No knead bread is simply so so sooooooo easy! You won’t believe me till you try it! And the results are amazing. Try it and if you have any questions please just ask!
The only thing though, is do try and measure your ingredients. A scale & measuring spoons really help here to get the right texture & taste. Both are now widely available in any large supermarket.
By the way, the pic at the top is a different one to the loaf I baked below…just to show you a different look:-)
I describe 2 methods for prepping & baking: shaping method & no shaping method. I am now an advocate for the no shaping method! Easier, less fiddly and amazing results!
And this is another loaf made without shaping or slashing!
Real Crusty Bread...No Knead Method
Ingredients: Homemade Crusty Bread
- 1000gm high protein flour (Five stars plain flour is 14%)
- 740ml luke warm water
- 15gm instant yeast (about 1 1/2 sachets)
- 20gm salt
Tools:
- A huge bowl or plastic box (6L – 9L) with a lid or plastic wrap to use as a cover (It’s ok if you don’t have; mix the ingredients first then split the dough between 2 big bowls or boxes)
- Mixing utensil ( a big wooden spoon or your hands)
- A digital scale & measuring jug would be very helpful
When baking you will preheat the oven to 220C.
Method: It’s really easy!
- In your box or bowl, put in the flour followed by the salt and yeast then pour the warm (please make sure its warm and not hot so you don’t kill the yeast! you should be able to put your finger in and feel its just not cold)
- Get your wooden spoon or your hands 🙂 and start mixing the whole thing. It should take less than 5 minutes 🙂 You want to make sure that there are no dry flour bits in your dough. The dough itself will feel wet and sticky and that’s very normal. This is a wet dough recipe.
- Once its all mixed together nicely, cover with a lid or cling wrap and leave for a couple of hours.
- After 2 hours, you should find the dough has risen nicely and almost doubled. Put it in the fridge overnight.
Baking the lovely bread…
New update: June 14!!! No Shaping Method (Recommended):
Since last writing I’ve started baking the bread in a slightly different and in my opinion, an easier way. No shaping or baking paper needed and it doesn’t stick!
Follow the new steps from 1 to 6 below instead of the old steps and then pick up from step 7, which is the same for both baking methods!
- Get your dough out of the fridge, leaving it covered. Preheat your oven at 220 C degrees for 30min.
- Place a heavy pot with lid (tefal, pyrex, etc) in the oven to heat and give that another 30min.
- When the time is up take your pot carefully out of the oven, place on a workbench and remove the lid (both will be extremely hot!)
- Lightly dust the bottom of the pot with flour.
- Hold your dough box above the centre of the pot and tilt to drop about a quarter (smallish loaf) to half ( biggish loaf) of the dough in the pot. Snip off the dough with scissors or hands once enough is in the pot.
- Lightly dust top of dough with flour, cover with lid and place in your oven for 30min.
===========================================
Shaping Method (Older method):
- Flour a work top or large tray
- Take your dough out of the fridge. Flour your hands. Using your hands gently take out a piece of dough roughly about quarter of the dough and place it on your floured surface.
- Flour your hands again and dust the top of the dough lightly then gently start forming the dough into a ball from the edges of the dough using the sides of your floured hands rotating the dough clockwise as you go. Be gentle, you don’t want to burst any of the lovely air bubbles and holes! (In the pic I am only using one hand since I was photographing with the other 😉 )
- Dust the surface lightly with flour and leave to rest on a floured or corn meal (de2ee2 semeedmeshna3em) surface (on your work top, or place on a baking paper or a flat tray or pizza peel if you have one) for an hour covered with an upturned bowl and in the meantimepreheat your ovento220C. Once it hits that temp, place a large oven proof pot with lid (pyrex, clay,tefal, stainless…anything really as long as its big and has a cover) in the ovenfor30mins.
My pot and lid preheating in the oven. - If you are adventurous; slash the top of the bread with a really sharp knife right before you place it in the pot (I actually cut mine with scissors! My knife always sticks! If you do the same hold the scissor vertically (beltool,3amoody) and make deep snips beside each other).
Dough after proving on a flat metal tray (I don’t have a pizza peel!) Slashed top with scissors straight before sliding into the hot pot. - After the 30min are up, take out the pot carefully, take off the lid, gently lift your dough and place it in (or slide it if using a tray or peel) and cover with the lid at once. Place pot back in the oven and set your timer to 30mins. ================================================Now follow the steps below which are for both baking methods:
- After the30min are up, quickly take out the pot (close the oven door to trap in the heat) & take off the lid. Quickly return back to the oven and leave the bread another30min to become golden brown.
After the first 30 min, take off the lid and you will find this! Its still light in color. - Once time is up, carefully take the pot out of the oven & slide the bread out on to a wire stand orgrate so the bottom doesn’t become soggy.
See the slashes? This loaf was made with the older method of shaping & slashing.
Loaf baked with the no shaping method. No slashing required! 
And another Loaf baked with the no shaping method. No slashing required! Apologies for the bad lighting! - To make sure it’s cooked through, flip it over and knock on the bottom. You should hear a hollow sound. If you don’t, put it back in the oven for a further 5 or 10 minutes (you don’t have to put it in the pot though, just on the oven rack).
Leave to cool down before you slice (at least an hour). I now let it cool in the turned off oven leaving the oven door ajar. It helps keep it crusty!
Enjoy!!!!
Cooks Notes:
- For the shaping method: You can shape the dough on a lightly floured baking paper and just place that in the pot with the dough for easier lifting.
- Storage: in a paper bag is best. make your own using some baking or wax paper. If it stays overnight, place the slices in a toaster to crisp up the edges again.
- The dough amount will make 3 medium loaves. The dough itself can stay covered in the fridge for up to 14 days. If you leave it to 14 days, its best to use the dough for pizza or ciabatta bread not high loaves.
- Recipe adapted from Masterchef Australia, Jeff Lahey of the Sullivan street bakery and ABi5 cookbook. Please see post for more details.
Riham's Messy Kitchen! 
