No-knead Dutch oven bread — Jim Lahey method
5
Units:
Prep: 10 min Cook: 45 min
Main
- 3 cup all-purpose or bread flour
- ¼ tsp instant yeast
- 1¼ tsp salt
- 1⅓ cup lukewarm water
The recipe that revolutionized home baking when Mark Bittman published it in the New York Times in 2006. Just 4 ingredients, no kneading, and a tiny amount of yeast that ferments slowly over 12-18 hours for bakery-quality flavor. The Dutch oven creates steam for a shatteringly crisp crust impossible to achieve in a regular home oven.
Instructions
- Mix: Combine flour, yeast, and salt. Add water and stir until a shaggy, sticky dough forms. Do not knead. Cover with plastic wrap.
- Long rise (12-18 hours): Leave at room temperature (about 70F). Walk away. The dough is ready when the surface is dotted with bubbles and it has more than doubled.
- Shape: Flour your hands generously. Turn dough out, fold over on itself once or twice. Rest 15 minutes. Shape into a ball on parchment paper, cover, and let rise 1-2 hours until it holds an indent when poked.
- Preheat: Place Dutch oven with lid in the oven. Preheat to 450F for at least 30 minutes.
- Bake: Lower dough on parchment into the hot Dutch oven. Cover with lid. Bake 30 minutes covered, then 15 minutes uncovered until deep golden brown.
Tips
- Start the dough at 9 PM, bake at noon the next day
- Time replaces kneading — the long slow fermentation develops gluten and complex flavor naturally
- Any heavy oven-safe pot with a lid works: cast iron, enamel, ceramic, even stainless steel
- At 75F+, check at 12 hours; at 65F, allow the full 18 hours
Created: 2/27/2026, 2:29:33 PM diylow cost
Dutch oven (4-6 quart), large mixing bowl, parchment paper