Quick No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

Are you out of bread, trapped at home and can’t get to the grocery store? We’ve got you covered with this Quick No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread! You will be rewarded with a beautiful, crusty loaf of fluffy artisan-style bread right from your oven!

Why spend the money on a loaf of bakery artisan bread when you can make artisan-style Dutch oven bread yourself in just two hours. You’ll be rewarded with some delicious handmade bread that will fill the house with the scent of great grandmother’s kitchen. Serve it up with a smear of butter or a drizzle of garlic butter sauce.

Yes, just two hours! It is astonishing how easy it is to make this quick no-knead Dutch oven bread. You do not need a bread machine, mixer with a dough hook or any special equipment. The only equipment you need to make this 2-hour bread is:

1. Mixing bowl
2. Spoon
3. Dutch oven

If you happen to have some parchment paper then great, but if you don’t, then no worries. You can make this fast and easy bread without parchment as well.

Ingredients You Will Need

You will also need 5 minutes of your time and the ingredients. Here is the list of ingredients.

• Flour
• Instant yeast
• Salt
• Water

Keep reading to find out some tips about the ingredients and the process for making this 2-hour bread.

About The Ingredients

If you want to count water as an ingredient then it only takes 4 ingredients to make this no-knead Dutch oven bread. To help make the process easy and successful I will tell you what you need to know about each of the ingredients.

The dough will sit in a warm spot for one hour to puff up. My favorite spot is on top of the refrigerator.  

Flour:

We are using all-purpose flour for this recipe as it is probably the one you have in your pantry. Measure out 360 grams or 3 cups of the flour into a large bowl.

If you have bread flour then use that instead. Bread flour will give this yeast bread a better rise and chewier, more artisan-like texture. If you do use bread flour, you will need to increase the water a bit.

Yeast:

The type of yeast you use in this recipe is important. The reason this yeast bread is so fast and easy is because of the rapid rise yeast. It is sold as RapidRise from Fleishman or as Quick-Rise yeast from Red Star.

It is a type of instant yeast that is very quick-acting. If you have instant yeast that is not rapid rise, you can still make this bread but give it a little more time to rise. I usually add 20 to 30 minutes if I am using regular instant yeast.

Another reason instant yeast makes this recipe so fast and easy is because you do not have to proof it first. You can mix this yeast right into the flour. You don’t have to let it sit in water before you add it to the dough. This recipe really is the easiest yeast bread ever.

Salt:

Measure and add 1-1/2 teaspoons of regular table salt to the bowl. Do not reduce or omit the salt. Salt is needed for two reasons.:

1. It enhances the flavor of the bread.
2. It tightens the gluten structure in the flour giving it strength and volume to the bread.

If you prefer to use a coarse salt such as Morton Kosher Salt, use 1 full tablespoon. Or if using Diamond Kosher Salt which is the coarsest of all, use 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon.  

But make sure you do not use too much salt. Too much salt will kill yeast. This recipe uses just a pinch over 2% of salt in the dough. It is the perfect amount of salt to do the job.

Water:

You want to use 1-1/2 cups (or 338 grams) of lukewarm water from the kitchen tap. Lukewarm means baby-bottle warm, about 100°F. Definitely not hot! Hot water will kill the yeast. This probably seems like a lot of water but trust me, it works.  

Mix The Dough And Let It Rise:

This really is fast and easy.

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. The dough will look rough and “shaggy”. It will also be very sticky.
2. Cover the dough with plastic and let it rise for 1 hour. Coat the plastic with oil so it doesn’t stick to the dough.
3. Halfway through the rise time, stick the Dutch oven in a COLD oven then turn the oven on to preheat.
4. Turn the dough onto a floured counter and shape it into a ball. Slide it onto some parchment paper and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Baking The Quick No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread:

1. Transfer the hot Dutch oven to a hot pad on the counter. Set the lid aside.
2. Use the parchment paper as a sling to lift the bread into the Dutch oven. Spray the top of the bread with a bit of water and put the lid on the Dutch oven.
3. Bake for 30 minutes then take the lid off and continue baking for the next 15 minutes.
4. Use the parchment paper to lift the bread out of the Dutch oven and let it cool completely.

How To Know When The Bread Is Finished Baking.

Tilt the bread on edge and thump the bottom. If it has a hollow sound it is cooked completely. You can also use an instant-read thermometer to check for doneness. When done it will register 210°F when inserted in the top of the bread.

More Artisan Bread Recipes

• Sprouted Wheat Buttermilk Sandwich Bread
• Whole Grain Einkorn Pizza Dough
• Sprouted Rye Bread
• Einkorn English Muffins
• 21 Artisan Bread Recipes

More Tips For Success

A digital scale helps make measuring more accurate. We love using a digital kitchen scale set for grams as it gives a reliable measurement every time. If you prefer the cup scoop-and-level method, be sure to fluff the flour before scooping.

Preheat the Dutch oven for the best results. If you get the Dutch oven hot before you place the dough inside, the bread will rise higher and get a prettier, crispier crust.

In our Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe, we gave options to use a Dutch oven or baking sheet. We also gave an option to pre-heat the Dutch oven. If you are new to baking bread then keep things simple. Also, not all Dutch ovens can be preheated while they are empty. If you are concerned about damaging your Dutch oven then do not preheat it.

Let the dough rise in a fairly warm spot. Usually, the top of the refrigerator is the warmest place in the kitchen. That is usually warm enough. Don’t worry if the kitchen isn’t very warm though this bread will still rise in a cooler kitchen

Spray the top of the bread with water before you put it in the oven. This is a trick I learned to help get a bit more steam inside the Dutch oven. The dough will have enough moisture to create steam but an extra bit of water will help even more. The steam helps the bread rise higher and the Dutch oven traps the steam.

Take the lid off the Dutch oven after the first 30 minutes. If you leave the lid on then the crust will get a bit too thick and over-cooked.

A Tip For Shaping The Dough

A bench scraper makes it really easy. Use a bench scraper to turn the edges of the dough up folding the dough 5 or 6 times to shape into a rough ball. Do not mash or overwork the dough as it will release the bubbles in the dough. You want to just turn the sides in toward the middle.  Lift the dough with the scraper and place it upside down on the center of the flour-dusted parchment paper. If you don’t have a bench scraper you can still do this with your hands.

SOME OTHER RECIPES WE ARE SURE YOU WILL LOVE:

• Einkorn Sourdough Bread: The long slow fermentation of sourdough makes a bread that is healthier and so delicious. Using the healthy ancient grain of einkorn amplifies the flavor and healthiness of sourdough bread.
• Spelt Irish Soda Bread: This Irish soda bread is made with four ingredients: Spelt flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. This simple and quick bread has a great flavor from spelt flour.
• Sprouted Rye Bread: A soft, fine-textured sprouted rye bread with a distinctive rye flavor and a sprinkling of caraway seeds. Made from organic sprouted whole wheat flour and organic sprouted rye flour. 

Helpful Tools For This Recipe

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• Dutch oven
• Mixing Bowl
• Parchment paper