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This artisan bread made from a no knead bread recipe will impress all of your dinner guests.
The first time I had this delicious artisan bread was at a dinner party hosted by my friend Shauna. All the food was amazing, but this bread was definitely the highlight for me and the other guests!
What is Artisan Bread?
This artisan bread has a beautiful crispy crust and is moist and chewy on the inside. I loved it so much I went right home and made it twice the week after the party. And it has become a regular at our house ever since!
How to Make No Knead Artisan Bread
This bread is incredibly easy to make because there is no kneading. All it requires is some planning and time. About 12 -18 hours to be exact!
- Mix up the dough the night before. Let it rise all night and through half of the next day, 12-18 hours.
- After the dough has risen overnight, place it onto a lightly floured surface. Turn the dough a few times until the surface of the dough is covered in flour.
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rest for about 15 minutes.
- After the 15 minutes is up, transfer it to a well floured towel and cover with another towel.
- Then let it rise for 2-3 more hours, until it has doubled in size.
- After rising, transfer the dough to the hot, 3 to 6 qt. heavy covered pot.
- Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. No need to grease the pan. I usually line it with parchment paper to make removal easier but you can put the bread right into the pan if you like.
- Remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until bread turns golden brown. Baking the bread covered allows the steam to create a bread that is chewy but with an amazing artisan style crust.
What Kind of Pan Should I Use?
I use a 5.5 qt dutch oven. If you don’t have a dutch oven any large oven safe pan with a lid will work, a lid is important. You can even use a 9 x 13 pan and cover with aluminum foil.
No Knead Bread Variations
You can add in herbs, spices, dried fruit, chopped nuts and or cheese. Add it in during the initial flour-yeast mixture. This helps prevent over working the dough. When you over work the dough you lose those soft, fluffy air pockets that form in the loaf.
Try these other delicious bread recipes:
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No Knead Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour more for dusting
- 1/4 teaspoon rapid rise instant yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 5/8 cups water, warm out of tap
- Cornmeal as needed.
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt
- Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
- Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.
- Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes
- Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.
- Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.
- Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.
- When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
- At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450°.
- Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) lined with parchment paper in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven.
- Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.
- Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
- Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes. Then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, or until loaf is beautifully browned.
- Cool on a rack
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Sara: Our Best Bites says
yum yum yum. Ya know, I’ve had this recipe on my stack of “to try” recipes for a couple of years now! Reading this post is making me feel really stupid for not doing it yet, it looks SO good!
Amy says
Thanks for reminding me of this recipe. I’ve made this no knead bread before and it is great!
The only problem is, I can eat the whole loaf!
This is great with any Italian main dish but my favorite thing to serve this with is Pasta e Fagioli.
(I think I’ll start a loaf of this for Sunday.)
BTW, your pictures are always so pretty.
Joan Callaway says
I’m giving this a try…
amazon.com delivered my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois last week…and I’ve now received the 5 qt. lidded container in which the starter will be started…and now I’m waiting for room in my refrigerator to HOLD the 5 qt. container!
This looks much easier, although the concept of “sourdough bread in 5 min” and their method is inspired.
I’ve been baking bread for my family for over 50 years…always looking for new and better ways to do it. Arthritis causes me to really appreciate the no-knead methods, although I always found something very soothing about that process.
Thanks for the recipe.
Kara says
Wow, this sounds amazing! Thanks for the detailed instructions for baking it. I need to give it a try!
Heidi says
Now THAT is a fascinating artisan recipe. I’ve been dinking around with several from Peter Reinhart’s book, but this is unlike any of those. I will definitely try this one – thanks for sharing!