No Knead Bread Baking Method
On this page, you will find both the short and long version videos of a basic no knead bread baking technique. See these variations of no knead recipe too.
Before we get started, I wanted to share an email I received from Leanna who says more for the benefits of the no knead method than I could ever convey. She says…
Love This Method
I’ve been baking bread for 40 years and this method has turned my bread baking upside down. I even had kneading down to an art. My dough had to feel just right. My ingredients had to be the best. Now I just throw these four items into a bowl and with no effort on my part, I end up with perfection. I take care of a lady with handicaps and bake it for her too. She has a gas oven and mine at home is electric. I have had no problems with this method. I used to have a sourdough starter but several moves ago, I discarded it. Now with your starter I am back in business. I can hardly wait for my first loaf of NK sourdough bread.
6 min. 40 sec.
12 min. long
Ingredients for basic yeasted No Knead Method:
3 cups bread flour (the above video used 1 cup (5 oz.) whole wheat flour and 2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) white bread flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups purified or spring water
- Mix together the dry ingredients.
- Mix in water until the water is incorporated.
- Cover with plastic and let sit 18 hours.
- Follow video instruction for folding.
- Cover loosely with plastic and rest for 15 minutes.
- Transfer to well floured towel or proofing basket. Cover with towel and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.
- Bake in covered La Cloche or Dutch oven preheated to 500 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Remove cover; reduce heat to 450 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes.
- Let cool completely on rack.
- Consume bread, be happy.
| No Knead Revisited – A Three Year Check Up
It’s been over 3 years since the original New York Times no knead bread recipe was published. That’s also about the same time Breadtopia was born. By far the most common difficulty people write or call in about is with the dough being too wet to handle at the end of the long first proofing period and also when it’s time to place the dough into a covered vessel to bake at the end of the second rise. When you run into this, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it other than attempt to follow through on the instructions and ultimately wrest the dough into your heated baker and into the oven. Your “mistake” may turn out better than you expected and if nothing else, you’ll learn from it. The next time around you can do one or a combination of a couple things differently.
The same principle holds true on the second rise. While 1-2 hours is the suggested range, I’m almost always at about 60 to 75 minutes. Another concern we hear a lot is about the dough not rising much during that second short proofing period. I don’t see mine rise much then either and it doesn’t matter so long as you see a good rise during the first several minutes that the dough is in the oven. That’s called oven spring and it’s a very good thing. By keeping your proofing periods on the shorter side, you’re more likely to get good oven spring from the still vigorous yeast or sourdough starter. Of course all of the above is assuming your yeast or sourdough starter is fresh and viable to start with. In summary, most problems can be helped or solved by stiffening the dough a little and/or shortening the rising times. If you’re new to bread baking, don’t think from reading this that it’s difficult or tricky to get great results. Most people find it a breeze and enjoy success right out of the blocks. Others may find it takes a few tries. It’s important to have fun with it and don’t worry about bombing. There’s no significant downside to bread baking but the upside can be fabulous. Enjoy! |
This method of baking is quite forgiving if you alter the ingredients and proportions. One of the great things about a bread recipe that is so easy and involves just one loaf at a time is you don’t feel like you’re risking a lot if your experimenting goes awry.
Try using different flours and/or different proportions of flour and play around with the water measurement a little.
We’d would love to hear from anyone with their experiences using this technique, both successful and otherwise. Please share your experiences below.
Note: Here are some great dough handling tips from Breadtopia reader Mark Liptak. Also, check out these no knead baking techniques by Margaret Ball.
{ 973 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
hi
this string caused me to do some investigating. i currently let my dough rise all day in the cold oven but with the light on. last night i put a thermometer in there and temp was 87-88 degrees which i believe is too warm and may be causing my bread to over proof. i get rounded top but bread often has flattened a little whle its baking. crumb is good but prefer a rounder top. not sure if thats the reason but this morning i put a dough to rise with no light on so we’ll see what happens tonight.
Also, any suggestion on “flattening tops” would be appreciated.
fred
I hear ya. I’m also from Canada and our home can get down to 13 degrees C during the night. I usually wrap my bowls with tea towels. I will also put them on the stovetop under the microwave light or right in the microwave (low light on or off depending on the temp. outside) and take it out once we get home from work and the house has warmed up. RighThis time of year my first rise is 12 hours but in the winter it’s more like 24 so I mix it up in the evening. By the time I shape the dough for the second rise, the house is warm.
@ Christina – Have you tried covering it loosely (I use a plastic produce bag from the grocery store) and just putting it in the oven? Oven turned off of course. We do this, and it seems to work fine. The oven keeps it out of drafts, etc.
I love this website, by the way. And my husband loves the bread!
I wanted to see if anyone has any great ideas how to find a warm place overnight to let the dough rise? I live in Canada and we’re a bit cheap so we turn down the heat overnight, and it’s way too cold for the poor dough. Any ideas?
When increasing fermentation time for NK sourdough bread (and decreasing starter from 1/2 to 1/4 cup) to increase the sourness of the bread, when is the dough refrigerated. In this summer weather I’ve been letting my dough rise about 12 hourse and then 2 hours for the second rise but that’s been with yeast not starter so not sure if the dough will rise enough in 12 hours as I’ve only tried the sourdough recipe twice and that was back in late winter. Thanks for any suggestions.
I just made my first loaf of NKB. I’m so excited! I haven’t tasted it yet (it’s cooling on the rack as I type) and it didn’t really “straighten out” during the baking process like the Bittman article says it would.
I didn’t use anything other than cornmeal and it fell right out of my Crueset.
Hi Gary,
Yes you can, but since one of the signature techniques of no knead baking is to bake the dough in covered vessels to better develop the crust, what I’ve done is inverted two of the mini pans to cover the other two. Or you could tent them with foil.
Can NK bread be made in the Romertopf Mini Loaf Pans that are sold on this web site. My wife and I saw mini dutch ovens at William Sonoma this weekend and thought it would be nice to make small NK breads. But a set of 3 of these mini dutch ovens were $99. So has anyone made NK bread this way?
Fred,
I just made a double (6 cups of flour) loaf of NK bread this morning using the cold start method. So after letting the dough rise for a second time in my dutch oven. I put the dutch oven in the oven turned on warm until the oven was preheated for 1/2 an hour. Then I turn the oven on to 500 deg F with the bread in the oven until the oven beeps that it is 500 degs and then turn it down to 450. After 50 minutes covered, I uncover for 5 minutes and then check the temp. The temp is always right at 200 and the I then dump the loaf out.
Thanks Gary.
i tried it by the book and let it proof in a parchment lined frying pan then dropped it into the preheated 500 pot. Removed lid after half for final 15 minutes uncovered. my timer stopped so i had to guesstimate. when i checked the internal was 207 but everything was good.
With the cold start, do you remove the lid at some point and cookd uncovered?
Hey freddc1,
I have used both the hot pot and cold pot method. The only difference is the cold pot take a little longer to cook. For either method I use a meat themometer to make sure the bread is 200 deg F before I take it out of the oven. So after the time you cook the bread in the hot pot start checking the temp until it is 200.
The cold pot method is quite a bit easier for me. I actually do the 2nd rise in the same pot that I use to cook the bread.
The bread comes out great using either method.
thank you. i would think the baking time would be longer with cold pot going into the cold oven versus the preheated pot and oven.
Freddc1,
I bake the same amount of time but I do use parchment paper to avoid any sticking problem.
I’ve been making the NK breads for few months and have question on cold start vs. hot pot. i’ve seen similar recipe but starting with cold oven. Are there any (dis)advantages to either method. For instance, is there a cold start formula rather than your method of 30 minutes into hot pot/hot oven and 15 uncovered. i’d appreciate any help. thank you.
Mary Beeth, yeast for bread machines (usually in a jar) works well. I use regular dry yeast and it works fine for me.
Mary Beeth,
You can purchase the SAF – Instant yeast here on the website… however, with shipping, it may be more than you’re willing to pay….
Here in Southern California, I found it at Smart & Final stores… around $4.00 for the 1 pound package…. let us know where you’re located.
The video and details in this posting resulted in my first successful attempt at no knead bread. It was perfect! One dilemma was my lack of “instant” yeast–none of the stores here carry it. However, I used active dry and reconstituted it per the package directions and the dough rose perfectly, both times. Where can I get instant yeast??
Joe and Sheila,
Thanks for the info. I will try it this weekend.
I have been using a bowl sprayed with olive oil and coated lightly with Wondra flour for the second rise. I could never get the towel and flour system to work, especially with really wet dough. The bowl works fine for me but i’d love to get rid of having to clean that bowl:-)!
I have been making NKB ever since the Bittman article in the New York Times. i live in Florida where getting good bread is not easy. this bread is fantastic. and Breadtopia is a great place to learn.
Joe
Here is my experience with making a larger loaf:
I took the weight ingredients provided by Lahey and multiplied everything by 1.6. 640g flour, 480g water, and about 1/2 cup of sourdough starter. I baked it at 460 for 35 minutes covered, and about 18 minutes uncovered. It seemed to work well.
Hey Joe,
About the second rise in the dutch oven. Before I put the dough in I sprayed the dutch oven with pam and sprinkled corn meal on the bottom. The loaf fell right out when done.
Joe,
I have started using parchment paper in addition to oiling to avoid the sticking problem as I start from a cold oven. I have an oblong cloche and a covered loaf pyrex that I bake in.
a question about the second rise. when you put the dough in the pan for the second rise, do you oil the pot first. i tried baking from a cold start last week and the bread stuck to the pot. i bake my nkb in a porcelain covered iron pot.
thanks,
joe
The double size loaf came out great. As I mentioned I was making a double recipe loaf. The normal three cup of flour loaf would only last less than 24 hours in our house. After the first rise of over 24 hours, I put the wet dough in my new dutch oven for the second rise and then in the oven cold. I turned the oven on to 500 until it was at 500 and turned it down to 450. I cooked it 45 minutes covered and another 10 uncovered. At that time the probe thermometer was at 200 degrees.
← Previous Comments
{ 6 trackbacks }