Rustic No Knead Bread

A no knead bread recipe without special equipment, stand mixers or dough hooks? YES! If you’ve never made bread before, you will LOVE how easy and forgiving this recipe is. Bread lovers will appreciate the thick, chewy crust and soft open crumb, similar to Ciabatta, perfect to smother with butter.

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 42 min
• 🍽️ Servings:12

• 3 cups 450g bread flour, or plain
• 1 tbsp 14g white granulated sugar
• 2 tsp 10g dried or instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp 7.4g salt
• 1 1/2 cups 375ml warm water
• 1 tbsp 15ml olive oil

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil, mixing to incorporate all of the ingredients together. Dough will be wet, sticky and shaggy.
2. Lightly spray the top with cooking oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and place a dry tea towel over the top.
3. Leave in a warm, draft-free place for 2-3 hours, until doubled in size. Dough will have a lot of little holes or bubbles and be wobbly like jelly.
4. Place a large (10-inch or 26cm) dutch oven or heavy based pot in the oven with a lid. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C) 30 minutes before baking.
5. Lightly flour work surface and plastic spatula with up to 1 tablespoon flour. Scrape dough out of bowl onto work surface with spatula. Sprinkle the top of dough with a large pinch of flour and fold it over on itself with the spatula (about 5-6 folds). Roughly form a round shape.
6. Measure out a large piece of parchment paper, large enough to transfer the dough into the pot. Place paper next to the dough and roll dough onto the paper, smooth side up. Carefully move it to the centre of the paper and reshape if needed, or shake pan a couple of times to evenly distribute dough. (It will even out while baking.)
7. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest while oven is preheating.
8. Use oven mitts to carefully remove hot dutch oven from oven. Grab the parchment paper from each end to pick up the dough and transfer it into the pot.
9. Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully golden browned.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

• FLOUR: Bread flour results in a softer, fluffier bread because of the higher protein content. All purpose or plain flour also work really well, with the texture being only slightly different.
• SUGAR: Yeast feeds on sugar and starch, the perfect pairing in bread dough. The mix releases carbon dioxide gas, causing the bread to rise while baking. The bubbles push the dough up and out, creating a soft and spongy texture.
• YEAST: we have tried this recipe over the years with dried, instant and rapid-rise. We found the dried yeast did not need activating before mixing it through the dry ingredients. If hesitant, feel free to activate it first in the warm water and oil for a couple of minutes before adding the rest of your ingredients.
• OIL is what makes our bread even softer. You need this sneaky little addition for a silky, soft crumb.
• WARM WATER: not too hot or it will kill your yeast. 130°F or 55°C is the perfect temperature. You can also do the finger test: if you dip your finger in the water and its nice and warm, it's perfect. If it burns, let it cool down slightly until warm.
• RISING TIME can vary according to a couple of elements: humidity levels, room temperature, different flours, different yeast, etc. Let the bubbly surface be your guide. As long as the dough rises to double its size, it's ready to continue as per the recipe above. Just remember, yeast thrives in warmer temps.