A pastry brush brushing melted butter onto a pan of baked Easy No-Knead Bread rolls.

Easy No-Knead Bread

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Your house will smell like a bakery when making this easy no-knead bread. It has that old-fashioned homemade taste like my MawMaw’s, but with less mess and less time spent in the kitchen. Baking bread is a joy after discovering this no-knead way!

An Easy No-Knead Bread roll on a white plate with a butter-slathered bread knife sitting on top of a white with red polka dotted napkin.

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The Missing Bread Recipe

Do you ever have food memories? You know, when something somehow triggers the taste of yummy food from way back when. I’ve been experiencing that lately with thoughts of my MawMaw’s homemade bread.

I have an envie, “pronounced ahnvee” (meaning longing), for her yeast rolls these days. Memories of walking through her kitchen and eyeing a certain large white Tupperware container on her counter only meant one thing. There’s homemade bread in the house! They were rectangles of puffy, dense clouds with a bit of sourdough taste.

A pastry brush brushing melted butter onto a pan of baked Easy No-Knead Bread rolls.

PawPaw called it “Pain de Femme” or “Bread of the Wife.” We believe it was his way of complimenting her. Momma said MaMaw would make 3 loaves at a time and bake them in a black dutch oven. She’d slice the fresh bread and slather them with butter and fig preserves, stick a slice into her children’s 4 pairs of hands and tell them to “Go outside and play!” What a fond memory! I imagine the screen door slamming behind them as they ran out, caudling their warm bounty.

There’s all that to say, but without the “Pain de Femme” recipe. Sad, isn’t it? After inquiring about it to many, no one has it. Then my Aunt Martha sent me an easy no-knead bread recipe she thinks is close to MawMaw’s. It’s not as dense, but it’ll do for now.

Ingredients of yeast, flour, milk, salt, sugar and butter for Easy No-Knead Bread .

The instructions call for milk or water and 1 egg, but after researching about bread-making I discovered another egg yolk, and milk adds more fat to help with the dough’s denseness.

I also tried using rapid yeast to save a step, but with no success. This bread is better with 2 rises. What was her secret? I know she’d laugh before answering this question, then she’d be surprised when I’d tell her she didn’t have to do all that kneading. Maybe.

The Easy No-Knead Bread Way

2 egg yolks being poured into flour mixture of Easy No-Knead Bread.
I am now a fan of bread-making! I like using my stand mixer, but mixing by hand is easy
with a silicone-coated spoon that repels the sticky dough.

It’s so easy. It takes less than 3 hours from start to finish and is worth the reward with its simple-to-remember steps and ingredients.

You can do it too! Just follow the recipe below, and you’ll have delicious aromas throughout your home and flavorful bread in your tummy before you know it.

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An Easy No-Knead Bread roll on a white plate with a butter-slathered bread knife sitting on top of a white with red polka dotted napkin.

Easy No-Knead Bread

Print Recipe

This tasty bread recipe is simple to make, with less mess to clean up. Great for first-time bread baking.

  • Total Time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12 rolls 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1–1/3 cups warm milk, around 100 degrees (microwave cold milk for about 1 minute on high)
  • 2 (.04 ounce) packages of active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 teaspoons)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 4 cups pre-sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Butter the sides of a large mixing bowl and a 9×13 baking pan.
  2. Melt the 5 tablespoons of butter in a small bowl, and set aside.
  3. Place the whole egg and egg yolk in a small bowl, and set aside.
  4. Stir the active yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar into the warm milk and let sit 5-7 minutes to allow the yeast to bloom.
  5. Meanwhile, mix together flour, salt, and the rest of the sugar into a large bowl. 
  6. Add eggs to the flour mixture and begin stirring with a mixer, then mix in the 5 tablespoons of melted butter and the yeast mixture until all ingredients are thoroughly combined; the dough will be sticky.
  7. Put bread dough into the buttered bowl turning the dough once to butter all sides of the dough and cover the bowl with a damp cloth; let the dough rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size in a place where the temperature is around 70 degrees.
  8. Punch dough down with the back of your fist, then make 12 equal-sized rolls and place them in the buttered baking pan.
  9. Cover with the same damp towel and let rise again for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  10. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  11. Brush the tops of the rolls with the rest of the melted butter.
  12. Bake for 25 minutes.
  13. Brown under the broiler for no more than 1 minute if desired.
  14. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container; rolls also freeze well in an airtight container.

Notes

  • Using a silicone-coated spoon to stir the sticky dough makes less mess.
  • A stand mixer can be used with the dough attachment to mix the dough thoroughly with no kneading. 
  • Use an ice cream scoop to make 12 equal-sized rolls.
  • Or, divide the dough in half until you have 4 equal part pieces, then divide each piece into 3 equal parts to make 12 rolls.
  • Bread can be baked into 2 small loaf pans.
  • Author: Louisiana Woman
  • Prep Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: breads
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: easy no-knead bread

A ball of bread dough from Easy No-Knead Bread with an ice cream scoop onto a pan of unbaked rolls.

Helpful Hints

A helpful tip in making rolls is using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop. It makes evenly shaped rolls, and the sticky dough comes out clean. Another tip is to stock your kitchen with USA PANS like the one shown above, and you will be doing yourself a favor. I got this one at LaGrone’s Drug Store in my hometown of Hamburg. They are non-stick, have a quick-release coating, are made in the USA with aluminized steel, are sturdy, and heat evenly, producing excellent baked goods.

A table setting of plates of bread with butter and jelly.

Here are more bread recipes you may like:

I hope this whets your appetite enough to give this Easy No-Knead Bread recipe a try at least once. Happy breadmaking! . . . And eating!

Let us never forget that what we are is more important than what we do.

J. Hudson Taylor

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4 Comments

  2. Hi thank you for sharing your recipes. Would I be able to use Gluten free flour in this recipe and would I have to add something more to bind it together? Thanks!

    Reply

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