No skills bread – not just no knead but also no experience, baker’s knowledge or dough expertise is required with these simple recipes.
Why would you want to do that? Because, apart from the fact that good quality artisan bread from bakeries is very expensive, baking a loaf is one of the most satisfying experiences. Water, flour and a pinch of yeast (before you get hooked and proceed into the sourdough realm), and magic happens in your oven. A slice of freshly baked bread thickly spread with butter – that’s heavenly food.
So stock up on a couple of bags of flour, some instant yeast and discover the bread baking miracle.
Starting with the basics: Jim Lahey’s concept of no knead bread had its viral moment in early 2000s but it’s a reliable method and unfailingly successful. A very good start into bread baking, especially easy if you have a cast iron casserole dish to bake your bread in.
A variety of no knead template, this loaf is made with a mix of white and whole wheat flour and plenty of seeds. You can bake it on a baking tray as a free-form loaf, shaped into an oval with diagonal slashes across the top.
Wholemeal seeded bloomer
RECIPE
Basic white bread, a simple sandwich loaf made at home is miles better than any shop bought bread. Best for those not awfully well versed into the secrets of dough hydration and oven springs. Try it once, you’ll be converted.
No knead, next to no effort but a long, lazy fermentation ensures a good flavour. Use your fingers or a wooden spoon to mix up the starter, then the main dough. And after it proves, it can be simply poured into a casserole dish or a sturdy, oven-safe pan to bake.
Focaccia is widely considered one of the easiest breads but it tastes divine, warm or cold. This is an authentic Ligurian recipe but you can skip the messy brine step when making it first time.
This was a firm staple in my early baking days! This recipe is about how to get close to the sourdough taste in 24 hours. Crusty on the outside, chewy crumb, you might be easily fooled into thinking it’s the real thing.
Malthouse aka granary, which is a trade mark of Hovis bread and flour, is a wholegrain flours mix with malted grains. It’s tasty, it’s highly nutritionally valued, and it’s easy to make because you can buy malthouse or granary flour mix in supermarkets. This recipe is for a sandwich loaf baked in a large loaf tin.
Malthouse sandwich loaf
RECIPE
A good sandwich bread, American deli-style, made with a mix of rye and wheat flours, leavened with yeast. A free form loaf flavoured with caraway, great for sandwiches and excellent for toasting.
If you want it done quickly, here’s a quick bread ready in two hours. You won’t be awed by its flavour due to the speedy process but it’s a nice and easy wholemeal bread which keeps well thanks to grated raw potatoes in its contents.
And finally, a naturally leavened, no-yeast fermented bread made from raw buckwheat groats and water: the most natural and the healthiest loaf possible. Leavened by soaked and fermented buckwheat pulp, it bakes to a loaf with a great flavour, and wholly gluten free.
Fermented buckwheat bread
RECIPE