Who’s ready for a simple no knead bread recipe? You can easily make artisan white bread with a little time and very little effort. It is delicious and has a nice pleasant taste thanks to the long fermentation process. Let’s get started right away!

I’m trying to make sourdough and it isn’t going well. The mother or starter is taking longer to make than I every anticipated. Instead of stressing about it, I persevere. In the meantime, I decided to move on and make a high hydration bread. It’s very simple and a confidence builder. Plus, it’s extremely tasty and reminds you of sourdough.

“Sourfaux” as my husband coined it last night. It is a high-hydration, no-knead dough. For this to work, you use just a tiny amount of yeast and a lot of time. You basically let the yeast and time create the gluten for you.

Sorry, learning how to make artisan white bread isn’t possible with gluten-free flour. You can make lots of other nice loaves of breads without gluten, but this isn’t one of them. Also, this ratio is intended for white bread only. Heavier breads like wheat, rye, spelt will need a much higher water ratio. Substituting flour without increasing water will result in a more dense, unpleasant loaf. For a whole wheat version, try this recipe instead.

To make this loaf, I highly, highly recommend digital scales that weigh grams. Grams are used most often because they are easier to divide and find the hydration rate. The higher the hydration rate, typically the better the bread as it creates an airy quality and nice tender crumb. A bagel is a lower hydration rate dough. Think about how chewy and dense it is. It’s wonderful, but sometimes you want a bread like a ciabatta.

If you don’t own scales, you can look at the individual flour bag for the grams in cup measurements and use the liters part on your measuring cup for a better result, but you still won’t ever get to amazing levels of baked bread without weighing your ingredients. You will be that baker that continuously adds flour and wonders why your bread is so dense sometimes and great others. I was that baker. I’ll provide cup measurements with the caveat: I weigh everything. Flours weigh differently, so look on your bag and try to use the gram measurements.

Enough talking. Let’s do a pictorial explanation on how to make artisan white bread and then the recipe. Side note: If you click the jump to recipe at the top of each page, you can bypass my ramblings. 🙂

One note of caution should be addressed when making overnight bread, especially at room temperatures for more than 8-10 hours. Cleanliness is essential. You can introduce bad bacteria and despite popular beliefs, the yeast does not inhibit these growths. Rather, studies have shown the bacteria to grow starting at the 4 hour mark. So please work on clean surfaces and with clean equipment and supplies.

Artisan White Bread

A basic artisanal loaf to give you the feel for working with wet dough also called high-hydration.  It’s a fantastic way to learn how to make a nice airy bread with a chewy crust with minimal effort.

Print Recipe

Prep Time15 minutes minutes

Cook Time45 minutes minutes

Rest Time18 hours hours

Total Time19 hours hours

Servings12

Calories 111

Ingredients

• 3 ⅓ cups (500g) flour
• 1 ½ cups (360mL) water
• 1 tsp (5g) salt
• ¼ tsp (1g) yeast

Instructions

• In a large bowl, add flour, water, salt and yeast. Stir together with the back of a spoon until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and let side overnight at room temperature.
• The next day, wet your hands. Gently remove the dough from the bowl onto a clean work surface.Using damp hands, grab a top section of the dough. Stretch and bring it to the opposite side. Do this for each side. This will create tension.
• Line a colander or a bowl with a lint-free clean towel. Dust the towel liberally with flour. With damp hands, pick up the dough and place it seem side up in the container. Dust the top and fold the towel over. Leave for approximately 1-3 hours or until double in size.
• Place one rack in the middle of the oven and the second rack as close to the bottom as possible. On the bottom rack, place a pan filled with 1/2" (1cm) of water. Do not use a glass container for the water as it could break or shatter due to thermal shock. Preheat oven 450F (230C.)
• Gently remove the top towel and invert the dough onto a baking sheet in one swift movement. If the towel sticks, wet your fingers and gently pull the towel away while pressing on the dough.
• Slice the top with a sharp knife quickly about 1/8" (3mm) deep and the length of the bread.
• Open the stove carefully, as the steam could burn you.
• Bake 40 – 45 minutes. Center of bread should reach 212F (100C.)
• Let bread cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Notes

An important note on dry yeast: Instant dry and active dry yeasts are not the same.  If using active dry yeast, you must activate the yeast according to the manufacturer’s instructions in order for the dough to rise properly.  You typically need to activate or “bloom” the yeast by adding it to warmed liquid for several minutes. 

Instant dry yeast can be added to the dry ingredients and typically does not need to be activated prior to use.  However, some brands of dry yeasts still require adding warm liquids, so be sure to read the label. Rapid, quick and fast acting dry yeasts will rise much faster than instant and active dry yeasts.  For best results, always read and follow the instructions provided on the packet as the rising time varies widely between manufacturers. 

Nutrition Facts

Artisan White Bread

Serving Size

 

1 slice

Amount per Serving

Calories

111

% Daily Value*

Sodium

 

193.8

mg

8

%

Carbohydrates

 

24.4

g

8

%

Protein

 

4.4

g

9

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

* Calories provided as a courtesy and not guaranteed.