Easy No-Knead Country Bread
There is something so fulfilling about making your own bread, especially lately when everything feels like it’s going haywire and the future seems increasingly uncertain.
It takes just a few ingredients to create something beautiful, nourishing, and hearty. I took up bread baking several years ago as an outlet for my anxiety, which I have battled with my entire life. The tactile nature of making the bread and the acceptance that I can’t always control the outcome because of countless variables helped center me, acting as a gentle physical reminder that you can’t control everything.
Me, needing to control things? Surely you must be thinking of some other anxiety-riddled control freak whose body is so tense at all times a massage therapist once nervously asked if I run marathons, which lol, because my hips and legs are so tight.
Baking bread became a coping mechanism. Testing new recipes, understanding the science that goes into beautiful loaves. Murdering multiple attempts at sourdough starter. I spent months kneading my anxiety away as I learned to tune out the terror and tune into myself.
“But this says NO KNEAD bread, Justine!”
Yes, because I knew you wouldn’t click on it otherwise.
This is my favorite “everyday” bread. Just dump everything in a bowl, mix, proof, bake. It’s simple enough for even kids to make, and I understand many of you have them underfoot at home these days and perhaps they could make themselves useful.
Easy No-Knead Country Bread
Prep time: 15 minutes | Rise Time: 3 hours| Cook time: 45 minutes
1 packet dry active yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons Morton’s kosher salt
1 1/4 cups water, around 110 degrees
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur)
In a large bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and water. Wait a few minutes until the yeast is foamy. (If it’s not bubbly and foamy after 5 minutes or so, y’all better get a eulogy ready because your yeast is dead.)
Add salt and flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until no dry patches of flour remain and a very sticky, wet, shaggy dough has formed. Shape into a ball and coat lightly with flour on all sides of the dough, flouring the bottom and sides of the bowl as well.
Cover with a clean tea towel. Let rise for 3 hours. (Fun fact: I’ve forgotten about this dough and let it go for almost 5 hours once and it was still pretty much fine. Ditto for 2 hours. Look, we’re not Tartine here.)
After the first rise, lightly flour your hands and keep some extra flour handy. Gently scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl with your fingers, flouring lightly as needed, until it isn’t stuck to the bowl.
While there’s no kneading, there is folding in the bowl! Delicately pull opposite sides of your dough ball slightly inward toward the top of the ball. Fold the dough over on itself and repeat with the other sides. I gently do this a few times until it forms a slightly smoother, albeit still pretty sticky, ball. Place back in the bowl seam side down and cover for a second rise.
Put a dutch oven with the lid in the oven and preheat to 460 degrees. After 30 minutes, carefully remove the preheated dutch oven from the oven. Working very quickly, remove the lid and place dough seam side down in the dutch oven. Replace lid and back into the oven it goes.
Lower the temperature to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and let bake another 5-10 minutes until the top reaches your desired level of deeply browned crunchy rustic glory.
Let cool and enjoy.
Storage hot tip: Since I live alone and generally avoid eating an entire loaf of bread in one day, I slice the cooled loaf and toss in the freezer so I can use slices when I want. It reheats and toasts great.