This no-knead artisan bread is the perfect recipe for anyone who is just beginning their bread making journey! Simple ingredients come together to create a fluffy inner loaf with a crispy crust. My family loves to eat this warm from the oven with salted butter and raw honey, but it makes great sandwiches, side to soup, or avocado toast! So versatile and delicious. Let's get into the deets!
This recipe can be split in a variety of ways, but I typically make one round boule and a sandwich loaf or three baguettes from this recipe.
Total time: Approximately 4-5 hours start to finish.
You will also need a loaf pan, parchment paper, a covered Dutch oven, and a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
Ingredients:
6 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 1/2 cups warm water ( not over 110 degrees)
1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp fine himalayan salt
Method:
Start by adding warm water to a stand mixer bowl, then add in the active dry yeast. Let the yeast bloom for a few minutes. Add in the flour one cup at a time while mixing with the dough hook attachment on low. Let the mixer work the dough on a medium speed for several minutes. Remove the dough hook from the bowl and cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or cloth for 35 minutes. Up to this point, everything should be added except the salt. This mini "proof" without salt is called an autolyse and its purpose is to promote better gluten formation and to hydrate the flour. (Side bar: I have tried this recipe with and without the autolyse. There isn't a gigantic difference but I do get a fluffier crumb with it, so I prefer it but you can absolutely omit that step! I would not skip this step if using whole wheat flour though.) After the autolyse, sprinkle in the salt while the mixer is on low. Keep mixing on low for another few minutes then remove the bowl from the stand mixer and cover again with a damp tea towel or cloth for approximately 2 hours or until the dough has doubled. You will know the dough is proofed well when you gently poke the dough with a finger and it does not stick to your finger and bounces back slowly, leaving a slight indentation. Over proofed dough will not bounce back during the poke test, while under proofed dough will bounce back too quickly and stick to your finger. At this point you can pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees. While pre-heating your oven, put your dutch oven and loaf pan in it to warm up too. At this point it is time to shape your dough. Lightly flour a clean surface and split the dough into two equal parts. This explanation of shaping will be for one boule and a sandwich loaf. Take one of the dough halves and put it on the floured surface. Pinch, lift up and press the edges of the dough into the center. Turn the dough over to place the "seam" down. Now we want to smooth out and create surface tension on the dough. Cup your hands slightly and hold the back of the dough, sliding it against the counter towards you. Rotate the dough in one direction for a couple spins using the same type of pressure with your hands and finishing the rotations by pulling it toward you. Repeat this process until you have formed a ball and see the dough has smoothed out and you see air bubbles on the surface. You can transfer this first shaped loaf to parchment paper and it will need to proof for an additional 30-45 minutes prior to scoring and baking. With the first loaf set aside, you can start shaping your second half of dough. Repeat the shaping process you used for the first loaf but when getting to the last pulls toward yourself, instead of creating a round ball, create an oval shape. Set on parchment. After the last rise for 30-45 mins you can score your loaves. Any scoring pattern is great just make sure to have one larger score to let the dough expand. Once the dough is scored, place boule dough in the dutch oven still on the parchment paper and cover with lid. Then add the sandwich loaf dough to the loaf pan. You can cover this loaf pan with a sheet pan or can leave it to open bake. Bake the loaves for 25 minutes covered, uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until internal temp is 250 degrees. You can slice and enjoy warm from the oven or if you prefer, let cool and slice after cooling for a fluffier crumb. I won't judge if you can't wait! We never can! :)
A few tips!
Storing bread in a ziplock is what we do, because we mostly reheat the slices in a toaster so we do not mind that the crust doesn't stay crispy. If you choose not to and your loaf gets too hard, run it under a faucet for a few seconds and bake on 350 degrees for about 20 mins to re-hydrate and bring it back to life! Although I have never tried this with individual slices. Please let me know if you enjoyed this recipe!
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