This homemade artisan bread recipe is a go-to in my house; in fact, it is from the book I co-authored, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It’s easy for beginners and has the crisp crust and has the chewy crumb of a loaf from your favorite bakery. There are plenty of bread recipes out there, but this is one you can make every day. It takes just five active minutes a day to have amazing bread. See for yourself!
Homemade Bread Ingredients
- Lukewarm Water: It’s important to keep the water at about 100°F or slightly below to ensure you don’t kill the yeast. The rise will take longer if the water is cool, but some people actually prefer the flavor of the bread with a longer, cooler rise, since it doesn’t ferment as quickly.
- Granulated Yeast: You can use whatever brand is readily available, and don’t worry about terms like “quick rise,” “instant,” or “active dry.” All of them work well. If you want to use sourdough starter, I have a post for that.
- Kosher Salt: Just a tablespoon will do for a large batch of dough (4 pounds). I like to use kosher salt, but you can use sea salt if you prefer. Salt is used to balance the flavor of the bread. I find a loaf made without salt tastes flat and a little boring. Everyone’s tastes are different, so feel free to adjust the salt to your palate.
- All-Purpose Flour: I highly recommend measuring everything with a kitchen scale, but especially the flour, for the best results! Everyone uses cup measures differently, so weighing is the best way to be consistent and get great results every time. The recipes were all created and tested with Gold Medal flour. If you prefer to use King Arthur Flour, which is more readily available in certain parts of the country, then you may need to add a couple more tablespoons of water because the KAF has more protein, which absorbs more water.
Bread Making Equipment
Making this bread is simple and requires very little in the way of tools. Below are some of the things that I find useful and makes the process even easier. I have an Amazon collection of all the bread-making tools you can use, but here’s the core list of equipment I recommend:
- A 6-Quart Lidded Bucket: You need a large container to hold the dough. This recipe makes approximately four loaves, just less than 1 pound each. The dough can sit in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, so having a good storage container is very useful. You can certainly use a large bowl, but I find these buckets easier to deal with in the refrigerator and the perfect size for a full batch of dough. If you want to make a half batch of the dough, then go with the 4-quart size.
- Kitchen Scale: Using a kitchen scale is the only way to be consistent with baking and ensure you’re getting the best results. With cup measures, everyone measures differently, so you may end up with wetter or drier dough because of how you’re measuring. A kitchen scale is the most-used piece of equipment in my kitchen, and I firmly believe everyone should use one. If you’re intimidated or confused, I created a video to help you get started. You may be surprised how easy it is to use!
- Danish Dough Whisk: This is one of my favorite tools and I often travel with one, just in case I want to whip up a batch of dough. It makes mixing the dough so incredibly easy, and it can be used to mix cakes and cookie batters as well as bread dough. You could use a wooden spoon, but it creates more resistance than the whisk, so it doesn’t cut through the dough as easily. Trust me, this tool is so worth it.
- Bench Scraper: This can be helpful if you want to add mix-ins into your dough, such as dried fruit, nuts, or olives. It can also be helpful when you need to lift your dough or divide it into pieces for buns. I also use it to smooth cakes, so it has many uses.
- Large Serrated Knife and Bread Lame: Your bread knife serves two purposes: scoring the dough before placing it into the oven and easily cutting slices of your bread once it’s completely cool. If you’re interested in getting a bread scoring tool, you can get a bread lame (pronounced “lom”), which is a razor blade attached to a handle and allows you to create intricate patterns on the top of your dough.
- Bread Cloche or Dutch Oven: A lidded vessel traps the moisture from the dough and allows a beautiful rise and perfect crust on your loaf without having to add steam to your oven. You can also bake the bread on a baking stone, you’ll just need a pan on the lower rack of the oven, where you’ll add warm water to help create steam while it bakes. WARNING: Don’t use a glass baking dish to hold the water because it is likely to shatter.
Homemade Artisan Bread Step-By-Step
These are the basic steps to make this bread recipe. Find the full recipe with more details below.
Combine the ingredients: Combine the yeast and water in a 6-quart bowl or lidded dough bucket. Then stir in the flour and cover with a lid that fits well but isn’t airtight.
Let the dough rise: This should take about two hours. Once the dough has risen, you can store it in the fridge for up to 14 days. The longer you leave it, the more of a fermented flavor you will get. You can experiment with the storage time to find out what you like best!
Shape your loaf: Dust the dough with flour and pull up about 1 pound of dough from the bucket. Gently shape the dough into a round ball that is smooth and cohesive. You can do this by making 1/4 turns and gently stretching. Once round, let it rest for an hour and preheat your oven and baking vessel or stone to 450 degrees F.
Bake the loaf: Once ready to bake, slash a 1/2-inch deep pattern into the top of the dough with a serrated knife or bread lame. Slide the dough onto your baking vessel and bake based on the instructions below, depending on the vessel you use.
If you like this Master Recipe from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, be sure to check out the entire series!
Servings: 4 1-lb loaves
Equipment
- Bread Cloche or Dutch oven
- Serrated Knife or bread lame
Ingredients
- 3 cups (680g) lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp (10g) granulated yeast
- 1 tbsp (17g) kosher salt
- 6 1/2 cups (910g) all-purpose flour see notes
Instructions
Mixing and Storing the Dough
- In a 6-quart bowl or lidded dough bucket, add yeast and salt to lukewarm water (about 100℉).
- Using a Danish dough whisk (or a wooden spoon or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), stir in the flour just until the dough is uniform. Pro Tip: Because this is a wet, sticky dough, you don't need to knead it. The dough will look a little shaggy and not as smooth and neat as traditional dough when you first stir it together. There shouldn't be dry bits of flour left, so make sure they are all incorporated.
Resting and Rising the Dough
- Cover the container with a lid that fits well but isn't airtight, or use plastic wrap. Allow to rise on the counter for about 2 hours. Pro Tips: My husband drilled a tiny hole in the top of my plastic lids, so I could snap them shut but have a way for the gas from the yeast to escape. If your kitchen is quite cold, you can place the dough bucket in your oven (turned off) with just the oven light on for the 2-hour rise.
- Once your dough has risen, store the dough in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.Baker's notes: I like the dough between 2 to 5 days, beyond that it gets a bit fermenty for my taste. My co-author, Jeff, sometimes let his dough go beyond the 14 days because he LOVED that flavor. You decide which suits you best. I tend to make a half batch these days because the boys are out of the house, and Graham and I don't go through as much bread. You can easily half or double the recipe, just be sure to adjust the size of the container.
On Baking Day
- Prepare a pizza peel with cornmeal or parchment paper to prevent your loaf from sticking to the peel when you slide it into the oven (the parchment paper slides right onto the stone along with the loaf).Pro Tips: I almost always use parchment paper to prevent the cornmeal from creating smoke when it hits the hot stone. The parchment paper also acts as a sling to more easily lower the bread into a preheated Dutch oven.WARNING: parchment paper will generally say it can only go up to 450°F, but I regularly bake it at 550°F. It may darken when baking, but otherwise it is just fine.
To Shape the Dough
- Dust the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife or kitchen shears.
- Dust the dough with more flour, then gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball as you go to form a smooth ball. The shaping process should take about 30 seconds—don't work the dough longer or your loaf may be dense.Pro Tip: The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of straggly ends, but it will smooth out during resting and baking.
Allow the Loaf to Rise
- Place the shaped ball on the prepared pizza peel or parchment paper and allow it to rest for about 1 hour, covered loosely with plastic wrap or a large bowl that will not interfere with the rising dough. You may not see much rise during this period; much more rising will occur during baking.
Preheating
- While the dough is rising, preheat a baking stone, Dutch oven, or bread cloche near the middle of the oven to 475℉, which takes about 30+ minutes. Pro Tip: The thicker the baking stone, the longer it will take to preheat. Be sure to give it plenty of time to come to temperature, or your bread will not rise as well, and the crust won't be as thin and crisp.
- If using a baking stone, place an empty metal broiler tray or roasting pan for holding water on any shelf that won't interfere with rising bread. WARNING: Never use a glass pan to catch water for steam—it's likely to shatter.
Score the Loaf
- Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will prevent the knife from sticking. Slash a 1/2-inch deep pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife held perpendicular to the bread. You can also use a bread lame. Leave the flour in place for baking; tap some of it off before eating.
If Baking on a Baking Stone
- Slide the loaf onto the preheated stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray or roasting pan and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is richly browned and firm to the touch. Pro Tip: The water will burn off after about 10 minutes and that's normal, no need to add more water, it's already done its job. The steam it produces softens the dough to help it rise. It also helps to create a shiny crust.Pro Tip: If you have a gas oven, it may not trap the steam well and your loaf will come out with a duller looking crust. If this happens, try using a Dutch oven for your next loaf.
- Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking times. Because the dough is wet, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust.
If Baking in a Bread Cloche or Dutch Oven
- Use an oven mitt to carefully remove the lid of the preheated Dutch oven, then place the loaf in the vessel. Pro Tip: If you've placed the bread dough on parchment paper, use it as a sling to carefully lower the loaf into the preheated Dutch oven.Cover the vessel and allow to bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the lid and and continue to baking for another 10-12 minutes until the crust is deep caramel brown.
Cool
- When you remove the loaf from the oven, a perfectly baked loaf will audibly crackle or "sing," when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely (up to 2 hours), preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The crust may initially soften, but will firm up again once cooled. This bread is best eaten the day it was made.
Storing Dough
- Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded container and use it over the next 14 days. You'll find that even one day's storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. You can freeze the dough, but it does reduce its rising power.
Notes
This recipe was tested with Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour, which has a protein content of about 10%, as do most supermarket brands. Some flours, like King Arthur, Dakota Maid, and most Canadian all-purpose flours have a higher protein content and will need a bit of extra water. Use 1/4 cup extra water if you’re using one of these flours or if you know the protein is higher in the flour you’re using.
When measuring your flour, if you aren’t using a kitchen scale, be sure to use the scoop-and-sweep method. Gently scoop up flour, then sweep the top level with a knife or spatula; don’t press down into the flour as you scoop or you’ll throw off the measurement by compressing.
It’s easier to scoop and sweep if you store your flour in a bin rather than the bag it’s sold in. It can be difficult to get the measuring cups into the bag without making a mess. Don’t use an extra-large 2-cup-capacity measuring cup, which allows the flour to overpack and measures too much flour.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Is the 4 – one pounds yield mean 1 pound of dough or it weighs one pound after baking? I am not getting 4 pounds of dough from the recipe.
Thanks.
Hi Megan, It should make four 1-lb loaves (technically a little less than 1 lb each). I hope this is helpful!
Have you tried this with fresh milled hard spring wheat?
This bread is so easy to make and it’s delicious. I kinda like the longer fermentation time.
I gave up on sourdough lol but this looked easy enough. Baked a loaf today, it was really good with our beet borsht, thumbs up approved by toddlers and husband
So glad you gave this one a try and enjoyed it!
I was wondering if the container for the refrigerator needs to be airtight or the lid with the holes for the leftover bread dough.
The leftover dough can be stored in an airtight container if it has a bit of room, otherwise just a lid that doesn’t fit too tight works well.
Has anyone tried using this recipe with a 2lb loaf? If so, how did you adjust your rising/ baking times? (.ie using 1/2 the dough for one loaf vs 1/4)
I just baked my first loaf and loved it. It’s great that you can make a batch of dough and bake a loaf everyday. Thanks for for the recipe:)
I’m wondering if leftover dough could be used as pizza crust?
Hi Lindsay, absolutely! It won’t be quite as bubbly as if you used the pizza dough recipe, but it certainly works great!
This seems like an easy recipe but I wish it was for a single loaf. Sure I could do the math but I want a recipe that is ready to go. Who among us common bakers can fit a 6 qt or even a 4 qt bin in their refrigerator amidst all the leftovers, milk cartons and food of daily life.
In the time it took you to write your reply, you could have, instead, “done the math” and started your baking.