Name: Quick No Knead Bread In Dutch Oven
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 300 min
Ingredients: 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp sugar; 2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast; 2 cups ap flour; 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour; 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 F); 1 tbsp olive oil (not extra virgin)

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Quick No Knead Bread In Dutch Oven – a spin on a popular Crusty No Knead Dutch Oven Bread recipe, shared originally by the New York Times more than 10 years ago. This time I used Instant Yeast and a combination of all purpose and whole wheat flour. This bread recipe was a win! Came together in less than 5 hours. No more planning ahead and preparing a bread that could be eaten tomorrow.

Fast and easy! Well, relatively fast, compared to the original version or sourdough bread for example.

You do need some patience, but if you follow the instructions closely, this is a beginner’s bread.

Can you make a Dutch oven no knead bread faster than the original recipe? Leaving the dough to rest and rise overnight requires a lot of time and planning.

In fact you can make this bread in under 5 hours from start to finish. Today I’m sharing my findings with you. Quite a few people have been asking me for a quicker no knead bread during this times.

Baking no-knead bread is a popular method of bread baking that uses a long rising time instead of kneading to form the gluten strands.

It usually uses just a little bit of yeast and produces very wet dough.

This is a wet dough, produced by approximately 400 grams of flour, 8 grams of salt, 1 gram of instant yeast and 300 grams water.

An old bread making method, described in some books, but it gained a lot of popularity in 2006, when new York Times food columnist Mark Bittman described Jim Lahey’s recipe. This bread has great crumb, nice crust and incredible flavor, it has become very popular and definitely changed the culinary culture all over the world.

Baking bread at home

Baking is a skill. You do need practice and patience to build this skill. Most of the things you try to make, won’t turn exactly the way you expected them to. This is why, everyone needs to be aware that baking the perfect load of No Knead Dutch Oven Bread may require a few tries, but the recipe is a lot more forgiving than other bread recipes.

What Ingredients you need to make Quick No Knead Bread In Dutch Oven:

Instant or active dry yeast?

You do need some yeast in order for the bread to rise and develop those bubbles, that in the end create its amazing texture.

Wondering what king of yeast to use and how much? Use dry yeast. For the Original Dutch Oven No Knead recipe, I’d say use either Active Dry (needs to be proofed) or Instant Dry Yeast (added directly to the flour). But for this “quick” recipe, I used Instant yeast, to speed things up. I also used 7 gramp (1 pack) of Instant yeast, more than the original recipe.

What kind of flour?

This no knead bread can be made with all-purpose flour only. No need to use bread flour. But in case you decide to, keep in mind that is will require an additional 1/4 to 1/3 cups more water.

What makes this bread recipe even better? I used a combination of whole wheat and all purpose flour for the win!

By adding whole wheat flour, you create deeper, earthier flavor without sacrificing the texture.

Sifting the flour

Always sift the flour for bread recipes – at least once. This ensures there are no lumps and the bread rises perfectly.

Temperature of the water added to the flour

While you can make the traditional (Jim Lahey’s) recipe works with even cooler water, since we want the bread to rise faster, I suggest that you use water with temperature 110-115 F (not hotter or cooler).

Quick no knead bread dough in a metal bowl

How many rises

Technically, there are two rises.

You first combine all ingredients, stir until combined and a ball is formed and then cover and let it rise until it doubles its size and becomes bubbly.

Then you transfer it to a floured surface and gather into a ball. Now you can stretch and fold the dough if you’d like. Then shape a ball, transfer to a bowl, cover and let it rise for 30 more minutes. It may not rise much, but this is fine.

Scoring the dough?

Yes, while scoring the dough is not mandatory with this bread, I prefer doing it. Scoring is usually done before loading the bread into the oven. It is basically slashing the shaped bread dough with a blade or a sharp knife to allow it to expand during baking. It is done to control the direction in which the bread will expand during “oven spring.

Without scoring, I’ve had a couple of occasions when my no knead Dutch oven bread does not rise properly while baking (usually in a very large Dutch ovens) and while the texture and taste of the bread are amazing, the bread looked quite flat and spread.

Sweetener

I used a little bit of sweetener in the recipe – either white sugar or honey will do it. This will help the yeast grow faster.

Ingredients for quick Dutch oven bread:

Instant yeast
Water (110-115 F)
All purpose flour
Whole wheat flour
Salt
Sugar or honey
Olive oil (not extra virgin) – using olive oil in bread recipes – what does adding it do to bread dough? It adds flavor, creates a tender crumb (just like in cake recipes) and inhibits forming the gluten

A bread shaped into a bowl before baking

How to make quick no knead bread?

Mix the ingredients and let it rise the first time:

Sift the flours on a bowl.

Add salt, instant dry yeast (no need to proof it), sugar and olive oil. Pour the warm water on top and stir until just combined. Cover with plastic wrap and wrap the bowl with a towel to keep it warm.

If you have a proofing oven you can use this option, just don’t go over 100 F. If not, place a wide pan filled with hot water in your oven, on the bottom rack and place the bowl with the dough on a rack over it. Let the dough rise for 2-3 hours. It will develop bubbles and almost double its size.

Stretching, folding and second rise:

Dust a working surface generously with flour. Transfer the bread to the working surface and dust with flour on top as well.

Press so you have a flat circle of dough.

Fold – pick up one of the sides of the dough (on the right or the left) and fold it one third of the way over the rest of the dough. Brush off any excess flour. Then pick up the opposite side and fold it over the first side to cover it by stretching it.

The third fold will be – pick up the top edge of the rectangle you created(the side farthest from you) and pull in toward you, folding it one-third of the way. Fourth fold – pick up the opposite side and fold it by stretching to cover the other side and create a square.

Shape into a ball and place on parchment paper, loosely cover and let it rise for 30-60 minutes.

In the mean time place a 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven with the lid on in the oven and preheat to 450 F.

Scoring, baking and cooling the baked bread:

Before baking, score the bread by making a 5 mm deep cut through the middle on top of the dough.

Carefully transfer the bread with parchment paper to the Dutch oven and close with the lid.

Bake covered for 30 minutes. Then bake uncovered for 20 more minutes, until the bread browns nicely.

Cool inside the Dutch oven for 15 minutes, then cool completely to room temperature.

Baked bread inside a blue Le Creuset Dutch oven

What kind of pot (baking dish) to bake no knead bread in?

Any oven safe baking dish with a lid that can hold temperatures up to 450 F (230 C) can be used. No, you don’t need a Dutch or French oven, any pot with lid that are oven save will work.

Cast iron pots are best, because they hold the temperature evenly.

I love my Le Creuset Dutch ovens – I have 4.5 quarts and 2 3/4 quarts (discontinued size). I’ve baked breads with this size in the small Dutch oven and it works perfectly, it is not too small!

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