This is my easiest crusty bread recipe ever—no mixer, no kneading, no stress! Just stir, rest, and bake. The magic happens inside a Dutch oven, where trapped steam gives the loaf that bakery-style crust—crackly on the outside and tender inside.
If you don’t own a Dutch oven, don’t worry—you can still make it. Simply place a metal baking pan on the lower oven rack while the bread bakes and add a few ice cubes (or mist the oven walls) to create steam. The result is nearly identical!
💡 Here’s a great tip: I keep a hot baking stone on the lower rack beneath my Dutch oven to protect the bottom from scorching, it distributes heat evenly and gives a gorgeous crust every time. If you don’t have a baking stone, use a metal cookie sheet on that lower rack. You can put your ice cubes in that. I’ve done it this way and it turns out great!
Ingredients
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1½ cups (370 mL) warm water – about 105–110°F if you’re measuring it with a thermometer
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2 tsp instant or “rapid-rise” yeast (about 6 g)
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4 cups (500 g) Bread Flour (or all-purpose if that’s what you have – both work just as well)
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1½ tsp fine sea salt (about 8 g, I use REAL® salt but any salt will work. If you are on a LOW salt diet, you can use 1 tsp and it will still turn out).
Directions to make the crusty bread
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In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water with the yeast. Let it sit 5–10 minutes and stir again, it should dissolve completely.
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To the yeast/water mixture, add your flour and salt and mix thoroughly with a dough whisk, fork, or spatula until you see no more dry flour. It will look shaggy and sticky — perfect.
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First rise (bulk ferment) is easy. Just cover the bowl with dough with a damp towel and let it rest 2 hours. When I make this in Colorado, because of my open floor plan, the kitchen isn’t really warm. Because of that, I use a dough heater which I got off Amazon HERE. This isn’t needed if your kitchen is a normal house temperature, but for me it speeds things up dramatically and ensures my dough is kept at about 80°F (if you live somewhere cold a thermostatic dough heater is ideal), otherwise you may have to let it rest for longer than 2 hours.
🕓 For even deeper flavor: refrigerate the risen dough for 8–12 hours (overnight). Bring it back to room temperature before baking.
You’re looking for this: The dough should double in size and a little bit bubbly on the surface. -
Shaping the Bread – the FUN part (but before you do this start by pre-heating your oven to 425 degrees and put your Dutch Oven inside)
While your oven is preheating, generously flour your work surface and hands. Gently stretch the dough into a loose rectangle. Fold it over on itself twice—like tucking a letter into a long envelope. That’s it! No kneading needed. You can either roll it gently into a round shape or pinch the edges underneath to form a smooth, tight ball that looks ready for the oven. Shape the bread with your hands so that it’s in the shape of an oval or a round boule, whatever you prefer. -
Let the bread rest for 30 minutes on the counter (it doesn’t need to be heated at this point, even at elevation/cold).
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Score the top of the bread with a sharp knife or bread lame.
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Bake! Make sure you have preheated your oven before you start to bake your bread. Earlier on, you would put your Le Creuset 22 cm or Bread Oven (with lid on) into a 425°F (220°C) oven for at least 30 minutes to preheat fully. This is the point you can carefully put the dough (on its parchment) into your VERY hot Dutch Oven (or Bread Oven). Cover with the lid and bake it for 20 minutes. Then, after 20 minutes, remove the Dutch Oven lid and bake another 12 to 15 minutes at the same temperature, until deep golden-brown. The internal temperature of cooked bread should reach about 205–210°F (96–99°C).
The outside should be crips and beautifully blistered. The crumb will be slightly open and chewy, but not dense.
Cool: After baking, let the bread cook on a wire rack for about 1 hour or until the internal temperature is 90 – 95 degrees °F (32–35°C). Cutting into it early will make it gummy inside. It will keep for about 2 days.
If you like this bread, you will want to eat it with The Most Delicious Air Fryer Chicken
Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.
