting, unopened yeast packages or jars should be stored in a cool or dry place such as your cupboard. However, you can also store your yeast in the fridge or freezer. If you do store it in the freezer and need to use yeast for your baking, make sure you take out the amount you need and let it sit at room temperature for at least half hour before using.
- Once your yeast package or jar has been opened, you must refrigerate the yeast or freeze it in an airtight container.
- One thing to remember about your yeast, is that it is a living organism and over time it will lose activity, even if you’ve never opened the jar or package. So if you don’t bake often, buy the smaller yeast packages rather than a big jar of yeast.
- How do I know when my bread is done baking: Tap the bottom! Turn the bread upside down and give the bottom a firm thump with your thumb, or a knock and if it sounds hollow it’s done.
- Recipe will yield 2 loaves. Nutritional information assumes 10 slices per loaf and is per slice.
- This recipes comes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home BakingBread Baking Books).
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 149kcal (7%)Carbohydrates: 31g (10%)Protein: 4g (8%)Fat: 1g (2%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 526mg (23%)Potassium: 46mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 1g (1%)Vitamin C: 1mg (1%)Calcium: 8mg (1%)Iron: 2mg (11%)
Best, fastest, easiest, “can add to,” and FORGIVING bread recipe. I also refrigerate the dough for 2 or 3 nights and create delicious “rusticana” pizza doughs.
This is my go-to recipe to make with my three year old son who loves using our mixer! It’s so easy and a great first recipe if you’re new to making bread.
Ok. So I was so excited to try this and many times the yeast didn’t do it’s thing. I read the other reviews and did some research about adding sugar. Sure enough, I added 6 tsp of sugar and the yeast bloomed and gurgled! Awesome recipe!
I just tried this recipe. It was the first time I made bread. Looked good but not very puffy. When I put the dry east in water and salt, it didn’t seem to do anything. The packet of yeast said to add sugar, so I tried that and then I could see some action so I think that worked. Why isn’t sugar mentioned in this recipe for the yeast step? Also, I wasn’t sure what speed I needed to run the kitchen aid mixer on. I did a low speed, the. Moved to medium high later. It didn’t pull off the sides by itself but I could kind of pull it off myself. Was it supposed to do that on its own with the dough hook? When i tried to shape it, it kept flattening out so I think maybe it was supposed to keep it going longer in the mixer till it let go of the sides but I wasn’t sure.
Thanks for this recipe! I am excited to try again if I know about the above.
I have made this several times and love it! I follow the recipe exactly and there have been no issues until I tried making it this weekend. The dough didn’t rise after two hours but it did end up rising after much more time. I threw it away and decided on yeast packets instead of the jar I had in the fridge. Same issue today; you can usually see it start to rise very quickly and half an hour in I can’t see any difference. I had my mixer on low speed but if I can remember correctly I’ve always used a medium speed. Going to try that tomorrow and see how I do. Also, have you ever broken up the steps if you couldn’t get to each one at the preferred time? I saw the yeast packet said you can pause the process by placing the dough in the fridge. Finally, does it need to be in a plastic bowl to rest? I’ve always done that but wondering if I can use kitchen aid metal bowl that it was mixed in and cover with plastic wrap?
Yeah I have broken down the process but not for this bread specifically. You can use a mixer bowl.
We like 2 different types of bread. Crusty for him and not so crusty for me. So thanks to you I am going to try to make bread. Softer for me and hard for him. Should make us both happy. Thankyou Jo.
My pleasure! 🙂