This is a super easy wholewheat no-knead bread to make. Takes only 10 min of prep and you have a delicious homemade bread that will melt in your mouth. Perfect for your baby's first bread, delicious for the whole family.
Does your family eat bread? We do. We're not a family that eats a whole loaf a day and needs to buy a new one each morning but we still like our daily dose of toast.
Unfortunately store-bought breads often contain excessive amounts of salt, additives, preservatives and even sugar. And needless to say, I'm not really a fan of those!
So a great alternative is simply to bake my own. But I also don't want to spend ages kneading dough. So a no-knead bread is an amazing (and super easy) alternative!
And this one is definitely the easiest and simplest ones you will find. The only caveat is that you need to be prepare it 12 hours before baking to allow enough time for the dough to proof.
So I find it best to mix the dough in the afternoon or evening a day in advance and bake it the next morning.
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Ingredients
To make this super easy No-Knead Bread, you will need the following ingredients:
Plain flour. To get a nice rise you really need to use some plain flour so I always tend to use half and half plain/wholewheat.
Wholewheat flour. I find wholewheat flour the easiest to use but rye flour or actually any other wholewheat flour is a great choice.
Dry yeast. Helps the flour rise.
Salt. 2 teaspoons of salt might seem like a lot, but it is for 28 oz (800 g) of flour so not really an issue.
Water. Plain water, room temperature is needed to make nice and firm dough that can be left overnight to rise.
No-Knead Bread Nutritional Stuff
There aren't many ingredients in this No-Knead Bread and most of them are plain so don't add a lot to the whole nutritional value of the bread.
However the main one is certainly wholewheat flour which not only provides a good amount of complex carbohydrates and fiber but also super important minerals such as copper, magnesium and manganese.
The perfect "first bread" for your baby.
The real nutritional value of this No-Knead Bread lies in the fact that it doesn't have any preservatives, additives or sugar and is definitely a healthier alternative to any store-bought option.
How To Make Wholewheat No-Knead Bread
Don't forget that although it is pretty easy to make, the No-Knead Bread dough needs to be made 12 hours in advance for it to rise properly. You can also leave it to proof longer if you want (I sometimes do 18-24 hours).
Make the dough. Put the flour, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl and pour the water over it. Mix until a firm dough is formed. You can either use a mixer or mix with a spatula. The dough should be wet and sticky, but not too loose.
Let it proof. Cover with a cloth and put in a warm spot to proof for at least 12 hours (I usually prepare the dough in the evening so that I can bake it in the morning).
When you are ready to bake:
Preheat the oven to 220°C / 440°F. Take a stainless steel pot that has a lid, a dutch oven or simply use a cake tin that you can cover up with the bottom of another cake tin and place it in the oven.
Prepare for baking. The dough should be a bit jelly-like. Place parchment paper on the counter, and hold the edges with cups so they stay in place. Sprinkle some flour over it.
Take a spatula and release the edges of the dough from the bowl and transfer to the parchment paper. Shape it with your hands. Don't worry too much about how it looks, we are going for a rustic artisan style bread here.
Bake the bread. Once the oven is hot, take out the pot/tin in which you will bake the bread, pick the parchment paper with the bread inside and put the bread into it.
Put the lid on and place in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take off the lid and continue baking until a brown crust forms. For me this is usually just another 10 - 15 minutes.
Cool and serve. Once baked, take it out of the oven and let it fully cool before serving.
The next day you can reheat it in the oven at 180°C / 360°F if you want.
How to serve
Babies. The crust will be too crunchy but the inside of the bread will be nice, soft and warm and perfect for babies. So just tear it up and serve. Or slice the bread and cut some finger sized shapes that your baby can easily grab (without any crust).
Everyone else. When that bread comes out of the oven, tear into it and spread some butter (or whatever you prefer). For me there is nothing better than watching butter melt on freshly baked bread.
What about babies and salt?
1 slice of this bread should have approximate 260 mg of sodium which is lower than the recommended daily amount (up to 12 months – less than 1g of salt a day / less than 0.4g sodium). So if you are feeding your baby homemade food with no added salt you should be ok to give them a slice of bread. However if you are giving them pouches, cheese etc just make sure you are under the recommended daily amount for salt.
Possible Wholewheat No-Knead Bread Variations
Mix up the flour. You can really use any kind of flour you like here. I would just advise that half of the whole amount is plain white flour as this will ensure that the dough proofs nicely and the bread gets a good rise while baking.
Add some seeds that don't pose a choking risk. To give this No-Knead Bread really your own touch, you can add any kind of seeds you like. Either in the dough itself or on top of the bread just before baking.
More Bread Recipes
If you're looking for more bread recipes, check these out:
Baby's First Bread – Easy No-Knead Bread
EQUIPMENT
- Mixer
Ingredients
- 14.1 oz plain flour 400 g
- 14.1 oz wholewheat flour 400 g
- 20.3 fl oz water 600 ml
- 1 teaspoon dry yeast
- 2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make the dough. Put the flour, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl and pour room temperature water over it. Mix until a firm dough is formed. You can either use a mixer or mix with a spatula. The dough should be wet and sticky, but not too loose (see image and video for reference).
- Let it proof. Cover with a cloth and put in a warm spot to rise for at least 12 hours (I usually prepare the dough in the evening so that I can bake it in the morning).
- When you are ready to bake:Preheat the oven to 220°C / 440°F. Take a stainless steel pot that has a lid, a dutch oven or simply use a cake tin that you can cover up with the bottom of another cake tin and place it in the oven.
- Prepare for baking. The dough should be a bit jelly-like. Place parchment paper on the counter, and hold the edges with cups so they stay in place. Sprinkle some flour over it. Take a spatula and release the edges of the dough from the bowl and transfer to the parchment paper. Shape it with your hands. Don't worry too much about how it looks, we are going for a rustic artisan style bread here.
- Bake the bread. Once the oven is heated, take out the pot/tin in which you will bake the bread, pick the parchment paper with the bread inside and put the bread into it. Sometimes I like to do some crossed lines on top of the bread with a knife.Put the lid on and place in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take of the lid and continue baking until a brown crust is formed. For me this is usually just another 10 - 15 minutes.
- Cool and serve. Once baked, take it out of the oven and let it fully cool before serving.
- The next day you can reheat it in the oven at 180°C / 360°F and you will get the nice crust again.
Notes
- Babies. The crust will be too crunchy but the inside of the bread will be nice, soft and warm – perfect for babies So just tear it up and serve. Or slice the bread and cut finger sized shapes that your baby can easily grab (with no crust).
- Everyone else. When that bread comes out of the oven, tear into it and spread some butter (or whatever you prefer). For me there is nothing better than watching butter melt on freshly baked bread.
- 1 slice of this bread should have approximate 260 mg of sodium which is lower than the recommended daily amount (up to 12 months – less than 1g of salt a day / less than 0.4g sodium)}. So if you are feeding your baby homemade food with no added salt you should be ok to give them a slice of bread. However if you are giving them pouches, cheese etc just make sure you are under the recommended daily amount for salt.
Cari
I love this recipe! I cut the portion in half to try it. Have you made this into a load as well? Cari
Ana
Thanks Cari.
I have not, but will try and see:)