Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread Recipe Tastes Like It Came From a Bakery by Melissa Vickers

A while back I posted a recipe for bread made in the slow cooker. I thought that homemade no-knead bread was easy, but this no-knead artisan bread recipe is even easier. No joke. 

The biggest drawback for this recipe over the slow-cooker recipe is that it cooks in a hot (450 degrees F) oven for 45 minutes. So if you are looking to keep your kitchen cool in the hot summer months, the slow-cooker recipe might be the way to go. I like the taste and texture of this bread recipe better though. Crispy crust and soft inside!

The easy artisan bread recipe is made with all-purpose flour, active dry yeast or instant yeast, salt and hot water. The ingredients are combined into a "shaggy" dough and rest on the counter for about three hours. Shape the dough into a ball and put it into a dutch oven and baked to golden perfection. (More detailed directions below!) 

Serve this bread with butter for dinner or slice it and make sandwiches. Delicious! 

Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 5 minutes plus 3 hours to proof
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours
Servings: Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast or instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups hot water (NOT boiling water, but around 125 to 130 degrees F)
• extra flour for “kneading”

Here’s how to make it:

1. Dump flour, yeast and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add hot water and mix with the dry ingredients. This makes a very soft and “shaggy” dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it on the counter for 3 hours (longer is OK). It doesn’t have to be a warm place.
2. After the 3 hours are up, the dough will have puffed up and have bubbles on the top. Flour your surface with a 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. The dough will be sticky – add a little more flour on top of the dough. (A flat scraper helps here.) “Knead” the dough a few times using the scraper to slide under the dough and pull it up and over. No need for long kneading!
3. Make a ball shape with the dough and transfer to a bowl lined with parchment paper. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit while you preheat your oven.
4. Place a dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Make sure your dutch oven lid doesn’t have a plastic handle and can withstand that heat. (Note: I don’t have a Dutch oven, so I tried using a small enamel turkey roasting pan and it worked beautifully.)
5. Once the oven is up to temperature, take the pot out and transfer the parchment paper and dough to the pot. Cover and set the pot back in the oven for 30 minutes. Doing this creates steam, which is the secret for artisan bread.
6. Take the pot out at 30 minutes and remove the parchment paper. Set the bread back in the pot, but don’t put the cover on. Set it back in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.
   

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