Easy No-Knead Bread is an artisan-style bread that’s done in 3 hours from start to finish and it’s mostly rising time. This is an easy bread recipe – you don’t even need a mixer. With only 4 ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, and water), you can make a bakery-quality, super soft homemade bread.
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Easy No-Knead Bread
We love the aroma and taste of homemade bread, including our easy Dutch Oven Bread, classic French Bread with the best crust, and of course classic Dinner Rolls. My kitchen has served as a bread-making test lab for the past month. We’ve made this bread countless times. It rises beautifully every time and you will fall in love with the spongy soft texture. It reminds me of the lovely loaves that Costco has perfected.
Many no-knead bread recipes require overnight fermentation but we love that this one is done in just 3 hours (most of which is just letting the dough rise while you go about your business). You’ll get to enjoy fresh homebaked bread within a few hours of when the craving hits.
What is the Best Flour For Bread?
Bread flour typically has slightly more protein and gluten than all-purpose flour so it is the preferred flour for bread. It can give you slightly better rise and texture. We have tested this no-knead rustic artisan bread with both all-purpose flour and bread flour. The loaves turned out perfect with either flour so use what you have on hand.
Watch No-Knead Bread Video Tutorial:
I hope this Easy No-Knead Bread becomes a new favorite homebaked bread recipe for you. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our Youtube Channel and be sure to click the bell icon so you get a notification when we post a new video.
How to Make Easy Homemade Bread:
1. In a large bowl, combine warm water (100˚F) and salt. Sprinkle yeast over the top and let it sit 2 min, then stir.
2. Measure out exactly 3 1/4 cups of flour and add flour to the bowl. Stir together with a spatula just until it together (do not knead). Cover and let rise at room temperature 2 hours (until 2-3 times in volume).
3. Line a cutting board with parchment paper and generously dust with flour. Turn dough out onto the floured surface.
4. With well-floured hands, fold the dough in half, then fold in half again. Dust dough generously with flour, lift it up and form a ball in your hands. Sprinkle the parchment paper flour or cornmeal, extending 1-inch past the border of the dough since it will expand. Place dough over the flour, seam side down, and let it rise at room temp uncovered for 40 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, prepare your oven: place one rack in the middle for the bread and one rack on the bottom for the water pan. Place a rimless cookie sheet (or inverted baking sheet) on the center rack. Preheat the oven and cookie sheet to 450˚ F. Also heat 1 cup water.
6. Just before baking, score the top of the bread 3 times. Place a metal or cast iron dish* on the bottom rack with 1 cup hot water (being careful not to splash water on a glass oven door). Slide dough with the parchment paper onto the hot cookie sheet and bake at 450˚ F for 25-28 min or until golden brown.
*CAUTION: DO NOT USE A GLASS DISH to hold water or it may explode when you add water. Also, be careful not to splash water on a glass oven door to prevent shattering from strong temperature change.
Pro Tips for the Best Homemade Bread:
- Use warm water – ideally about 100˚F to 110˚F. Avoid hot water which can deactivate the yeast.
- Measure precisely – spoon flour into measuring cup and level off the top. See our best tips for How to Measure wet and dry ingredients.
- Dough Rising Temperature – A room temperature of 71˚F to 75˚F is ideal for bread rising. If your room is colder, it will take longer. Do not place dough in a hot oven to rise. If the temperature goes above 110˚F, you can deactivate and ruin the yeast.
- Don’t Rush the Rise – For the best texture and rise, do not rush the rising process. It should be 2-3 times in size when it is finished rising. If you don’t allow the full rise, the bread will be dense.
- Preheat the oven and baking sheet – putting the dough onto a hot baking sheet or pizza stone, will help form a beautiful crust.
- Scoring the bread – scoring the top of the loaf allows it to expand and creates a pretty bread that you will be very proud of. Use a sharp or serrated knife or bread scoring blade.
- Cool before slicing – If you cut freshly baked bread while it’s still hot, the steam will escape and the bread will seem doughy.
Our Top Rated Bread Recipes:
- French Bread with a true crisp crust
- Banana Nut Bread – a moist banana bread studded with nuts and raisins
- Dutch Oven Bread – A 5-seed bread with the same basic dough
- Dinner Rolls – so easy and freezer-friendly
The next day, use this bread to make the most amazing Reuben Sandwich or this restaurant copycat Chicken Bacon Avocado Sandwich.
No-Knead Bread Recipe (Easy Artisan Bread)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups water, warm, at 100˚F (not hot)
- 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast, (7 grams or 1 packet)
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, (or bread flour) plus extra flour for dusting
- 2 Tbsp cornmeal , or more flour
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups warm water (100˚F) and 1/2 Tbsp of salt. Sprinkle the top with yeast and let it sit 2 min, then stir.
- Measure out exactly 3 1/4 cups of flour and add flour to the bowl. Using a spatula, stir until dough comes together and is well blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature 2 hours (or about 2-3 times in volume).
- Line a cutting board with parchment paper and generously dust with flour. Scrape dough out of the bowl with a spatula onto the floured surface.
- With well-floured hands, fold dough in half, then fold in half again. Dust dough generously with flour, lift it up and form a ball in your hands. Sprinkle parchment paper with more flour or cornmeal, extending about 1" past the border of the dough since it will expand. Place dough over the flour, seam side down, and let it rise uncovered at room temp 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare your oven with 2 racks - one rack in the middle for the bread and one rack on the bottom for the water pan. Place a rimless cookie sheet (or use the backside of a rimmed cookie sheet or pizza stone) on the center rack. Preheat the oven and cookie sheet to 450˚ F. Also heat up 1 cup water.
- Just before baking, score the top of the bread 3 times. Place a metal or cast iron dish (never a glass dish*) on the bottom rack with 1 cup hot water (being careful to not splash water on a glass oven door). Slide the dough with the parchment paper onto the hot cookie sheet and bake at 450˚ F for about 25-28 min or until golden brown. Transfer loaf to a rack and cool to room temp before cutting into it.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
This recipe was first published in 2012. It was updated March 2020 with new photos and we improved the recipe adding slightly more flour to help with forming the loaf.
Hi Natasha! I love all of your videos. They’re really simple and easy to make. I tried your brownies recipes and it turns out really good. My family loved it very much! I plan to make this bread recipe this weekend and just wondering whether is it necessary to heat up the cookie sheet? What will happen if I do not heat up the cookie sheet? Will it take longer to bake?
Hi Cheryl, heating the sheet helps the crust form properly on the bottom, otherwise it can become soft and is more likely to stick to the baking sheet.
Hi Natasha. I tried baking the bread today and my family loved it very much. Thank you so much for the great recipe!
One question, after baking, the texture crust is like stale bread hard not crusty but the inside is soft like it’s only 90% baked. Is the bread supposed to be like that? Also, I only cut the bread once it has cooled down to room temperature.
Hi Cheryl, make sure to bake at the recommended temperature and place in a fully preheated oven. It should be fully baked inside and come out of the oven with a crisp exterior.
Love this recipe !!!!!!! I couldn’t tell you how many friends and family keep asking me for more bread. Love all your recipes and videos. I do have a question do you think I could use Wheat bread flour for this recipe? Stay safe and keep the recipes coming. Thank you!!!!!!!
So wonderful to hear that! I have not tried that yet to advise but I saw that someone shared and commented this “I followed the advice from someone to try using a cup of whole wheat flour in the recipe instead of all white. I used the suggestion to increase the water to 1-3/4 C. It came out perfect!” I hope this helps!
I made this recipe for the first time today and really liked it. I did notice however, that my bread split on the sides – do you know what causes that? I did the pan with water under it as instructed.
Hi Linda, that is usually due to not scoring the bread on top – if it forms a film while rising and isn’t scored, it can split in random places.
This is an amazing recipe/technique. I’m made it 6 times in 24 days!… each loaf has been a little different in texture, and height but that is due to my method, not yours!
I found it keeps very well if you stand the loaf with the cut side down on a wooden bread board, covered with a cotton tea towel or napkin. The crust keeps crisp. Mind you, it has only lasted 2-3 days at the most!
Hello Mary Jo, that is so awesome! Great job and thank you so much for sharing your good experience with this recipe, we appreciate your feedback!
Hi Natasha
Thank you for all recipes
I backed bread (artician) some times good but today I don’t know why my bread was doughy , out side was perfect ,but inside not good
Thank you if you tell me what is prablem
Hi, make sure not to cut into the bread while it is still hot. Also, make sure to have the oven fully preheated when putting the bread into the oven.
🙏🙏
Super easy and oh so good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that!
Natasha, I have made this recipe twice and both times my dough comes out like doughy slime making it impossible to get into a ball. I have added the flour as instructed but something is seriously wrong. Please help!
Hi Cathy, I highly recommend reviewing our post for how we measure ingredients for baking which should help.
I have made this recipe twice and had the same problem both times. I measured correctly, according to the video instructions, and it is still a slimy mess. My mother, who makes sour dough bread regularly successfully helped me the second time. My Ukrainian son loves good bread and I so wanted to be successful at bread making. I love your other recipes and have made many of them. I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong on this one! 😢
Hi, how long can the bread keep after making it? I am going to try this recipe this weekend and this will be the first time I am making bread….
Hi Diana, the homemade bread always disappears really fast but if I do have leftovers, I let it cool completely to room temperature then cover and leave at room temperature for a day or 2. With store-bought sliced bread, I refrigerate after a couple of days to make it last longer so it doesn’t get moldy.
This bread was easy to make and came with instructions that I could follow without feeling like steps were missing and the. Leaving me guessing. I don’t typically leave reviews on food, as it’s just food, but this is the first yeast bread recipe I have tried that came out right the first time. So thank you very much! It is also delicious.
That’s just awesome Laura! Thank you so much for that wonderful review!
Hi Natasha,
Why does the bottom of my bread come out toasty hard. It’s So hard it’s difficult to cut through.
Love love all your recipes.
Hi Monica I’m so happy you’re enjoying our recipes! Aa far as hardening on the outside. I wonder if maybe your oven runs a little hot? I usually have the opposite happen, it’s crisp when it comes out of the oven and softens on the outside with time. Also, are you using the dish with water to create steam in the oven?
Hi Natasha,
Youve got a great blog going on here, keep it up.
I made this recipe and stored the dough afted 2 hrs of risinf in the fridge and used it next day.
While the dough appearance and texture looked great… the bread tasted rubbery and when toasted it takes like paper/cardboard.
What could be the reason, please help.
Thank you for that compliment. It sounds like maybe it didn’t rise properly – this could be due to either old yeast (no longer active) or overheating the dough causing the yeast to deactivate. It could also be due to not giving the dough enough time to rise. I hope that helps to troubleshoot.
Thank you for your response.
Could you please suggest what I should do then?
Room Temperature here is 30 Degrees Celsius.
Hi Bhuvanesh, room temperature is measured at (68-72F) or 20-22 in Celcius.
I made this bread adjusting the flour by substituting 1 cup buckwheat and 1 cup oats ground in food processor. It worked. I was surprised that no sugar is required to make it rise. My bread was wetter than the recipe suggested and there was no way that I could make slashes in the top before baking. I did find it difficult to slide the bread onto the hot baking tray to put it in the oven. I made 2 smaller loaves.
Thank you for sharing that with us! I hope you enjoyed this recipe!
Natasha, you did it again. we just could not believe a recipe so simple could pack so much flavor, taste, and texture. Unbelievable! We did make one change. Instead of making one round loaf we broke out our Couche and made two 16″ baguettes. We just harvested our garlic and celebrated with roasted garlic on delicious, cripy, chewy Itallian bread. My honey and I went through the whole two loaves. I finished just now with a bacon, tomato, onion and cheese and mayo hero sandwich. Was it ever so crisp, chewy and delicious. You have totally revolutionized our menus. All you heard at our house was, “That was delicious!” Thanks so much for sharing. Nana Carole & grampa Joe
Thank you for sharing your experience making this recipe. I am so glad you loved the end result!
4 Ingredients-Easy-Awesome Flavor, Texture, Crumb. Worthy of 5 stars and simple enough to have my husband (not a cook) make the second loaf. I did use my Kitchenmaid mixer to make it easier. Let it rise right in the mixing bowl. Easy clean-up.
Thank you for that wonderful review and feedback Diana! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Hi Natasha,
How do you store this bread once it’s done?? Do you recommend to refrigerate or keep at room temp?
Hi Gabby, the homemade bread always disappears really fast but if I do have leftovers, I let it cool completely to room temperature then cover and leave at room temperature for a day or 2. With store-bought sliced bread, I refrigerate after a couple of days to make it last longer so it doesn’t get moldy.
Hi Natasha! The one I made didn’t turn out to be golden brown at the top. I followed the entire recipe by the dot. Help?
Hi Kimmy, make sure you are using the same oven settings recommended in the post and baking in the center of the oven.
Hi Natasha,
I have made this wonderful recipe twice. It’s delicious and easy. One question: both times the bottom crust is much softer and floury than the sides and top, which come out perfectly. Any suggestions on how to get the bottom to crust/brown as well?
Thanks,
Sandra
Hi Danya, make sure the cookie sheet is well preheated before putting the bread on and transfer to a wire rack to keep that bottom crust crisp without softening.
Hi Natasha,
I have done that both times, exactly as the recipe states. I make mine on a pizza stone and heat it in the oven before placing the dough and parchment paper on it to bake. It came out the same both times: perfect crust on the top and sides, more floury and soft on the bottom. Any other suggestions? Do you think it would brown on the bottom without using the parchment paper? The paper does crisp and almost burn in the 400+ degree oven.
Hi Sandra, it could be due to using too much flour on the base. You could also sprinkle cornmeal which helps and then transfer right away to a wire rack so the bottom doesn’t steam up and soften. It would brown a little easier without the parchment but it would be difficult to transfer. You might also try our French Bread which provides crunchier crust.
Natasha can you add oregano and garlic for an Italian flare and maybe some pepperoni?
Hi Sandy, I haven’t tested that if you experiment I would love to know how you like that.
I have made this recipe a few times. I cook it on a pizza stone. I prefer a softer crust so brush it with margarine when removing from oven. I also add chopped onion, rosemary, and sometimes chopped garlic to the dry ingredients. Gives a nice taste to the bread. Have never added pepperoni. I don’t know how it would change the texture or moisture content. Maybe finely chopped pepperoni might work. Worth a try. Great recipe!
Love it! Thanks for sharing that with us, Bev. Super helpful!
I’ve made this and added a LG tablespoon or two of my homemade pesto…came out great. (Nice garlicy flavor!)
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Tried it and was good. Thanks. Wanted to know if i can allow the dough to rise for the first three hours and then refrigerate it overnight. Then take it out and allow it to come to room temp and then bake. Would there be any changes if I need to refrigerate overnight?
Hi Kavitha, I haven’t tried leaving this overnight, but I would leave it in the refrigerator if keeping overnight then let it do it’s final rise at room temperature, except you would want to cover it so it doesn’t form a film or get dry by the time it reaches room temp and rises.
This was an amazing recipe!!!!! Though mine did not rise as much as yours (I weighed the flour vs measure it- probably should have added more flour.) My water was 101 F. I let it rise and followed this recipe to a T and came out great!!!!!!!!
So wonderful to hear that! Here’s a guide on how to measure ingredients. I hope this helps!
I made this again and measured it by spooning in the flour to the measure cup and leveling it off with a knife and it’s was really sticky. Immm hoping for the best but I think this recipe needs more flour
Thank you Natasha for this wonderful artisan bread recipe it is simple and taste so good
I’m so glad you enjoyed that!