No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread: Simple technique that creates a hearty, rustic bread which bakes in a dutch oven. Perfect for serving with soup or toasting up for a hearty breakfast.
I am a confessed carboholic.
To me there is nothing better than a freshly baked bread served up with a comforting soup like Beef and Barley Soup or Corn and Potato Chowder.
Heck, I don’t need Lasagna Soup or Potato Soup or ANY SOUP for an excuse to make Artisan Dutch Bread, I just need to be hungry.
I am a bit of a bread snob. I want hearty, rich, and crusty bread. Bread that is full of flavor and texture and worthy of every calorie consumed.
I want a bread that stands up to a rich soup, a thick marinara, or can be perfectly toasted and spread with jam. Okay, totally drooling right now.
And confession, I don’t like to make bread.
Okay, not entirely true.
I love to bake bread–but I am not always successful at it. I have mastered my everyday whole wheat sandwich bread and quick breads like Spiced Apple Bread, but Artisan bread–can be tricky.
I am just not much of a patient person and Artisan bread requires patience.
Unless we are talking about an easy no knead bread recipe.
No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread
This whole wheat no knead bread recipe is a recipe that can be mixed together quickly and thrown into the oven with no kneading, no tricks, very little measuring
Well, sign me up.
And this No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread is just that–easy, hearty, delicious.
And FOOL-PROOF–for me that is crucial. You too? Glad I am not alone.
And OH MY WORD!!
This no knead dutch oven bread is just perfection!!
Crusty on the outside and tender on the inside. It reminds me of a fresh loaf of bread that I would pick up from an expensive bakery. But it is not–it is something I made with a few simple staples and hardly any effort at all.
How to Make No Knead Dutch Oven Bread
Step One: Make the no knead bread dough by mixing all the ingredients together in a large bowl. I know, hard!
Step Two: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set on the counter to rest overnight. Keep away from any pets that may be tempted to try out the dough!
Step Three: Dump onto a floured cutting board and shape into a circle. While you are doing that, also preheat your oven with your dutch oven in the oven as it preheats.
Step Five: Bake.
Step Six: Let cool and enjoy!
A few notes about Whole Wheat No Knead Bread:
- You will know your bread is done cooking when it reaches a temperature on an instant read thermometer of 207-209 degrees.
- I use whole wheat flour for this recipe, but you can use half whole wheat and half all-purpose or whole white wheat flour as well.
- Be sure to use a spoon/scoop to add flour to your measuring cup–if you just scoop from canister using measuring cup, you will end up with significantly more flour than this recipe calls for.
- Use regular active dry yeast, not rapid rise or instant yeast.
- Do NOT forget the step to preheat your dutch oven in the oven while the oven preheats, that is crucial to achieving the right texture.
Recipe for No Knead Whole Wheat Bread
No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 3 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Mix together water, salt and yeast in large mixing bowl. Mix in flour until well combined. Cover and let sit out overnight.
- The next day, place a dutch oven in oven and pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.Once heated, carefully remove dutch oven.
- With floured hands, shape dough into circle. And drop into skillet. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
- Remove bread from dutch oven and let cool on wire rack for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Notes
- You will know your bread is done cooking when it reaches a temperature on an instant read thermometer of 207-209 degrees.
- I use whole wheat flour for this recipe, but you can use half whole wheat and half all-purpose or whole white wheat flour as well. If you use all all-purpose flour you will need to use 4 cups instead of 3 3/4 cups.
For this Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread Recipe I recommend:
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This is literally the easiest bread I have ever made and it’s delicious. My kids like it. I can’t believe something so good and nutritional can be so easy. thank you. I will make this over and over again.
I was so excited to try this recipe, at I’d made a white loaf in my Dutch oven last week and it turned out perfectly. But when I took the bowl out this morning, it had risen (not as much as I’d expected, though) and the dough was so wet there was no way it could be formed into a ball (it actually looked like there was some liquid in the bottom of the bowl). I weighed the flour when I made the dough, and the water was the same temp I’ve used for other breads. The only thing I did differently was to cover with plastic wrap instead of a damp towel. I put it in the oven overnight with the light on. Could I have covered it too tightly with the wrap? Was the oven too warm? I’m pretty new to baking bread, so not too good at troubleshooting yet…
Hi Pam! It is hard for me to say exactly what happened, but I have 3 thoughts. What type of flour did you use? If you used white wheat, you may have needed an additional 1/4 cup. Also, I don’t weigh my flour, but instead scoop into measuring cup (this is so that everyone can follow directions, not just those with kitchen scales), so there may have been a difference there as well. And yes, the oven may have been too warm, because this is a slow rise, it should be at room temperature. When placed in the oven with the light on, most ovens can reach over 100 degrees, which is just too warm for that long of a rise. Hope that helps.
Hi!
Pam – you may have suffocated your yeast with the plastic wrap, and over-risen the dough with an oven that was too warm. Yeast is a living organism that exhales carbon dioxide and doesn’t like to be trapped with that CO2 under plastic any more than you or I would. And the long rise time on this recipe is really best at room temp or even a bit cooler. I’ve even made this and left it in the fridge overnight!
I’ve had good luck with a slight recipe variation – 1.5 c water to 3 cups white whole wheat flour plus 2 tablespoons high-gluten flour. I mix it up in the bowl for my stand mixer, and then just cover it with a pot lid that happens to fit the stand mixer bowl. It keeps it from drying out, while still allowing the yeast to “breathe”.
I also don’t bother to do any shaping – I just dump the dough onto a piece of parchment paper, and lift the whole thing into the Dutch oven – less flour, less mess to clean up!