Easy No Knead Skillet Bread
The easiest no-knead skillet bread. The recipe only calls for 4 simple ingredients! Mix together, let the dough rise, pan and bake. You won’t get your hands or counters messy!
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If there is anything I know about yeast bread it is that for those who haven’t made it before it can feel intimidating. I know this because I once was that person.
I thought yeast was this scary ingredient that I didn’t understand. And people tell me all the time that they are nervous about working with yeast.
Well I’m here to get your feet wet with working with yeast! This easy no knead skillet bread recipe will build up your baking with yeast confidence! And it only calls for 4 simple ingredients!
This bread really could not be more simple! The make the dough, you just stir all of the ingredients together.
The dough then sits few an hour so the yeast can activate and feed for a while, and then it is baked. That’s it!
There are many things to know about yeast and bread making. If you are interested in learning more in-depth information about baking yeast bread, I suggest you check out my Yeast Bread Essentials Course!
But for this bread you really only need to know 1 thing: Yeast likes warm temperatures, but not hot temperatures! Your water should be warm, slightly warmer than body temperature, but not hot!
You will kill the yeast if you use too hot of water. But other than that, this no knead skillet bread is virtually fool proof!
Now that I am a more experienced bread baker, I still find myself coming back to this bread recipe. It is great for having fresh bread on a busy weeknight. That feels so decadent!
I love to add fresh herbs to my bread- rosemary is a favorite. You could add olives, nuts, roasted garlic, or really anything your heart desires!
One of the things that continues to fascinate me about bread is that it only requires a few simple ingredients: just water, flour, salt, and yeast.
Those humble and few ingredients result in such a beautiful and comforting product! It feels like magic!
I hope this recipe inspires you to start making yeast bread a habit in your home!
Easy No-Knead Skillet Bread
This is the easiest no-knead skillet bread. Just mix all of the ingredients together, let the dough rise, put it in a pan and bake! You won't get your hands or counters messy!
Ingredients
- 4 1/3 cups (520 g) bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 package (2 1/4 tsp, 7 g) active dry or rapid rise yeast
- 1/2 TBSP (8 g) fine sea salt or kosher salt
- 2 cups (450 g) warm water (about 110-120 F, NOT HOT water)
- about 3 tbsp olive oil (or you can use vegetable oil or canola oil)
- rosemary (*optional)
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, and the salt. You can also add in spices or herbs of choice here. I like to add about 1 1/2 tbsp of fresh rosemary.
- Add the warm water to the bowl. Make sure the water is just warm and not hot. Stir with a spoon or rubber spatula until well combined. It will be a very wet dough, almost like a thick batter.
- Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let sit at room temperature until about double in size. This will take about 45 minutes for rapid rise yeast, and an hour and a half with active dry yeast.
- Do not punch down the dough. Add about 1 TBSP of oil to the bottom of a cast iron skillet or any other oven safe skillet (a 10" or 12" skillet works well).
- Drizzle about a tablespoon of the oil over the dough and also drizzle some on your hands. Rub the oil on your hands, this will help the dough not stick. Gently release the dough from the sides of the bowl and then gather it all up in your hands. Gently shape it into a ball. This will be kind of difficult because the dough is sticky, but just do your best. It doesn't need to be perfect.
- Place the dough in the oiled skillet, cover loosely with a towel. Let it rise again until full of air - about 30 minutes for rapid rise yeast and 1 hour for active dry yeast.
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- Drizzle a little more oil over the top of the bread, and score the dough with a knife creating an X or a few slices across the top. Sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary leaves if desired.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until the top is starting to brown. Then turn on the broiler for about 5 minutes and watch the bread closely. This is just to help the top brown up some more.
- Allow the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and preferably longer. Letting the bread cool before slicing will solidify the texture and also help it to stay fresh longer.
- Store sliced bread open at room temperature, sliced side down on a cutting board for up to 48 hours. After that, more it to a bag and seal it. I prefer to slice it up and freeze it after 2 days. It refreshes well from frozen in the toaster.
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Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 98
779 Comments on “Easy No Knead Skillet Bread”
Making this AGAIN because it's so good…..added some bacon and Italian spices, and oiled the old Griswold with bacon grease….
Oh. My. God. I’m starving and that sounds amazing!
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I love to cook and am truly a great cook. Baking, however, has never been something I am truly unable to understand, and accomplish! I am going to try some of your recipies as you seem to write about baking as I think about cooking. You lay out the point of each ingredient, and even show me where I can innovate. I also never knew ingredients were supposed to be room temp! So, thanks. Love your blog.
What a sweet comment Susan! That is definitely my goal. To try and help people understand that baking can be simple if you just understand a few things about it. So glad I can help!
Dear Baker Bettie,
I just found your blog and read this post, and am happy to say you are one of my soul mates, thank you for sharing your struggle with admitting who you really are!
Hi Nancy! What a sweet comment! Thank you for visiting, reading, and sharing your sentiments.
How big of a skillet did you use? My cast iron is massive, I think 12 or 16 inches, so I worry it would end up more of a flatbread. Could I use a small Dutch oven instead?
Hi Jessica! My skillet is 10″. I honestly think a 12″ would be better for this bread though because it was crazy thick in mine! I think a 16″ would also work, but it will be less thick. I don’t think it would be flatbread thin tough. You may need to adjust the baking time. Just watch it. But yes, any oven proof pan would work. A dutch oven would absolutely work!
wow its awesome to find another who has gone thru this 'process' i have felt very alone on my path. thanks… as to the bread – sounds yummy! have you tried it over coals?? i am assuming i would have to 'lid' it to Bake it. 🙂 what do you think?
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Question – is the flour measurement for sifted flour or just flour right out of the bag/canister?
I can’t wait to try the recipe but it will be my first bread so I’d like to get it right.
Great question Violet! Unless otherwise stated, you measure flour before sifting it. BUT don’t just plunge the measuring cup straight into the bag. Lightly spoon the flour out of the bag into the measuring cups and level off. I actually have an entire post dedicated to how to properly measure flour by volume! https://bakerbettie.com/how-to-measure-flour/
Did you sift the flour after you spooned it into the cup for this bread recipe?
I was never meant to be an office worker! I was meant to be an herb farmer!
Also, that bread looks amazing and I’m going to try a whole-grain version as soon as I get home.
How did the whole wheat version turn out? I want to try, but I’m not a bread baker, so I don’t know what adaptations are necessary 🙂
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What size cast iron skillet did you use?
Amazing blogs and recipes (and Baker Bettie, I am sure). Every recipe I’ve tried so far has turned out better results than recipes I’ve tried from our local “world-famous” baking company’s site and cookbook. The award-winning collector edition cookbook is now a dust collector, and this is my go-to site for family favorites!
This skillet bread received rave reviews at recent family dinner. Thank You!!!!
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This was so much easier than the last Rosemary bread I made. My 15 year old nephew stopped by, tried it and loved it. Asked if I would make him more. So just made 2 more batches; one I followed this recipe and the other I added some shredded cheese and a little honey. Also, like the roasted garlic with the bread. The smell of this Rosemary bread baking is comforting and gets me excited for the holidays. Thanks for this much easier bread recipe.
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This bread is super easy!! And taste great! I made it to go with soup and was perfect.
Have you ever used any whole wheat flour in it? Thought I would try subbing one cup next time and 2 the next if it works with one.
I personally haven’t Katherine, but I think 1 cup would be the perfect amount to start with to try it! Enough to give it a little more flavor and color but not make it too rough! Let me know how it goes!
I made this and it was awesome!!! Will definitely make it again!
This bread is fantastic. I cut the recipe in half and then baked in my 8″ cast iron pan about 25-30 minutes. The first loaf didn’t rise as much as I expected but still was delicious. After reviewing similar bread recipes, the second time I made it (half recipe) I used a little warmer water with my yeast, added one tsp. of sugar to the yeast and water mixture and let it sit about 5 minutes. I also added one tsp. of a dried herb mix that I like when I added the salt with the flour. that loaf rose a little higher and turned out great too! Thanks for the recipe.
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Wow! made for our Dinner today. I used 3 cups of King Arthur’s unbleached unbromated flour and
2 and 1/3 cups of King Arthur’s whole wheat flour. Had basmati rice, skillet chicken, special sauce using the drippings from the skillet chicken, frozen green beans seasoned with onions and coconut oil and had some corn. Thank you for the skillet recipe, my first time making skillet bread. Plan to make more using other ingredients. ( Makes me want to keep on baking bread). Need ways to use Healthier flours.
Also, I had some home made blueberry sauce week or so past. Put some on the bread, absolutely delicious. Thank you, T
I don’t have a cast iron skillet or a baking stone. Can you use any round bake pan?
Thank you so much for this recipe! I consider myself a foodie; I love to cook and love trying new recipes, but one thing I HATE is making bread!!! The smell of yeast alone is enough to make me nauseous, so I avoid it like the plague and stick to quick breads/biscuits/etc. This, however, seemed like it would keep the time “involved” with the dough to a minimum, so I decided to give it a try. It came out wonderfully in my new cast iron pan I got for Christmas, exactly as pictured (though only about 25 minutes in my oven), and even my picky eaters ate it. I served it with bowls of olive oil, balsamic, sea salt, and pepper for dipping, and even though the bread itself was a bit bland, it was a huge hit! Next time I’ll try adding some olive tapenade and garlic to it, and maybe sprinkle on some feta in the last few minutes of baking. My mouth is watering just thinking about it… This is a great base recipe I can’t wait to play with.
Can I use Rapid Rise yeast. Sounds like a great bread.
Yes! Rapid rise yeast will work too.
I found this recipe today as I was looking for reasons to use my oven on this frigid Adirondack day! Every time the temp is below zero I bake and this looked like a good start to the day. I didn’t have rosemary, so used thyme instead. Very easy and great with olive oil. Will make a second one today, but add some cheese, garlic and tomatoes. Thank you for a great recipe.
Hi Bettie! What an inspiring post! I am in college now, and I’m feeling torn about my major. The major I thought fit me didn’t end up working out, and now I feel stressed as I try to figure out where to go next. I love that you found your true passion and that you are at peace with the path you took to find it. Thanks for sharing!
p.s. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe 🙂
Olivia (www.vickiandlivi.com)
Wow, tried this the other day and we all loved it! Funny thing though, I was actually looking for a recipe for “Pain Bathbout” (a homemade bread from North Africa) and stumbled upon your blog. And am so glad I did!
I’m so glad you loved it Michelle! That makes me so happy!
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Good post Betty, going to try this ‘campfire style’ in the Dutch oven. Thanks for sharing!
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Hello Betty
I have put you into my favorites and I am going to make a few things from your recipes starting with your no kneed skillet bread. Is it possible to put the centigrade in your recipes next to your F. I would really appreciate this and I think many other bakers will as well.
Thank you very much.
Kind regards
Christel
Hello Christel. Thank you for you comment. I can certainly try, but I can’t promise I will remember. I also already have 100’s of recipes on the website that I unfortunately don’t have time to edit. I recommend bookmarking this link so you can quickly do the conversation. http://fahrenheittocelsius.com/ Hope that helps!
Who has ideas on how to bake/cook this on top of a wood burning stove?
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I seem to be the only having difficulty with this recipe 🙁
I backed the bread at 400 degrees for 35 minutes, and it was still white, no sign of browning. So I increased the temperature to 425 for another 5 minutes, and it was only lightly browning. I have now increased it to 475 degrees for an additional 10 minutes. I had placed it on the top rack of my oven.
Can you confirm to me what temperature it needs to bake at?
Wonderful recipe! I didn’t need to change a thing. While I don’t favor sticky doughs, the advice to sprinkle a goodly amount of flour on top and on my hands helped. Next time, I’m going to add a little more flour while removing the dough from the bowl, as I’d like to create a little more surface tension on the dough disk, which would make the slashing easier. Thanks so much, and I’ve shared this page and site to our Cast Iron Cooking facebook group. (179,000 enthusiastic CI fans). Thanks again.
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life stories are nice but not intermixed with recipes
I added Rosemary to dough and also added 3T go granulated sugar. It was very good. There are only two of us , I will dry the leftover to make bread cubes for salads.
What can I say, simple great tasting bread, thank you thank you
Thanks for this recipe! I’m not the usual age that you would assume about a person who usually goes on websites -I’m only twelve- but I love cooking and baking. I live in the Middle East- it’s MELTING here most of the time, so not having to knead the dough is amazing- just mix, cover, go do some schoolwork (homeschooling is flexible), stick in pan and start a pot of soup, and then pull it out of the oven at dinnertime! Easy peasy- and it leaves plenty of time for me to read my new books! Yay! (…. bit of a bookworm doesn’t even BEGIN to describe me…. 🙂
-M
Do you have to use a cast iron pan? I would love to try this recipe (my mouth is watering just thinking about it!) but I don’t have a cast iron pan. Would a copper pan, ceramic or glass or terra cotta baking dish work? I have all of those!!!!!!!!!!!!
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