Incredible Overnight No-Knead Artisan Rustic Bread

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This No-Knead Artisan Rustic Bread is a total hit at our house. With just 4 ingredients and a few minutes, the magic of this bread will begin. The dough rises for a total of 18-24 hours and is then ready to throw in the oven for a deliciously crusty dinner bread with a soft and chewy center. It is seriously so simple and impressive. I have fond memories of my Mom making rustic bread after she took a class on it. She made all different kinds, some with nuts and fruits, or cheeses and herbs. This is the basic recipe that can be modified to your liking. Check out our Rustic No-Knead Cranberry Orange Bread and Rustic No-Knead Rosemary Parmesan Bread.

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You will want a dutch oven with a lid to bake this no-knead artisan rustic bread. The dutch oven is preheated with the oven. When the dough is placed in the hot pot and begins baking, steam is released. The lid keeps the steam in the pot and creates that beautiful crust while keeping the center of the bread nice and soft. I have two of these 3.5-quart enameled cast-iron dutch ovens and they are the perfect size for this recipe. I usually make two loaves at a time.

My kids get so excited every time I make this bread. The last time I made this yummy bread, my two-year-old kept bringing me the loaf all day wanting me to cut him another slice.

Here are the 4 ingredients you will need to make this rustic bread:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp. yeast
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1½ cups water

Can you believe that is all your need to make this amazing bread?! What are you waiting for?

Let’s get baking!

Start by adding 3 cups of all-purpose flour to a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and salt on top and mix in.

Slowly pour in the water and mix. I love to use my Danish dough whisk for this job. You should have a shaggy dough at this point. No need to overmix.

Now just tightly cover the bowl with food wrap and place it somewhere warm where it will not be disturbed for 18-24 hours. I like to place mine in the oven. If you do this, just make sure not to turn the oven on while it’s in there! When you are ready to bake your bread it should look something like this. It slowly rises as it sits and the flavor will be stronger the longer that time is.

Time to bake:

When you are ready to bake your bread, stick your dutch oven pot with the lid in the oven to get hot as it preheats. (Make sure to get your bowl of dough out if you stuck it in there!) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. You can use whatever pot you like as long as it can go in the oven with the lid at this high temp. I let mine get to 450 and leave the pot in there another 15 minutes or so.

While the oven preheats, uncover the dough and add a handful of flour to the top and onto your hands. You want to work it down the sides of the bowl to remove the dough without it sticking.

Hands-off:

Remember, this is a no-knead dough so you don’t need to do much with it. Just gently remove it from the bowl and shape it into a round loaf. Try not to fold in too much flour on the bottom of the loaf as you are shaping it. I have done that before and had a few small patches of flour in my final loaf when slicing it.

Place the shaped loaf onto a piece of parchment paper. The parchment makes it easy to lift the dough into the hot dutch oven and remove it after baking. It also means no sticking and no mess! Now take a sharp knife and slice an X across the top of the loaf.

Allow the dough to rest for about 15 minutes. When ready to bake, carefully remove your VERY hot dutch oven from the oven and remove the lid. Gently lift the dough using the parchment paper and put it in your dutch oven and replace the lid. Bake for 30 minutes then remove the lid from the dutch oven and allow to bake uncovered for an additional 10 minutes until beautifully golden on top. Doesn’t that look delicious?

When your bread is done, remove it from the oven and carefully move the loaf to a cooling rack.

This crusty no-knead Artisan Rustic Bread is great on its own, with a slab of butter, or dipped into your favorite soup. It also makes delicious french toast. If you’re looking for a yummy soup to go with this bread, I highly recommend our Creamy Chicken Noodle or Zuppa Toscana.

You should try this recipe even if you are totally intimidated by bread-making. It is so simple and yummy. Your family will be super impressed and ask for it again and again.

We hope you will try this bread and check out our other rustic breads as well.

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