Easy Dutch Oven Bread

Jim Lahey's quintessential no knead bread recipe is an enduring classic with good reason—a handful of ingredients left to rise for 18-24 hours results in a crackly-crusted, sourdough-adjacent loaf that's baked in a dutch oven for perfect doneness.

My version builds off of Lahey's original but differs a bit. I've added a bit more yeast, flour, and work time to the recipe, but it's still one of the easiest loaves of bread you can make. Serve slices warm or toasted and spread with butter alongside steaming bowls of vegetarian cream of tomato soup, vegan asparagus soup, or carrot cauliflower soup and don't forget the butter and cheese to go with it!

Why This Bread is SO Easy and Delicious

Baking the dough in a dutch oven yields a loaf of bread with a tender, floofy inside with a beautifully browned, crisp outside. And, because it has such a long rise time, you can set the bowl of dough in a warm place for up to 24 hours and forget about it until you're ready to bake. Low-maintenance bread is my kind of bread! And the smell of bread baking never fails to fill the house with goodness.

• Almost like sourdough. I've flirted with baking sourdough bread over the years, but I'll be honest with you: At this stage of my life I don't have time to cultivate and maintain a starter. This easy no knead bread is my compromise that's actually not a compromise! It has the flavor of sourdough but without the fuss.
• Novice-friendly. If you're new to baking bread, this is the recipe for you! I promise that this is such an easy bread recipe that anyone can make it.
• Foolproof. It's so hard to mess up this method for bread, which is another reason it is perfect for beginners! Just rise, form, and bake.
• A bakery-worthy loaf. Yet even though this is a fairly basic recipe, I'd argue that the results rival a bakery loaf! You'll love how easy it is to make freshly baked bread at home.

What You'll Need

Four basic ingredients (and that includes water!) make up this beautiful loaf. Make sure to scroll down to my recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full ingredient amounts and instructions!

• Flour - I use all-purpose flour here.
• Yeast - You can use instant dry yeast or fast-acting instant dry yeast, with no need to activate it first.
• Salt - I always use fine sea salt or table salt.
• Water - Warm water helps to energize the yeast.

A Few Variations on a Theme

• Add whole wheat flour - To make this more of a whole grain loaf, substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
• More salt - I do about 1 teaspoon of salt for my bread, and if you want a bit more of a salty contrast, experiment with the amount of added salt (try 1 ½ teaspoons of salt, for example). Or, sprinkle the top of the loaf with flaky salt.
• Make it herb-y - Add fresh or dried herbs to the dough, like chopped fresh rosemary, oregano, or thyme.
• Seeds - I love adding sesame or poppy seeds! You can work them into the dough or roll the formed dough in 1-2 tablespoons of seeds before baking it.

How to Make No Knead Bread

I've added a lot of photos below so that you can get an idea of how each stage of the loaf should look during mixing and rising. Know that this is a pretty forgiving recipe, so if you don't have time for much working of the dough, it will still turn out nicely.

More Bread-Making Tips

• Let it rise. Lahey advises letting the no knead dough rise for 12-18 hours, preferably 18 hours. I let my loaf rise for a minimum of 16 hours, and you can let it go for up to 2 days. The longer rise time will deepen its flavor and make for a better-baked loaf.
• Keep in a warm place. Try to let the bread rise in a warm place—I admit this is not always possible for me because our house tends to the cool, especially in the winter. I keep it near the oven which is a warmer spot. If your house is also on the cooler side, you can place the bowl in the sun, or add a few hours of rise time to allow the dough to rise more.
• Try the fridge. If you have the time and want a deeply flavored loaf, after the initial long rise at room temperature, cover the bowl of dough with plastic and place it in the fridge for up to 3 days. The day you plan to bake, remove it from the fridge, follow the recipe instructions for the brief kneading process, and then let the bread sit and warm up at room temperature for at least 2 hours.
• To score or not to score. Scoring is the process of making shallow cuts to the surface of a loaf before baking. You can make small decorative cuts or use a sharp knife to quickly slash down the center of the top, or skip scoring altogether and simply bake the bread seam-side down in the dutch oven!
• Keep the dutch oven in the oven! Starting with a hot dutch oven helps create that lovely crackly crust. So when you are preheating the oven, let the dutch oven heat as well.
• Bake on high heat. I preheat my oven at 500°F and then lower it to 475°F for the actual baking.
• How do I know my bread is done? After a lot of baking bread, you'll know when your bread is done by how dark the outside crust has become. I find my sweet spot for dutch oven bread to be 30 minutes covered, then 20 minutes uncovered, but times may vary depending on your oven. If you want to make extra sure the bread is done, use an instant-read thermometer. The loaf is fully cooked when it reaches 209-210°F (98-99°C).
• Cool the loaf completely. It's SO hard not to tear into a warm, freshly baked loaf of bread as soon as it comes out of the oven, but I urge you to wait at least 1 hour, preferably 2. This allows the starches to set and solidify (if you've ever been disappointed by a gummy crumb, chances are the bread didn't rest long enough).
• Try another flavor. Use this recipe as your base to make cinnamon raisin no knead bread, olive oil and herb bread, or cheesy bread! Stir these add-ins into the dough before shaping it and letting it do its final rise.

Serving Suggestions

Bread is great with almost everything from bowls of gluten free chicken soup to gluten free chili and everything in between! Spread slices of toasted bread with butter and persimmon jam or use it to soak up super simple tomato sauce.

Proper Storage

• Counter - Wrap any leftovers from the loaf in a clean kitchen towel or place it in a bread bag or paper bag and keep it on the counter for up to 3 days.
• Freezer - You can freeze the entire loaf by placing it in a sealable freezer-safe bag, or slice it up and store slices in a freezer-safe bag. Whatever you do, make sure to let the bread cool before preparing it for the freezer. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months. You can let the bread defrost in the fridge or on the counter for a few minutes, or warm it from frozen in the toaster, toaster oven, or oven.