Unreal No Knead White Bread – Crusty

Welcome to the easiest bread you’ll ever make. Seriously. It’s ridiculous how easy this No Knead White Bread is. And a little bit dangerous because you’ll want to eat it every single day.

Unreal No-Knead Bread is exactly what it sounds like… it’s UNREAL. Just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes of prep give you this mouth-watering, crusty, golden brown wonder. It’s a restaurant-worthy loaf, straight from your humble oven.

Sometimes a recipe will say “No Knead” and then sneak in a little bit of kneading, or folding, or rolling. This isn’t one of those recipes. Unreal No Knead White Bread is EXACTLY what it sounds like. The yeast does all the work overnight so that the next day, you can bake up a fresh, crusty, bakery-worthy loaf that will impress EVERYONE lucky enough to sit at your table.

What does it go with?

Umm… everything. Crusty white bread goes with everything, and if it doesn’t go, then it’s the other thing that needs to scram because there are few things more totally satisfying than fresh. white. bread.

Ok, in all seriousness though, this bread was made for soups, stews, spinach dip, garlic toast, bruschetta, breadcrumbs, and just basically as the best sidekick to any family-style meal. It’s dense yet light, a little bit chewy, and a whole lot delicious.

How far ahead do I need to prep the bread dough?

12-24 hours is pretty standard for No-Knead Breads. I like to say 12-20 hours because you want to have it baked by that 24-hour mark. A typical timeline goes something like this:

• Mix the 4 ingredients together before bed the night before (yes, you read that right, it’s only 4 ingredients)
• Let it sit, covered with plastic wrap, until an hour and a half before lunch or dinner the next day (whichever meal you plan to eat it with)
• If you’re planning to have it for dinner at 5 pm, start warming up the oven (with your empty Dutch Oven inside) around 3:45 pm
• Turn your dough out onto floured parchment at the same time and cover it until the oven warms up
• When the oven is at 450 F, the dough on parchment goes into the Dutch Oven (remember, it’s HOT) with the LID ON around 4 pm
• At 4:30 the Dutch Oven lid needs to come OFF, while the bread finishes baking for another 17-20 minutes (until the dark brown crust is achieved)
• 4:50 pm sees your fresh-baked, crusty white loaf come out of the oven to cool on a rack for 10 minutes before slicing
• Just a few minutes later, your Unreal No-Knead Bread is on your dinner table for 5 pm and you look like a bread wizard for creating something so insanely perfect and delicious

What Kind of Yeast do I need?

Active dry and instant yeast both work. I always use active dry yeast because it’s what I have around. Either way, you don’t have to proof the yeast beforehand, which is usually the step non-breadmakers would rather skip. I haven’t made this recipe with fresh yeast, so I can’t comment there. But if you make it with fresh yeast, I’d love to know the result!

What kind of flour do I need?

All-purpose flour does the trick here. No need for special bread flours, extra wheat gluten, or sugar. (Lots of bread recipes need sugar, but in this one, the yeast feeds on the sugars in the flour as it breaks down. So cool.) If whole wheat is your thing, the ratios change to make it work. Check out my Unreal Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread here.