Skip to content
Leavened Products

No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread is the ultimate homemade bread recipe, the clever method created by baker Jim Lahey for an excellent loaf.
Recipe No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation 5 minutes
  • Cooking 50 minutes
  • Servings for 1 loaf, 22 cm

This No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread is a homemade bread recipe that, once you try it, you will never give up. Forget long preparations: no-knead bread takes very little work, but a far less brief rise. In fact, the “downside” of this recipe, if we want to call it that, is the long rise, which is essential for a light bread with an open crumb.

Pot bread was born in New York at the hands of baker Jim Lahey, who learned the technique during a trip to Italy. No-knead bread is in fact inspired by Neapolitan pane cafone, a rustic country loaf, but unlike it, it is baked in a pot (preferably a cast-iron one) rather than in a wood-fired oven.

Once ready, no-knead bread is perfect for making tasty Tomato Bruschetta or the even more tempting version, bruschetta with caramelized onions and bacon.

Ingredients for 1 loaf, 22 cm

Copy Ingredients List
Open in App

Method

  1. To make the Dutch Oven Bread, start by dissolving the yeast in a little water. Then combine it with the flour in a large bowl. Mix carefully and add the salt. Mix everything carefully again until the mixture is evenly combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 12-20 hours.
    No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread, step 1: flour, water, yeast and salt mixed in a bowl
  2. After the first rise, the dough will be bubbly and puffed up. Turn it out onto a work surface dusted with semolina and give it two rounds of letter folds. That is, stretch the dough slightly with your hands to form a sort of rectangle, then bring the left flap to the center and cover it with the right flap. Rotate the dough 90° and repeat.
    No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread, step 2: risen dough turned out onto a work surface dusted with semolina
    No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread, step 2: folding the dough into thirds
  3. Dust the dough with a little flour, cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for another 2 hours.
    No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread, step 3: dough dusted with flour for the second rise
  4. Heat the oven to 230 °C (450 °F) with the cast-iron pot inside, then take the pot out and, being careful not to burn yourself, place the bread in it with the help of the towel, this time with the seam facing up. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
    No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread, step 4: loaf baking in the cast-iron pot
  5. Take it out of the oven, remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Now serve your homemade bread whole or sliced. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!
    Bread baked in a cast-iron pot

Variations and Alternatives

You can add walnuts or sliced olives to the dough just before the last rise. You will get two tasty variations of no-knead bread.

Tips

If you don’t have a cast-iron pot, you can make this bread in a Pyrex baking dish with a lid or in a pot, as long as it has no plastic handles. Make sure it is ovenproof. If you don’t have fresh yeast, you can use 1 g of dry or instant yeast.

Storage

Pot bread keeps well wrapped in a paper bag for a couple of days.

Comments