Easiest Bread Ever – No Kneading Required!

This is the easiest bread I’ve ever made. I spent 5 minutes prepping the batter the night before, then baked it the next evening. The most tedious part of this recipe is the waiting, but that’s better than kneading dough in my opinion.

Apparently this recipe was featured in the NY Times a couple of years back. Another nice thing about this recipe (besides no kneading) is that it doesn’t call for many ingredients. Here’s my slightly tweaked version:

1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 3/4 C whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp yeast
3/4 tsp salt
400 mL water

1) Mix everything together in a bowl (it’ll look very wet still) and let it sit in a warm place for 18 – 24hrs. (Started the recipe at 10pm, baked it the next evening)

The initial mixing

After 18 hours – Looked like bubbly oatmeal

2) After allowing it to rise for 18-24 hrs, fold it a couple times on itself. Didn’t even bother taking it out of the bowl since the dough was so wet and could’t hold it’s shape. Allow to rise covered with a damp cloth (I just used a paper towel) for 2 more hours.

Foldin’

3) Twenty minutes before loaf is done rising, preheat the oven with baking dish inside, to 450 degrees F. Once the two hours are up, carefully remove dish from oven and add dough (will still look watery but that’s fine) and cover dish with lid. Bake for 30 minutes.

4) Remove lid and bake for another 15-30 mins. Mine seemed to brown really quickly and only took an additional 10 mins of baking time w/o the lid.

Golden

5) Once bread is golden (and sounds hollow when knocked), it’s done. Carefully remove dish from oven. Let it sit for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully invert loaf onto a cooling rack.

Bread texture: very crispy on the outside and airy/soft/chewy on the inside (lots of holes inside). Reminds me of a sour dough bread almost, would be really good with spinach dip…

Updated trial:

• 2 3/4 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C quick cooking oats
• 2 tbsp non-fat dry milk powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 mL active dry yeast
• 450 mL warm water

This loaf turned out much denser/ heavier, compared to the original recipe. It also didn’t rise as much, most likely due to the higher dry to wet ingredient ratio. I actually prefer the original recipe better than this tweaked version because it was lighter/ chewiwer the first time round…. stickin’ to the original.

*Trial three: used the first recipe I posted, except used 3 cups of whole wheat, instead of all-purpose (I did find the dough a little drier than the previous trials, possibly due to the whole wheat flour, so I added a little more water). Also added 1/4 cup flax seed into the dough. I found it awkward to cut the bread when I baked it in the casserole dish, so I tried baking it in a regular loaf pan covered w/ tin oil and it turned out fine.

Trial four:

2 1/2 C WW flour
1/2 C Quick Oats
1/4 C Flaxseed
1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 tsp salt
425 mL warm water

Its a winner.