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!
Garlic Puree recipe: Simmer peeled garlic cloves in canola oil for 45 minutes stirring frequently. Strain oil, reserving for other uses. Mash garlic cloves and store in the fridge for 3-4 days for spreading on breads, stirring into soups. or flavoring mashed potatoes.
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
778 Comments on “Easy No Knead Skillet Bread”
I made this bread awhile back and added onions and grated cheese to it it turned out awesome. I think it made the best panini I’ve ever had. Thank you so much for this great recipe.
Hi. Used this recipe for my first time ever baking bread and I love it. The only problem I had is the top crust came out very hard (not burned), making it almost difficult to eat. The bread itself had a fantastic texture and tasted great. Is there a way to soften up the crust? Thanks.
Hi Mike! So glad you enjoyed it! I’m sorry to hear that your crust came out so hard. Do you by chance have an oven thermometer to check if your oven is heating properly? You might try turning down the oven temp 25 degrees to see if that is helpful and also, you can rub some butter or oil over the top of the crust when it first comes out of the oven to soften it. Hope that helps!
Is “pizza dough” yeast ok? I have very little yeast experience but my eldest wants to dive into bread making!
Hi Monica! Are you referring to Fleshman’s pizza yeast? I have never worked with this yeast myself but my understanding is that it is formulated with enhancers that make pizza dough easier to roll out and reduce rising time. This wouldn’t be an ideal yeast to use for a loaf of bread, but having never tried it, it might give you okay results. Definitely report back if you do try it but active dry yeast or rapid rise yeast would be the best yeasts to use. Enjoy the bread!
Can I make this in 2 7” pans instead if the 10”/12”
Yes you absolutely can Suzanne!
Any suggestions on how to make this type of bread using a sourdough starter? Also, any changes for high Altitude?
Hi Carol! 1 package of yeast typically has the rising power of about 1 cup of starter. Do you know what the hydration level of your starter is? If it is 100% you would remove the yeast, and 60 grams each of water and flour and add in 1 cup of your starter. I do not have any high altitude baking experience, but since it tends to be dryer at high elevation you may need a higher ratio of water. I would suggest holding back a little of the flour at the beginning and stir together your ingredients. You want it to look like a very thick paste, it won’t be quite a thick dough like you could knead. So you could add in the rest of the flour if needed. Hope that helps!
I absolutely love love this bread. I’ve made this a couple times now and shared the recipe with many friends. I will also share this on my blog, thanks for your info.
Keep up the great work.
So glad you have enjoyed it!
Im drooling. this looks amazing I am a huge foodie, will post this on my Instagram page. thank you
I’m so glad you like it! Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I’m excited to try this recipe. Would it make a difference if I used bread flour? In that, would it make the bread better, or there would be no noticeable difference? Thanks?
Hi Alexandra! I’m glad you are excited to try the recipe! You can use bread flour. It will give your bread a little more chew, but because this is a no-knead bread, the difference isn’t very significant. I hope you enjoy it!
My family just loved it! Thank you so much BETTIE!
Thanks for this cool content. Dont forget to check out my blog
So glad you and your family enjoyed the bread Rose!
Hi, your bread looks amazing!!. I have a few questions:
Can I use regular salt?.
If i add ingredients as some people have above ie: cheese, onion, olives etc. Is that added to the dough or on top?
How long does it take to rise?.
I have seen recipes that use the instapot yogurt setting to rise the dough when the house is cold. Do you think that would be ok?
Thank you
Nicola
Hi Nicola! If you want to use table salt, I suggest reducing the amount to 1 teaspoon. If you want to add mix-ins you can mix them right into the dough or add on top or do both! The recipe calls for 1 hour rising time after mixing and 30 minutes rising time after transferring to the skillet. Do you know what temperature the yogurt setting is in your instant pot? If it doesn’t get over 100F then that would be okay, but I do not have any experience doing that and this is a very wet dough so it will likely be quite messy and a little difficult to get out of the pot. Many people set their dough in microwave with a bowl of very hot water or on top of a refrigerator because it tends to be slightly warm. I hope that is helpful!
This is my 4th time making your bread. I use half bread flour & half whole wheat flour. Thanks so much for the awesome (and simple) recipe (it goes even faster when using my mixer).
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoy this bread Marissa! <3
I added Italian spices right into the dough. Buttered the still warm top after it was done baking but I wouldnt do that again. It was delicious and soft but leaving the crunchy crust would have been better. Easy and delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed this bread Lynn! <3
Making this tonight to go with a big batch of homemade beef stew… looks good, will update with my results!
I made this for the first time last night and it turned out perfectly. I love that I can have homemade bread on the dinner table in just a couple of hours. It’s no mess, no fuss, but delicious.
I saw the calories listed, but didn’t see what is considered a serving? If you could let me know, that would be awesome!
Hi Emily! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! The calories listed are based on 16 servings.
Are you supposed to let the yeast and warm water sit for 10 minutes to foam before adding the flour?
Hi Lauren, that is unnecessary! You can do it to make sure your yeast is alive, you also need to add a pinch of sugar if you do that, but that is optional and not needed!
Do you use fresh or dried rosemary?
Hi Linda! You can use either, but I prefer fresh!
I am wanting to try this recipe but don’t have a skillet that can go into the oven. Is there another type of dish I could cook it in?
Hi Matthew! You can bake this in any oven safe dish. A cake pan or a dutch oven would both work well!
Hi I’m currently waiting for my bread to come out of the oven. My dough was definitely not watery. It was able to be kneaded. I’m not sure why? I followed the recipe exactly.
Hi Jasmina! I hope it turned out well for you. It will not be watery. It is still a dough! It is just slightly more sticky than a lot of bread dough. The hydration is higher. Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or lightly spooning it into your measuring cups without packing it in at all and then leveling it off. This will ensure you don’t have too much flour in your dough.
This recipe is wonderful. I’ve made it several times and took a loaf to Thanksgiving – everyone (even non-bakers) asked for the recipe.
I have made one slight modification. I finely chop some of the herbs (don’t limit yourself to just rosemary) and mix in with the water and yeast. This spreads the flavor throughout the bread with impacting the texture – also have used Hatch green chili to add a little kick.
Hi Nancy! So glad you enjoyed this bread! Your version sounds absolutely delicious!
Can I use Bread Flour for this? I have some from when I use my bread machine .
Hi Charlotte! Yes you can use bread flour in this recipe!
Not sure I made this right but I followed all the directions exactly. The dough was super sticky, and not watery but sorta like very think mud/ a thinish clay . Much thicker then say a Brownie Mix but thinner then say a normal bread dough, it stuck to itself but if I had tried to pick it up it wouldn’t have stayed together. is this right?
Hi Robert! A no-knead bread is pretty sticky and won’t be like a bread dough that could be kneaded. The higher hydration helps with gluten formation since we won’t be kneading it. When you go to shape it and sprinkle the flour over the top and on your hands you should be able to pick it up. It will be very sticky though! I’m actually making a video tutorial for this this week that might be helpful!
My bread is not as fluffy. It’s quite dense and o followed the recipe quite exact…. 1h rose well but then 30min didnt rise as well.. and not rising in the oven too
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Wanted to make this today, but I’m short on flour! I only have 3 and 3/4 cups of flour. Do I dare try and make it anyway? Can I cut down on the amount of water?
Hi Cynthia! I was traveling for work so I’m just now seeing this. If you wanted to make it with that amount of flour I would reduce the water to 1 3/4 cups water. You can leave the salt and yeast the same but it will likely rise a little faster.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I ended up going to the store for more flour! I was afraid to go ahead being short on flour. Thanks again.
New to the yeast game. Is active yeast and instant yeast the same?
Hi Brooke! You can use either active dry or instant yeast in this recipe. Active dry yeast works a little slower than instant yeast. If you use instant yeast you can cut the rising times down to 45 minutes for the first rise and 20 minutes for the second rise. Time equals more flavor in bread baking. So active dry yeast will result in a little more flavor but instant yeast will make the process go faster.
Just made it and it’s delicious!! Any tips on how to store it?
Hi Brooke! Let the bread cool completely and then keep it on a cutting board, cut side down for up to 2 days. After that, it is best to put it in a ziplock bag for the next few days OR I prefer to go ahead and slice it and put it in the freezer and toast it to refresh. Hope that helps! So glad you enjoyed it!
What temperature is stovetop supposed to be on for 30 minutes
Hi there! You don’t need to turn the stove top on for this recipe. You are just letting the dough rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. Hope that helps!
Is the 1/3 cup flour added to the mixture or used to flour the dough in step 5?
Hi Kerry, it is mixed right into the dough.
Is it possible to make this bread with gluten free flour and get the same results?
Hi Debra, I have not tested it, but gluten free yeast bread is quite tricky. The gluten structure is really what is needed to trap the gasses form the yeast in the dough. You can definitely try it but it will likely be much more dense than when made with wheat flour. Let me know if you do try it and how it turns out!
Second time making this recipe this week! Great texture and taste! It’s a keeper! Thanks! One question, do I flour just the top or all around? I floured the top and hands keeping it in the rising bowl and carefully transferring to cast iron pan, with the floured side up. Is that correct?
Hi Joan! So glad you are enjoying this bread! Yes, you are doing it correctly. The flouring on top just helps make it easier to transfer the dough!
This is fantastic! We loved it.
So happy to hear that Bonnie!
Just came out of the oven. Oh yeah, so good
Looks delicious Janet! I hope you enjoyed it!
It was very delicious and super easy. Thank You
That’s so great to hear! Glad you enjoyed it!
I am going to have to try this bread! It is funny because I can always make bread with no problems, but when I make rolls they don’t turn out right lol. I almost have the rolls mastered now tho 🙂 I have a proof setting on my oven which is nice so I proof dough in there and then I can take it out while oven warms up to temp before baking.
This is the first time I will be using my cast iron pan for bread, I use it for everything else just never thought to make bread with it.
I hope you enjoy it Dawn! Let me know how it goes! <3
Hello can I sub rye flour for all the flour called for or a mixture of rye and wheat? Those are what I have on hand!
Hi Gregory! I wouldn’t suggest substituting all rye flour. You can do a mixture of rye and whole wheat, but just be aware that it will be much more dense. I would suggest trying 1 cup (105 grams) of rye flour and 3 1/3 cups (400 gr) of whole wheat flour. Let me know how it goes!
I made this last night for the first time! Now I have 2 rising 40 min apart to take to work tomorrow
So easy and so yummy!!!!
That’s so great Jodi! I hope everyone enjoys them!
Hi, I’ve made the bread 4 times now and the bread falls each time during the baking, I use table salt and rise the second time in a warm oven till it’s about even with the top of the 12″ skillet. take it out to preheat oven. Any ideas, Love the bread, thanks for any help
Hi Jan! That is quite strange. I think that possibly your bread might either be under baked or over proofed. Is your kitchen particularly warm? If a bread proof for too long (or if it is fermenting quickly because the environment is very warm) the gluten structure will become weak and it can fall.
How much table salt did you use? Elsewhere in the comments, Bettie says to use only 1 teaspoon if using table salt.
It just came out of the oven. So good! Different texture than my mom’s homemade bread, but I love it!! Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Karen! <3
Hi,
Is there a video? I would like to see how to transfer the dough into the skillet. Can I use gluten free all-purpose baking flour? Thank you very much!
Hi Kit! I don’t have a video for this specific recipe, but I do have one for a similar recipe and you can see how I gather the dough for that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MWuu4F6gwc& However, there really doesn’t need to be a specific technique. Just get it into the pan! It will be great!
Do you have any adjustments for baking at high altitude? Thanks.
Hi DQ, I unfortunately do not have any experience at all baking at high altitude. You might check out King Arthur’s article about adjustments for high altitute: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
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FANTASTIC! I made this yesterday and it turned out so beautifully. My son ate about half of it by himself and wanted the recipe. I don’t care for rosemary so sprinkled the top with sharp cheddar and it was just right. You could do so much with this bread and I loved the ease of it. Can’t wait to make it again!
Hi Julie! I’m so glad you and your son enjoyed this! A cheddar version sounds delicious!
Hi,
Very keen to try this. Have you ever baked this in skillet in a outdoor wood fired pizza oven?
We have used our for many things aside from Pizza, but have never tried bread. We want to get a rough idea of heat required as we don’t want it to bake to quickly.
Kind Regards
Sarah
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I just made this and the bread looks great but was totally stuck to the cast iron pan. I definitely had plenty of olive oil but any idea what could cause this? We had to pry it off and soak the pan after
Hi Steph! I’ve never had that issue! That’s so strange. Is your cast iron seasoned well? If not, its possible that was the issue. It’s also possible that your oven either wasn’t preheated all the way or that it isn’t getting as hot as you set it. If the dough doesn’t create a crust on the bottom quickly it could stick to the pan. So sorry to hear you had this issue!
This the greatest! So easy and fast. Sure is no fail. Thanks, so glad to have the opportunity to try it. Definitely will pass on to others and make many more time
Thank you Shelly! I’m so glad you enjoy this bread as much as I do!
Do I place the skillet in the oven when it’s preheating to 400 degrees. I’ve only ever made the cast iron dutch oven bread and a requirement is to heat the pot as well as the oven.
Hi Linda! Not for this recipe! This is a little different than a dutch oven bread. You place it in the cold pan!
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NOT just for newbie bakers! Great recipe. I have baked my own bread for many years, and this one is wonderful to have in the back of my mind….thanks!
Totally agree Traci! It is delicious whatever your skill level!