No Knead Bread Recipe – Easy Pane Pugliese

If you love bread, but you never thought to prepare it yourself, you will probably start at the end of this recipe. Why wouldn’t you? This is the easiest no knead bread recipe you can find and the one that will boost your confidence, once and for all!

As a beginner there is a lot of uncertainty regarding which flour to use, how long to knead the dough or how long to let it rise before baking it. Don’t worry, this recipe will make you feel like a pro!

What makes no knead bread different? Well, its rustic crust and soft loaf makes it very similar to pane Pugliese, a typical bread from the beautiful Apulia (Puglia) region, but this homemade bread is much easier to make.

I don’t know about you, but I have zero patience for long recipes, mainly when we are talking about making the dough, kneading it and letting it rise. I just cannot stand the waiting, I am very impatient. So if yo are like me, this easy no knead bread is the recipe for you.

No Knead Bread Recipe Ingredients

• Flour: I would recommend that you start with a white flour. You can choose a flour specifically for bread or all-purpose flour. When you will be more confident in your understanding of the dough, I really suggest you to try and have some fun mixing different flours.
• Active dry yeast: you will need to increase this quantity if you decide to shorten the rising time.
• Water: the quantity of water really depends on the type of flour you use, you always need to reach a quite sticky dough. Again, if you are shortening the rising time, you will need warm water to help the yeast to get activated faster.
• Salt and Sugar: for the taste and yeast.

Another thing that you need for this no knead bread recipe is an oven-safe pot. I don’t own a Dutch oven myself, so I just use a regular large pot, where I usually make pasta with. So, make sure to have a large pot and a lid, with no plastic handles, that you can place into the oven, and you are ready to go!

No Knead Bread Recipe – Easy Pane Pugliese

Cuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

This is the easiest no-knead bread recipe you’ll ever find! You’ll make the bread dough in the evening, it will proof during the night in the fridge, and in the morning after one round of folding and one short raising you will enjoy your first crunch crust bread for lunch. I promise you’ll be surprised of how easy and delicious this bread is.

Ingredients

• 400g Flour

• 350g Water

• 5g Sugar

• 5g Salt

• 2g Active dry Yeast

Directions

• In a large bowl mix the ingredients. Mix flour, sugar and yeast. Add salt and water and mix until you get a sticky dough. As we said the quantity of water depends on the flour you are using, but you always need to reach a very sticky dough at the end. Keep mixing the dough with your spatula, or wooden spoon, bringing the bottom of the dough to the top. You should feel like you are folding the dough on itself. Continue for a few seconds, then cover the bowl hermetically with a wrapping film.
• If you chose to let the dough rest overnight, I suggest you place it in the fridge and forget about it until the day after. If you need a quicker rising process, let it rest at room temperature for a few hours, until it doubles its size. In this case you will need to double the quantity of the yeast – 4g of yeast per 400g of flour.
• Shape your dough. With the help of the spatula transfer it to a well-floured surface. Sprinkle some more flour on top of the dough and gently start to fold it on itself. You just need to fold the dough like you would fold your sheets. Take the edges up and fold it into the center. Press a little bit and do it again with the other edge. Sprinkle with some more flour and with the help of your hands give it a ball shape.
• Let the dough rest a second time. Now, depending on how much time you have, you can let it rest for 1h-2h or jus 20 minutes. The dough should be placed in a well floured bowl, but if you want to make it even easier you can place it on a piece of parchment paper inside the bowl. Cover the bowl with with a kitchen fabric.
• Heat the Oven to 240°C. Once the oven is hot, place your empty pot inside and let it warm up, this will help the dough not to stick to the bottom of the pot. Turn the dough over, into the pot. If you use parchment paper just grab the edges to transfer the dough into the pot. Cover with lid and bake for 40 mins. After remove the lid and bake for 20/30 more minutes, until you reach golden crust.
  
• Let your no knead bread to cool down on a baking rack and the bottom will breath, not creating condense that will affect the crunchiness.

Notes

• If after the rise, you feel that the dough is too sticky add as much flour as you need to shape it. If you feel it’s still a bit sticky use the spatula to help you with the folding.

What to serve with no knead bread

I usually like to serve this bread as part of our aperitif, pairing it with olives and a mix of our favorite cheese. Alternatively you can choose to roast it and make bruschette out of it. or simply use it as a topping for your soup, they make the perfect candidate for rustic croutons.

If you love this bread recipe you may also like

• Focaccia Genovese
• Quick and Easy Focaccia
• Homemade Pizza