Recipe for making the easiest artisan bread with simple ingredients and minimal effort.

I love fresh bread. This bread is easy to make quickly, and unlike some bread recipes, this one has only a few simple steps. The ingredients are just flour, salt, yeast, and water. The dough can be made ahead and stored for about a week in the refrigerator. Use the amount of dough you need, when you need it, to make bread, pizza crust, cinnamon buns, or breadsticks.

This is a super easy no-knead dough that is very easy to make. Once you mix up the dough and let it rise, you can have fresh bread within about half an hour any time you want it!

The bread from this recipe has a crispy crust, chewy centre, and delicious flavour. A loaf of bread is an impressive side dish that is really easy to make and always goes over well at potlucks and with dinner guests.

Enjoy this bread as plain slices or top with your favourite spreads. You can also use this bread for sandwiches.

This is the easiest way to make bread, and the resulting bread is delicious. It seems like it would be very difficult to make, and this bread will make you look like an expert baker.

This recipe is based on the methods from Hertzberg and François, authors of the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. You can find their master artisan bread recipe here:

Hertzberg, J., & François, Z. (2013). The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Master Recipe! https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2013/10/22/the-new-artisan-bread-in-five-minutes-a-day-is-launched-back-to-basics-updated/

Here is my version of their excellent bread recipe.

Easiest Artisan Bread Ingredients

• 3/4 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 3 cups water
• 6 cups flour

That’s it!

Easy Bread Baking Method: Making the Dough

You can use a stand mixer to stir the ingredients to make the dough, but you don’t need one. You can stir the dough by hand. No kneading necessary!

To make the dough, first add the salt, yeast, and water to a large bowl or bucket. Mix them together with a spoon.

Next, add the flour to the bowl or bucket, one cup at a time. Measuring out the flour cup-by-cup helps to ensure accurate measurement. If you measure all 6 cups together, the flour can pack down and cause you to end up with too much.

Then, stir the flour and the water together using a stand mixer or a wooden spoon. Stir until no dry spots remain.

Cover the dough mixture with a lid (choose one that isn’t air-tight so it doesn’t explode when the dough rises). Wait a couple hours for the dough to rise, and then bake bread! The dough can be left on the counter to rise or put directly in the refrigerator now. Keep any remaining dough refrigerated for up to a week.

Baking a Loaf of Artisan Bread

When the dough has risen (it should be at least doubled in size), it is ready to use. Prepare a wooden cutting board and dust a loaf-sized space with flour. Take a handful of dough from the bowl or bucket and pinch to separate it from the rest of the dough. Place the dough in the flour on the cutting board and turn the dough to cover it with flour.

Handle the dough as little as possible while you shape it into a loaf. Do not knead or squish the dough because this would push out the air bubbles that keep the bread nice and light. Stretch the dough slightly to pull the sides down underneath and shape into a loaf shape. Place on the cutting board to sit while you preheat the oven to 400F. If using a baking stone, preheat it with the oven. A baking sheet or loaf pan works fine, too; do not preheat these.

When the oven reaches 400F, use a serrated knife to make a few shallow slashes in the top of the loaf. This helps it expand more evenly as it rises during baking. Sprinkle a layer of cornmeal on the baking stone or baking sheet, and place the uncooked loaf on the cornmeal to keep it from sticking.

Bake the loaf for 20 – 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with a spoon or knife. Take the loaf out of the oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes before serving.

The loaf will stay fresh for about a day. Store a partial loaf cut side down on the wooden cutting board or in a paper bag. Avoid using a container or plastic bag to store the bread because this will make the crust soft rather than crispy. The bread does not need to be wrapped at all because the crust stays the right texture just sitting out in the air. Make sure the cut side of the loaf is not exposed to air because it will become hard.