Peasant Bread: A Rustic Slice of Heaven
They say a man can’t live by bread alone … but this woman sure could! When I was in junior high, I would come home after school and my sister and I would devour an entire loaf of white Wonder bread together. I no longer like Wonder bread and prefer loaves with a little more rusticity – like this recipe for Peasant Bread.
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I love mouth-watering bread fresh out of the oven, and when I found out this particular bread required no kneading … well that was just the icing on the cake! Or should I say, the butter on the bread?
Since this is still a yeast bread, you need to let it rise. Here it is all full and puffed in a favorite Mason Cash bowl, waiting to be punched down before letting it rise again.
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You bake Peasant Bread in an oven-safe bowl. If you want a taller, rounder loaf – use a smaller bowl. For a flatter loaf like ciabatta bread, use a larger bowl. I used a larger one and rubbed a bit of butter over the top of the crust when it came out of the oven. You could sprinkle it with herbs or Parmesan cheese, too.
No Knead Peasant Bread is a simple bread originating in Europe. Serve it with soup or salad – or slice it then and make sandwiches with it. This is about the easiest yeast bread to make and good enough to serve your finest guests!
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No Knead Peasant Bread
Ingredients
- 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
Instructions
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Dissolve sugar in the water in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top (no need to stir) and let it stand for about 15 minutes or until mixture starts to bubble up. Meanwhile, whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl. After the yeast mixture becomes foamy, stir it up and add to the flour mixture. Stir until the flour is absorbed into the liquid.
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Cover bowl with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1.5 hours.
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Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two 1 or 1.5 quart oven-safe bowls with about a tablespoon of butter each. Punch down your dough, and then scrape it from the sides of the bowl, which takes a little finessing. Take two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions. The dough will be somewhat wet, not dry like dough that you knead. Scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. Let the dough rise again in a warm spot for about 30 minutes.
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Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for about 15 minutes more. Remove from oven and turn loaves onto cooling racks. Let cool for approximately 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!
YUM! It looks delicious and I like the no kneading part. The smaller ramekin ones are cute. Thanks for sharing the recipe and I hope you have a lovely day.
Oh how perfect! Just have to try these. Thank you for sharing!
Pinning, and FYI we used to wad up our white bread too. It was awful if a tiny bit of crust made it into the ball cuz it just didn’t squish up as good.
your photos are always so great…most professional. Please share with me what camera you use or recommend for a beginner.
Oh, this looks wonderful, and I love how easy it is!! Looking at your beautiful pix, I can almost smell the warm bread aroma!
As for your white bread dough balls, that’s what my husband used as bait when he went fishing as a kid Ha!
Love these no knead breads. I use one from the Internet and it is rustic and delicious. Google chef John’s ciabatta bread he has a really funny you tube tutorial. I love that you made some smaller ones, perfect for personal size servings.
Can’t wait to make this! Question on the flour – I need to use unbleached all purpose flour? Any idea what would happen if I used all purpose but BLEACHED flour?
i make this bread turns out fine with all purpose flour but i find it needs 3 cups water..
Your beautiful photos have awakened my senses and I could almost smell the aroma from the freshly baked bread. I too as a child could devour an entire loaf of ” Wonder” white bread ( was there any other of kind) smothered in butter in one sitting. Oh those were the days…
Oh my goodness, this looks heavenly! Bread is definitely one of my weaknesses, too : )
I have a favorite no knead recipe, but this looks even easier and sounds delicious. I’m trying this tomorrow for sure. Thanks Jennifer!
Looks yummy! I am definitely pinning!
Oh there is nothing that smells better than homemade bread fresh out of the oven. I so miss a really good piece of bread! Since going Gluten free over a year ago there is no GF bread that comes close to real “bread”. I’m going to try to make this use GF flour and see how it turns out. Thanks for stopping by and liking my hearts I made! I love the colors on your porch, our house is yellow and I”ve been looking for the perfect pink and you have it… would you care to share the color? I understand if you don’t want to, but is some day you find a small chip of your door frame missing, it wasn’t me!
I’ve made this my go-to bread recipe the last few months. I don’t eat bread, and if I buy it, no one else eats it enough to warrant having around. So I just make half of this recipe, and it all gets eaten! Plus, it’s easy and so much better than store-bought. Just made it yesterday. Great with a bowl of soup or stew!
I am excited to try this! I love baking but haven’t mastered homemade bread baking at altitude yet. Any tips or suggestions? Anyone tried this recipe around close to 9,500 ft?
I have made this bread twice and am failing miserably with the second rise….the bread i have made is delicious in flavour, excellent texture but flat. boo..can anyone help me?
problem i found with this recipe is the amount of water ..i need use 3 cups every time turns out perfect..i am a baker by trade so i knew it needed more water..maybe you need make sure its stays warm while rising..
I wanted to give a little insight to the “Man cannot live by bread alone” phrase. Maybe you already know the background but if not…. It’s actually scripture and it means that food and material things are not enough for man. We have an eternal spirit, one that Christ came, lived and died for. We cannot live by bread alone, we need Him. He is our answer for eternal life.
My loaves turned out great! My only (minor) issue was the baked bread did not pop out of the bowls, even though I thought I slathered the bowls with butter. The sides stuck. But all I had to do was run a knife along the edge to free it. The loaves then popped out, undamaged.
Just started baking bread, it is my newest passion. I will have to give this recipe a try. Oh and by the way I used to do the same thing with my bread when I was a kid so you are not alone. LOL.
Can’t wait to try this sounds delicious and easy which is perfect.
My husband every once in awhile used to make his mother’s recipe of bread but it required kneading. But oh did it make the house smell so good. Unfortunately I can’t knead my poor hands can’t do it so this bread sounds like a winner to me and I can’t wait to try it. Thank you for the recipe.
I found this recipe amazing! I made it and it was PERFECT. I accidently replaced the salt with sugar… But it still worked! It DID make it lose some of the flavor, but that’s okay. Adding butter to the bread wrapped it all up, like the wrapping paper on a Christmas present. I totally recommend this recipe. I give it a five star.
I was wondering what size bowl you used and did you bake it in the Mason Cash bowl? I think I’d like to try your recipe because it looks quite yummy. I usually mix my bread in some very old bowls that were my grandmother’s, but I don’t think I’d like to try putting them in the oven. I do have an older MC bowl but I’m not sure what size it is. Well, I can measure it for dimensions, I suppose. But I was curious what size you used. Thanks.
I love this recipe and I have always put the yeast in my warm water but this time I put it in the flour mixture and I did not like it as well.
I really love it toasted with butter the next day!