Name: Bread the easy way. No starter. No Kneading
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Ingredients: 450 gm Flour, bakers (plain, bread or pizza flour, 3 cups); 1 teaspoon yeast, active dried; 1 teaspoon salt ((not flaked)); 375 ml water, warm (1 1/2 cups); 1 Tablespoon olive oil (****optional)

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This is a recipe for bread the easy way. No starters. No kneading no failures. Perfect bread every time.

Crispy crunchy bread straight from the oven

Perfect Bread every time

Have you been an ISO baker? Have you given up on feeding starters and wondering why everyone on Instagram seems to have the perfect sourdough?

Then this is the bread for you.

You are not going to worry anymore about that heavy disappointing flat hard bread you waited 12 or 24 hours for, OK? Put it behind you. People spend a lifetime perfecting sourdough. We don’t have that time.

This bread has been popular on the internet for years so it’s not new but maybe you haven’t had the chance to try it before. Now is your chance.

A perfect round of rustic bread on a bench

This highly achievable AND simple recipe will amaze you. The hardest thing you will have to do is plan ahead.

This type of bread is more often known as no knead bread. I’ve given you a few similar recipes in the past, like this Brioche bread. ( its also easy ). Or this No Knead Sweet Potato bread. They are perfect and will work to encourage you on your bread journey. This style of bread works by using a long fermentation. The moisture in the very wet dough helps to build gluten without all of the work of kneading!

A cut loaf of bread that looks just like sourdough — The loaf has the crunch and fullness of sourdough but of course no sourness

So here it is. The bread will have a thin crisp crust that shatters under your knife with a sourdough like interior.

What you will need to make your bread

You’ll need 4 basic ingredients. Four, salt, yeast and water
You will need to plan a day ahead (more about that later)
Make the basic recipe before getting fancy
You will need a Dutch Oven (like a le Creuset, le chasseur or Crofton). This creates the intense heat and moist atmosphere you need for this bread. This recipe was tested in an ovenproof pot with a lid. The results were positive but not as good as the Dutch oven.
Use bakers flour. All purpose flour is too soft. You can purchase specific flour from a market, supermarket or bakery. It should say bread, pizza or bakers flour.

A white dutch oven baking on an oven shelf

Bread in the Dutch Oven just out of the oven

How to make this bread and more

Don’t knead the dough, just mix together. Once water hits flour the gluten starts to form. Strong gluten makes great bread.
As the dough sits, the water gets into every grain of the flour. The official name for this is “autolyse”. You may have come across that term when making sourdough. What it means is that when you go back to your dough it will be very soft and sticky
This bread does not require any mixing, kneading or knocking back. In fact the lazier you are the better your bread will be!
If you don’t have scales, don’t worry. Use cup and spoon measurements
Now the planning bit. Start this bread the day before you need it. If you want it today make another softer yeasted bread. This one needs 24 hours to perfect. If you want it for breakfast on Sunday morning, mix it up before heading out Saturday. Eg. make it at 8 am before going shopping (it will take 10 minutes at most) On Sunday morning at 8 am you will cook it for breakfast. Follow the step by step instructions!
I bought my Dutch Oven for $24.95 at Aldi
After you have made a loaf or two you can experiment. Wholewheat is a perfect choice. Or add olives herbs, dried tomatoes or seeds. I will include this in the notes below

Wholemeal bakers flour
A scan pan pot

No Knead perfect wholegrain bread — A wholegrain loaf

Watch this video for helpful hints