RECIPE - Homemade artisan no-kneed bread

Today my 99 year old mother gave me her 25 year old KitchenAid Mixer because she said she's not baking anymore. Since I need to watch my salt intake, I looked up easy bread recipes I could modify. I found this and will try it in the next few days.

3 cups water lukewarm
(bit warmer than body temperature)
1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp salt (I will use 1 tsp)

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a medium bowl, add the lukewarm water, salt, yeast and stir together.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the flour, then the pour in the yeast mixture. Using the dough hook on speed 2, mix it about 2-3 minutes. The dough will be sticky, do not be tempted to add more flour.

Put flower on your hands and place the dough in a big bowl, cover the top really well with plastic wrap. Poke a couple small holes with a toothpick to let the gases escape a little. Let it rise in a warm place for a good two hours.

No kneading required, flour your hands well, divide the dough in two and shape each. Add as much flour as necessary to your hands to avoid the dough from sticking.

Put the dough on a stone, or on a regular baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle some flour on top. Let the dough rest for another 30 minutes so that it rises a bit more.

Preheat the oven to 450 F degrees.

Slash the top of the dough with a knife to allow for the trapped gases to escape. Place a pan with a cup of water on the bottom rack, and the dough on the stone/sheet pan on the middle rack. The water will create steam to give the bread a crusty top.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes and let it cool before cutting into it.

That is cool Mike. Try baking it in a Dutch oven or another covered baking dish you might have. It really helps like the pan of water method, but feels easier to me.

Mike $ said:

I love baking bread. This recipe sounds fantastic. I hope it turns out well with only 1 tsp of salt. This isn't really no-knead bread since your kitchen aid is doing the kneading...

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Yes, which I'm glad of, keeps the prep simple.

Neil_O said:

That is cool Mike. Try baking it in a Dutch oven or another covered baking dish you might have. It really helps like the pan of water method, but feels easier to me.

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Don't have anything, so a cup of water will have to do.

I make a lot of seitan so I've always got vital wheat gluten in the cupboard. If you can tolerate gluten, adding some VWG at a rate of 1 tsp per cup of flour (1.5 tsp if using brown flour) makes bread rolls and loaves lovely and springy.

If you're feeling naughty you can take your recipe and roll out the dough into a rectangle. Spread with vegan butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon then roll up and slice into cinnamon buns - drizzle with almond milk icing while still warm : )

I made the bread today using the recipe and less salt, I have to say, it came out really well for being a first time bread maker and a stand mixer. Being a novice, I didn't raise the bowl into place, but quickly corrected that. I also forgot to slash the tops, but they were fine without. I didn't realize that the amount of ingredients would make two large loaves.

I tried a slice with unsalted Earth Bound Vegan Butter Sticks, also with McCormick Mayonesa (rich Mexican style with lime juice), and truffle infused goat cheese. All worked very well. I'm serving the bread tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner that I'm making for my twin brother, his wife (they live two floors down), and our younger brother.

That looks gorgeous Mike!

Have you tried no knead overnight bread? You only use a tiny bit of yeast and my partner gets less indigestion with it. And no heavy mixing or kneading!

NewLele said:

That looks gorgeous Mike! Have you tried no knead overnight bread? You only use a tiny bit of yeast and my partner gets less indigestion with it. And no heavy mixing or kneading!

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Thanks very much, everyone said the bread was very good. So you use less yeast and let it proof much longer, I can give it a try. I actually found mine to be slightly dense and was planning on proofing it longer anyway.

Yes you only use a quarter of a teaspoon of yeast. There are natural yeasts in the flour that multiple overnight. A bit like a sourdough!

The mixture is pretty wet and the bread ends up very moist with big lovely holes.

Try googling Jim Lahey’s no knead bread. I like that you can just use a simple bowl and no hard work nor having to wash up lots of utensils!

NewLele said:

Yes you only use a quarter of a teaspoon of yeast. There are natural yeasts in the flour that multiple overnight. A bit like a sourdough!

The mixture is pretty wet and the bread ends up very moist with big lovely holes.

Try googling Jim Lahey’s no knead bread. I like that you can just use a simple bowl and no hard work nor having to wash up lots of utensils!

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I tried Jim Lahey's method so many times and the result is delicious. However, I didn't like the Dutch oven method after a while. It was getting hard to remove the bread from the pot. I also baked Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza as per his instructions. That's definitely also a recommendation!

Ms Bean said:

I tried Jim Lahey's method so many times and the result is delicious. However, I didn't like the Dutch oven method after a while. It was getting hard to remove the bread from the pot. I also baked Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza as per his instructions. That's definitely also a recommendation!

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I agree, the Dutch oven makes a good, crunchy crust when we fancy it but most times now I’m too lazy to preheat the Dutch oven and shape the dough into soft rolls instead!

I hardly knead any dough now. With quick dough the vital wheat gluten seems to do the trick.