No-Knead Bread

No-knead whole wheat bread might be the easiest yeast bread to bake at home. There are four ingredients, no kneading, and one rise. The whole thing comes together in a single bowl, gets spooned straight into loaf pans, and bakes into a dense, hearty sandwich loaf.

The trick is the wet, slack dough. Without kneading, the flour needs enough hydration to develop gluten on its own time. The molasses is doing more than flavoring, it feeds the yeast and contributes the dark color and faint sweetness that whole wheat bread can taste flat without.

Warming the flour and bowl first is the non-obvious step that matters. Cold flour shocks the warm water and slows the yeast right down, while warmed flour gets the dough rising on schedule.

The bread is moist and dense, more like a German-style whole grain loaf than a fluffy sandwich bread. It slices best when fully cool and keeps for a week in the fridge.

Pro Tips

• Use water at 110°F (43°C) for the yeast. Anything hotter kills it, anything colder slows the rise to a crawl.
• Wet your hand to smooth the dough tops, this prevents sticking and gives the crust a smoother finish.
• Sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom of the pans before adding the dough. It prevents sticking and adds a subtle crunch.
• Tip the pans on their sides during the rest. Loaves release cleaner that way.

Variations

• Sub ½ cup of brown rice flour, garbanzo flour, or barley flour for whole wheat for different flavor and nutrition.
• Stir in ¼ cup of seeds (sunflower, flax, sesame) for crunch and nuttiness.
• Add 2 teaspoons of salt to the dough for a more conventional flavor, this recipe is salt-free as written.