
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.

📖 Recipe
Unreal No Knead White Bread – Crusty
Equipment
- Mixing bowl and spatula
- dutch oven or 450°F oven safe pot with lid
- parchment paper and plastic wrap
Ingredients
- 4 cups all purpose flour 480g
- 1½ cups room temperature water 360g
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp active dry yeast
Instructions
Making the Dough
- mix all purpose flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl until well combined
- add water and stir and fold with a firm spatula until no dry flour remains
- cover bowl with plastic wrap let sit for 12-20 hours
Baking the Bread
- preheat oven to 450°F with dutch oven inside as it warms up
- use spatula to gently scrape the dough from the side of the bowl and fold it inwards as you work your way around the bowl
- transfer dough to floured parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap
- remove dutch oven from oven once it has come up to temp
- use a knife to lightly score 2 lines or an "X" into the top of the bread after removing plastic wrap
- carefully place dough on parchment paper inside dutch oven and replace the lid on top
- bake for 30 minutes with the lid on
- after 30 minutes, remove lid and bake an additional 17-20 minutes until golden dark brown
- remove from oven and let cool to the touch (about 10 minutes) before slicing and serving
- serve warm or let cool, will also freeze well and can be toasted back to its fresh state
- enjoy!
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